Nigeria - 80 kwp flat roof

Project Overview

This 80 kWp Flat Roof Solar Project in Nigeria utilizes a robust triangular mounting structure anchored to custom concrete ballasted blocks. This solution is specifically designed to provide structural stability and long-term durability for commercial or industrial rooftops, ensuring high energy yield while protecting the building's integrity.

The Challenge

• Maintaining Roof Waterproofing and Integrity: Using concrete blocks is an excellent solution for preventing roof penetrations, but the blocks themselves can cause issues if they aren't properly managed. They can trap water underneath, causing stagnant pools that lead to surface degradation. Furthermore, the vibration of the structure during high winds can cause the blocks to abrade the roof’s waterproofing membrane (e.g., bitumen or EPDM), leading to long-term roof damage.
• Managing Roof Obstructions: Rooftops often feature HVAC units, drainage pipes, vents, and fire escape paths. The challenge is to optimize the layout of the 80 kWp system to maximize the number of modules while ensuring that wind flow is not obstructed by these obstacles (which can create dangerous wind vortices) and maintaining access for roof maintenance.
• Managing Wind Uplift and "Sail" Effects: Since the solar array acts as a large, flat "sail," the wind force can be immense. The system must have sufficient "ballast" (the weight of the concrete blocks) to prevent the entire array from shifting or lifting during a storm. However, too much weight could exceed the maximum allowable dead load of the building's roof structure. Balancing these two extremes—enough weight to stay safe, but light enough to stay within structural limits—is the primary engineering hurdle.

Our Solution

To address the site-specific challenges of the 80 kWp Nigerian rooftop project, we have implemented a high-performance Landscape-Orientation Triangular Mounting Solution. This approach optimizes structural stability while maximizing the power output of every square meter of roof space.

Each individual solar module is supported by two independent, high-grade aluminum alloy triangular frames.

The Result & Impact