Photo-documentation of various fieldwork undertaken across Ontario from 2014 through 2018. Renewable energy projects I was involved in constructing were typically flush-mount and ballasted rooftop PV systems undertaken for commercial and institutional applications within the GTA and across Ontario. Carpenters became instrumental to Ontario’s nascent solar industry due to the requirement for workers having a well-practiced base of design interpretation, layout skills, mechanical assembly and health and safety awareness. Rooftop PV systems include flush-mount residential types and ballasted types for flat roofs. Each type of installation poses its own type of unique hazard profile due to the constraints imposed by the retrofitted quality of rooftop PV. Systems are typically enmeshed with existing rooftop equipment so a carpenter may be involved in accessing difficult-to-access locations (fitting D-hooks into ridgeboard for fall protection) erecting scaffold (permitting large crews to access roof areas for months at a time) in addition to completing concrete formwork for balance-of-system components.

Pictured below is a project undertaken in 2016 to design and fabricate a job-built device for lifting PV modules to rooftop level using extension ladders already in use on job sites. At the time I was involved with building residential rooftop PV systems under the Ontario MicroFIT program when I was tasked by my employer with design and construction of a replacement for a device they had already implemented and used to frequent effect. It saved installers from having to physically climb a ladder upwards of three stories while carrying PV modules which had been a frequent bad practice at the time. I was able to generate this design in 3D CAD prior to fabricating a prototype that was eventually tested prior to the cancellation of the FIT program in Ontario in June 2018. Regrettably the design didn’t see much use before the constructor I was working for at the time downsized its operations to a skeleton crew performing residential and commercial O&M only.

As an alternative to costly telehandler and boomlift equipment rental, the use by my employer of job-built equipment increased productivity and improved the safety profile of a potentially hazardous work activity. The device enables a worker positioned on the ground to lift PV modules to roof level using a fixed pulley and rope mounted to the module lifter, which then rolled up and down the extension ladder on its stringers. Additional pulleys positioned at the top of the ladder provided for a flexible, field-expedient pulley system enabling ascent and descent of the ladder by the module lifter. A simple chain-link restraint kept the modules from tipping away from the ladder and enabled installers to easily retrieve PV modules for installation onto racking while minimizing the time spent near the roof edge.