Commercial solar energy systems are growing in popularity with businesses looking to lower operating expenses and cut energy costs. Installing solar panels for your business is also a great way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease your organization’s carbon footprint. While installing a solar energy system can seem totally foreign for those new to renewable energy, you can rely on some familiar materials to get the job done: Unistrut channel and fittings.

Unistrut for Solar Energy 

Unistrut channel, Telestrut telescopic tubing, and Unistrut’s line of solar connectors are the perfect solution for mounting your ground mount solar racks, ballasted roof supports, and fixed standing seam roof supports. When paired with the incremental adjustability of Telestrut, the inherent design flexibility of Unistrut channel means that a custom support system can be built for your solar solution, no matter the mounting surface or angle. 

The combination of Unistrut channel, Telestrut telescopic tubing, and Unistrut Solar Clamps can create the ideal mounting solution for your exact needs, including situations such as:

• Flat roof with fixed angle
• Flat roof with variable angle
• Support frame parallel to roof slope
• Support frame angled from roof slope

Unistrut also has a line of solar clamps specifically designed to connect solar panels to Unistrut channel. These end and mid-clamps meet uplift loads of 350 pounds and meet the spacing requirements of WEEB-WMC. 

Unistrut also carries an electrical equipment bonding washer that provides a gas-tight connection and meets requirements for bonding and grounding systems. 

Attaching Unistrut Solar Rack Supports to Your Roof 

Aside from building a support rack that meets your surface’s requirements, installing the rack to your location requires additional attention to detail. Depending on your roof surface, your support rack will most likely be installed using UniPier. UniPier conduit supports, for example, easily support light duty services like solar piping as well as panels. They can be customized by length and height to meet your system’s requirements. 

If you have a standing seam roof, however, your solar racking support system will be mounted using Roofclamp standing seam clamps. These high-quality clamps can connect Unistrut to standing seam ribs up to 1.5” wide and have a specialized attachment and screw design for extra strength. Roofclamp standing seam clamps are easy to install and will last the life of your roof. 

Unistrut Midwest and Solar Racking 

There are a lot of variables to consider when installing your solar energy racking system, and the team at Unistrut Midwest is available to help design, source, engineer, and install your solution. With decades of Unistrut experience, our team loves finding new ways to solve customer challenges with strut. Get in touch with our team and let’s get to work on your solar racking system.