Solar panel mounts and racks are equipment that secures solar panels in place.

Mounting allows the panels to be adjusted for optimal tilt, which can be based on latitude, seasons, or even time of day — to ensure maximum solar energy production. The most common locations for mounting are on the roof, using solar roof mounts, or on the ground with ground-mount options.

Solar panel racking equipment is built with 3 main components:

Roof attachments
The roof attachments are the fasteners that will be drilled into your roof in order to secure the racking system in place.

The holes these drills create will be surrounded by ‘flashing’, which is a plastic or metal shield that is inserted between shingles to prevent water from getting into the hole. However, roof attachments differ for each roof type.

Module clamps
The module clamps attach the drilled-in roof attachments to the mounting rails. There are a few different module clamp types for each angle and corner of the solar panel.

Mounting rails
After drilling into the roof, the roof attachments are then connected to mounting rails via module clamps that will then support the solar panels.

Although there are railless racking options available, rails are most commonly used because they can be secured to most roof angles, and because many installers are trained using rail mounting systems.