The Money Roof

Owners can generate more than just solar power by renting out their roofs. Whether you're standing on rooftops, gardening on them or just happy that you have one over your head — roofs are more than just the highest part of a structure, and building owners are figuring out how to turn the forgotten space into a money maker. Commercial real estate building owners are realizing they are excellent candidates for solar roof rentals.

National Real Estate Investor recently published a guest column on the topic, written by Gary Kassem who is the president and CEO of SingleSource in Pittsburgh. The article pointed out a few important things to consider regarding roof-mounted solar power generation and feed-in tariffs (FITs). But before I dive into those points, let's get some background on the subject from Kassem:

"With a FIT in place, private building owners rent their roof surfaces to firms that install and maintain rooftop-mounted solar power generation plants," he says. "The solar power provider installs power-generating photovoltaic arrays (PVs) on the roof surface, and then sells the power to a local utility at an established price per kilowatt-hour. "FITs allow power companies to expand their generation capacity without having to spend money on costly generation or transmission facilities. They also provide property owners with a monthly rent check for space that previously went unused."

• Rooftop rental can provide you with extra income each month, but can also open you up to significant liabilities.
• Your building, your roofing systems and the operations conducted in your facility are your primary concerns, not the PV system.
• Maintenance and troubleshooting must be part of any comprehensive rooftop lease agreement.
• Know who is financially responsible for repairs and lost production so you don't end up holding the bag for costs and penalties.