Many sites we visit to make a PV assessment have the house roof either facing the wrong way or is too shallow of a roof pitch. When the roof of the house or outbuilding is out of the running, ground mounting is a common solution. It can be a top of pole mount or a linear structure. In any event, factory made ground mounts are always much more expensive than roof mounting.
We recently made a prototype composed of some 230 watt panels and is specially designed garden/storage shed. The shed was built by Yoder Buildings a couple miles up the road. They are Mennonites who started their business a few years ago and do quality construction.
We took their basic saltbox design and made the back roof longer and steeper to accommodate the PV modules at a good compromise angle. The unit shown is the smallest at 12ft x 12ft and has a PV rating of 1380 watts STC. We have several other sizes up to 36 feet long and rated at 4140 watts STC. These are gridtie ready with only the final connection to be made at the customer's site. The building themselves are of good value and high quality and cost just a bit more than a good ground mounting system. The benefit is that you get a great building to use for other purposes.
The Solar Powerhouse can also be configured as an offgrid structure for camps or rural locations. The extra gear such as charge controller, batteries and inverter will run the price up though.
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