Rob Haddock, CEO and Founder, S-5!
With the introduction of the 2022 Fall Economic Statement, Canada’s version of an investment tax credit (ITC) to help spur the transition to net-zero energy, 30% of tax credits will now be offered to entities that invest in net-zero technologies, battery storage and clean hydrogen.
As the Statement asserts: “In light of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), significant steps will need to be taken to ensure that Canada remains competitive in North America and the world.”
Canada’s new legislation for clean energy covers capital costs for investments made in electricity generation systems like solar, water and wind; storage, including batteries; and low-carbon heat equipment and industrial zero-emission vehicles.
According to Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, “With major investment tax credits for clean technology and clean hydrogen, we will make it more attractive for businesses in Canada to invest in technology and to produce the energy that will help to power a net-zero global economy.”
In the U.S., the IRA includes a 10-year extension of the solar ITCs, significant incentives to boost domestic manufacturing throughout the solar production supply chain, tax credits for energy storage, workforce development provisions and additional policies that promote a clean energy economy —all expected to trigger an avalanche of solar development throughout the nation.
The impact of Canada’s new tax incentives on the country’s metal roofing industry
With the cost of solar decreasing significantly over the last decade, in addition to these new tax incentives driving the popularity of solar, the breakeven and return on investment improves every year – evident even more with solar on metal roofs because of lower installation costs – so it makes even greater financial sense and is expected to stimulate the growth of metal roofing in Canada.
Metal – the most solar-friendly roof available
Metal roofing is attractive, durable, non-flammable and requires almost no maintenance. It is a natural choice for mounting solar PV as it provides an ideal platform and features a service life of 50 to 100 years, making it the only roof type exceeding the 30-plus-year service life of a solar PV system.
It is also the most sustainable roofing type (at an approximate 85% recycle rate, steel is the most recycled construction material available) and is conducive to lower solar installation costs, which is important to the buyer conscious of both environmental and economical energy efficiencies.
Most alternative roofing types will expire long before the life of the PV system, leading to costly disassembly of the PV array, re-roofing and re-assembly. These expenses erode the otherwise attractive financial metrics of roof-mounted PV. High-end tile may be the only exception to the need for re-roofing, but its price tag is similar to standing seam metal roofing. Even still, mounting solar to tile is invasive and very tricky to do without breaking tiles, so the cost is also much higher than mounting to metal.
Simply put, when all the facts are known, the standing seam metal roof is the only roof type worthy of consideration for solar PV with face-attached metal profiles at a close second place.
Ease of Installation
It is easier and less expensive to mount solar to a metal roof than any other roof type. Solar PV can be mounted on the standing seams or ribs of the roof, which act as inherent (and cost-free) “rails” to which modules are attached with reliable mechanical attachment methods.
Moreover, metal roof solar mounting can offer fewer components, lightweight materials, better load distribution and provide a zero-penetration system for standing seam metal roofs while preserving the roof warranty: no holes/no leaks.
Return-on-Investment
When the decision is made to install solar, a new roof is often required. To that end, metal roofing has become a driver for roof type selection in these cases because not only can a metal/solar roof system have a lower initial cost than other roof system combinations, but it also leads to improvements in the lifetime return on investment (ROI) of the system. Therefore, the PV array and the roof should be considered a single asset.
When computing the (ROI) within the solar pro forma, inverter replacement is usually factored in at about year 15. But what about the cost of roof replacement? The solar array must be totally dismantled and then re-installed on the replacement roof. Factor in the inevitable cost of roof replacement and the advantages of a metal roof become clear. The metal roof avoids replacement due to its long service life and will still be going strong long after the service life of the solar array has expired.
On the path to Net Zero
All told, metal roofing has a role to play in meeting Canada’s ambitious sustainability objectives. That is, in addition to offering a slate of logistic, cost and longevity benefits, it is a roofing alternative that has the country’s net-zero ambitions covered.
As Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Minister, noted in the Statement: “Canada’s road to net-zero calls for an industrial transformation comparable in scale only to the Industrial Revolution itself—and Canada is blessed with the talented people and the raw materials and the industries needed to drive that transformation.”
About the Author
S-5! CEO and Founder, Rob Haddock is a former contractor, award-winning roof-forensics expert, author, lecturer and building envelope scientist who has worked in various aspects of metal roofing for five decades. Together with his son, Dustin, they invented a rail-less direct-attach solar solution that provides a simple, secure method to “lay & play” PV modules with tested, engineered, cost-saving attachment to the only roof type that outlasts the solar—the metal roof. For more information, visit www.s-5.com or the Metal Construction Association.
