Solar Carports

Solar carports are becoming increasingly popular with the rise of electric vehicles and renewable energy. If your home or business is looking to transition to full or partial solar energy, a solar carport could be the solution. These solar carports produce just as much as other roof-mounted panels and can be used to power either a business or electric vehicle charging stations.

Whether it's at your home or at your workplace, a solar carport can give you plenty of social credit, and it comes with various benefits:

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A solar carport adds a roof where there was none. It suits a home whose roof is shaded, crowded or facing the wrong way, and a business whose parking lot is its biggest open surface. At a business it can power the building or EV charging stations, and it puts the system in front of customers and employees every day. Larger sites are covered on our commercial solar page.

Output depends on tilt and direction, so a carport array produces as much as roof panels set at the same angle and orientation. Natural Resources Canada's Ottawa data gives 1,200 kWh a year per kW of panels facing south at 30° to 45°, and 977 lying flat, so the canopy's pitch is a design decision with numbers attached.

On a solar carport the panels are the roof, and snow sits on them all winter. Ontario's Building Code climate data (Supplementary Standard SB-1, 2024) sets Ottawa's 1-in-50-year ground snow load at 2.4 kPa, 2.5 kPa in Kanata, plus a 0.4 kPa rain load. That is about 50 pounds per square foot on the ground, which the engineer turns into a design load for the canopy's shape and slope. The City of Ottawa requires solar collector systems to be designed, and their installation reviewed on site, by a professional engineer licensed in Ontario.

Pitch is a trade-off. A flatter canopy keeps the structure low but holds snow: NRCan notes that arrays at 15° or less shed it poorly. A steeper one sheds it, so the low edge should face away from doors and walkways; the City asks for steps to stop uncontrolled sliding of snow and ice off panels near roof edges.

The posts face the same frost as any light foundation in Ottawa clay. When the ground freezes to a post it can lift it, so footings are sized for uplift as well as weight.

A solar carport usually trips two permit triggers at once, plus zoning and electrical.

Bifacial panels collect light on their back face as well as the front, so their gain depends on what lies underneath. The IEA's 2021 bifacial report gives an albedo of 0.09 for new asphalt and 0.18 for weathered asphalt, against 0.55 to 0.98 for snow. A carport keeps snow off the pavement it covers, so the back face mostly sees dark asphalt and parked cars.

Power from the canopy reaches the car through the building's electrical system, which lets one array serve the house, the charger and the grid.

Yes, and on most solar carports they are, but panels alone do not make a dry roof. Solaracks, a racking manufacturer, notes that standard solar carports let rain pass between the panels. A watertight canopy needs sealed panel-to-panel joints, drainage channels in the rails, perimeter flashing and downpipes. Ask for it if you plan to unload groceries or walk under the canopy in the rain, and expect winter meltwater to drip through the same gaps.

We found no Canadian publisher that prices residential solar carports, so the figure we can cite is American. GreenLancer, a US solar design firm, puts residential and smaller commercial carports at US$3.75 to US$4.50 or more per watt in its guide of 2026-09-02, and a 5 kW home carport at US$18,750 to US$22,500 before incentives. It adds that fixed structural costs make per-watt figures unreliable for small custom jobs.

What a carport adds over a roof array is the structure: the canopy, engineered footings, Ottawa's snow load and any EV charger. Your figure comes out of the concept design, with costs, equipment and plans, at a free assessment: (613) 869-8254.