ᐅ Solar system with storage unit in the garage, is it possible?

Hello everyone,

most people install their solar panels on the house roof. I’m wondering why that is. Wouldn’t it also be possible to install the system on the garage roof? I see the following advantages:

- No scaffolding needed
- Battery kept outside the house
- Direct current (DC) lines not inside the house
- Lower installation costs

I’m sure I’m missing something. It’s probably not technically feasible because the electrical panel is inside the house, right? What kind of connection would you need to plan? Is it possible to install an additional meter and distribution board in the garage?

Garage roofs are often simply too small compared to the main house roof. Nevertheless, small systems can also be found on garage roofs or on both roofs.

For our house (single-story with a pitched roof), the photovoltaic system was just installed. A full scaffold wasn’t necessary; the workers used a small mobile scaffold.
The location of the battery doesn’t really matter, right? They could have easily installed it in the garage or somewhere else.
We could have only fitted a small fraction of the modules on the garage compared to the number we have now on the roof.

A colleague of mine has installed his photovoltaic system on a raised mounting structure on the double garage. It works fine, but it’s just not that large. Since there is scaffolding already in place for the new build, it can be used directly for the photovoltaic system. All done in one go.

One more thing that comes to mind: Garages are often built right on the property line as boundary structures. I believe that installing a solar system on top might not be straightforward in such cases, as it could potentially exceed the allowed height limit?

....and carports and double garages are usually attached to the west or east side of the house, so the house often casts a shadow on the area, causing the systems there to produce less efficiently. This is not comparable to hipped roofs with modules on three sides.