Every lot has a path. Find yours.
Every owner starts this journey somewhere different: some need protection, some want income, some are after power. We've walked this road with owners like you. Pick the starting point that sounds like yours, and we'll guide you through the honest math.
The Protector
Employees, customers, or inventory under a roof that ends hail damage, and can pay the power bill while it's at it.
Follow this path → 02 · Your parking earns rentThe Investor
Multifamily or paid parking, where every covered space earns rent and a solar space earns twice.
Follow this path → 03 · You want solar, no roof for itThe Energy Buyer
You're comparing ways to get solar, and your parking lot is the only roof you're not using.
Follow this path →We build both. So we run honest math on both.
Metal roof or solar roof, it's the same ENCO frame, so we have no reason to spin the numbers either way. At contract price, the metal roof wins, full stop. What changes the picture is the tax treatment: both roofs earn accelerated depreciation, but only solar carries the federal tax credit, so the net costs land far closer than the contracts suggest. Every figure on this page is that kind of net number, an illustrative example, never a quote. Your price depends on your state, your finish, and your site, and if the metal roof is the right answer for your lot, that's what we'll recommend.
The Protector
You want covered parking: cars, employees, customers, inventory. No parking revenue. You're weighing our metal roof against our solar roof, and we're happy building either. The honest difference: a metal roof protects cars and never earns a dollar back. Put solar on the same structure and it pays the electric bill you were going to pay anyway. And often the best buy here is partial solar.
Illustrative example, net of tax treatment. Pricing varies with state, finish, and site. We'll run your actual numbers.
Illustrative example, net of tax treatment. Pricing varies with state, finish, and site. We'll run your actual numbers.
The Investor
Multifamily or paid parking: the carport is an income asset, and the cheaper metal roof earns the same rent. Here's the catch. The cheapest roof at contract signing is the most expensive one by year five, because every solar space earns twice, once from the tenant and once from the sun. And vacancy only hurts a metal roof; a solar space produces whether it's rented or not.
The Energy Buyer
You want solar but have no roof for it. You're not comparing carports at all, you're comparing ways to get solar. Ground-mount solar costs you land. Carport solar gives land back, the same array overhead with shaded, covered parking underneath. Your parking lot is the only roof you're not using.
Illustrative example, net of tax treatment. Pricing varies with state, finish, and site. We'll run your actual numbers.
Bring us your other bids.
We ask it early, every deal: what are the other bids coming in at? Because the answer changes what we recommend.
We lead with partial solar.
Net-vs-net, partial costs just $90.60 more per space and returns $211.90 per space per year. The premium is back in about five months.
We lead with full solar.
The after-tax premium earns roughly a 35% annual cash return and still reaches payoff first, 3.13 years vs 3.43 for the cheaper metal bid.
Figures are per space and illustrative, at $0.12/kWh with current federal incentives. We'll run your lot's actual numbers against your actual bids.