In this episode of Building with Metal, McElroy Metal talks with Mark Rangel of Spear Commercial about how combining metal roofing and solar technology turns rooftops into energy-producing assets. Learn how design integration, mounting strategies, and long-term ROI make metal the ideal platform for solar. From sustainability to savings, discover how the right roof can do more than protect; it can pay you back.
"They're installing a power plant on their roof, and it's a living asset." – Mark Rangel, Spear Commercial
"When I see a big standing seam metal roof, my mouth starts to water. Mainly because with those metal roofs, we don't have to penetrate the roof." – Mark Rangel, Spear Commercial
"Operation and maintenance is just as important as the design and construction." – Mark Rangel, Spear Commercial
In 30 seconds
A rooftop solar system can run for 30 to 40 years. Many commercial roofs last only 10 to 15. If the roof fails first, you pay to pull the solar panels off and put them back.
Metal roofing can host solar without any penetrations, which lowers installation cost and removes the leak risk that comes with drilling.
Federal tax credits, bonus depreciation, and local incentives can cover about half a project's cost, with payback often landing in 3 to 5 years.
Most owners think about the solar panels. Fewer think about what's holding them up.
That gap is where the expensive surprises live. A solar system has a 30 to 40 year life. A lot of commercial roofs, like EPDM or shingle, last 10 to 15. Put a long-life system on a short-life roof and you end up paying twice: once to remove the panels when the roof fails, and again to reinstall them on the new roof. As Mark Rangel of Spear Commercial puts it, it "can become a surprise that no one wants to deal with."
Rangel has spent 21 years in solar, most of it in the commercial and industrial space, and he's been a longtime McElroy Metal partner with systems running for more than 5 years. His first point is a mindset shift. Owners should treat a rooftop array as a long-term investment, not a one-time purchase. "They're installing a power plant on their roof, and it's a living asset," he says. That asset needs a plan for installation, for maintenance of the system, and for waterproofing the roof underneath it over time.
This is where metal earns its place. With life expectancies now pushing 50 to 60 years, a metal roof can outlast the solar system instead of the other way around. A 20-year-old metal roof may still be a good host with no replacement needed. "When I see a big standing seam metal roof, my mouth starts to water," Rangel says, "mainly because with those metal roofs, we don't have to penetrate the roof."
The attachment method is the reason. Spear uses S-5! clamps on standing seam roof systems. A mini clamp grips the seam, a disc and module clamp hold the panel, and in most cases they skip the rails entirely. It's a compression clamp, so nothing gets drilled. That setup holds up to 130 mph winds, installs faster, and lets crews tie off for safety while they work. Every install gets torqued to spec. And because the roof is never penetrated, if the system ever comes off, the roof is unaffected. Compare that to a flat roof, where ballasted racking still needs some attachments for high winds, and every attachment is one more place a leak can start.
On the money side, the math is more favorable than many owners expect. Solar offsets energy you'd otherwise buy, so the savings equal the kilowatt-hours you produce times your energy rate, which averages around 10 cents per kWh nationally. The federal investment tax credit starts at 30%, with 10% bonuses available for domestic content, energy communities, and low-income siting. Stack those and many customers reach a 40% to 50% credit. Add 100% bonus depreciation, worth another 20% to 25%, and roughly half the project gets subsidized through federal tax savings before local rebates even enter the picture. Painted with a broad brush, Rangel says payback usually runs 3 to 5 years with a 20% to 30% internal rate of return.
Timing matters here. Rangel says the investment tax credit timeline creates a July 4, 2026, deadline to watch. Spear is using a safe harbor strategy, investing in equipment now so customers can lock in the credit and bonuses through 2030. For an owner planning to hold a facility 7 to 10 years or more, a 3 to 5 year payback makes the case on its own, but the window to capture today's incentives is closing.
Before any of that pays off, two things have to be checked: the structure and the electrical service. Spear asks for as-built plans to confirm how much weight the roof can carry and how the system will attach. They send electricians to inspect the actual electrical service, because tenant improvements and added breakers often don't show up on drawings. Utility interconnection rules and the local authority's structural review requirements get reviewed before a proposal is even built. Skip that homework and you get change orders: a contractor underestimates the attachment count, then has to go back to the owner for more money.
Getting started is simpler than the engineering suggests. Spear runs a free, high-level feasibility study using a tool they call Spear M3. Give them an address, they outline the roof, factor in local energy costs and incentives, and return an estimated payback or rate of return within seconds. If the numbers look good, you send recent electric bills for a real proposal, then they visit to take photos and measurements before sending a contract or financing terms. Residential owners can start at the NABCEP website, search their ZIP code, and pick a certified installer that handles residential work.
Then there's the part people forget once the system is live. Solar needs ongoing care. Expect annual preventive maintenance, more often on larger systems, plus cleaning that varies by location. Breweries and distilleries put sugar in the air that sticks to panels. High-desert sites collect dust. A roughly one-megawatt system might see three crew members on-site for a week, twice a year. "Operation and maintenance is just as important as the design and construction," Rangel says. A well-built system still underperforms without monitoring and a real maintenance plan behind it.
His advice for owners thinking about a project comes down to three things: move soon to capture the tax credit before it sunsets, fix or replace an aging roof before you add solar, and be honest about your energy use over the next 10 years. Owners regularly add a manufacturing line or expand a building mid-project, so the design has to account for what the facility will look like later, not just today.
The short version: the solar panels are the easy part. The roof under them decides whether the whole investment works.
To reach Spear Commercial, visit spearcommercial.com or email Mark Rangel at mark.rangel@spearcommercial.com.
McElroy Metal manufactures metal roofing and siding products for residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial applications. Headquartered in Bossier City, Louisiana, with plants and service centers across the U.S., McElroy supplies contractors, architects, designers, and building owners with metal panel systems, accessories, and the engineering expertise to use them well.