McElroy Metal, Bossier City, La., and Inovateus Solar, South Bend, Ind., have formed a roofing and solar power partnership to provide specification, engineering and installation solutions for large standing-seam roofing projects incorporating solar. Kenneth Gieseke, vice president of marketing for McElroy Metal, explained his company’s natural attraction to this greener technology that led to the partnership with Inovateus Solar. “Metal roofing is a perfect medium for green building and solar energy installations for many reasons. Metal roofing is a completely recyclable material—it is manufactured initially with a high percentage of recycled metal and can then be reclaimed again at the end of its service life. Metal roofing has excellent reflective capabilities to keep cooling costs down and has a long service life that can reach decades. These things all come together to make metal roofing a green product on its own,” Gieseke said. Gieseke went on to explain that McElroy’s customer base in the metal roofing industry has a burgeoning interest in solar power. His roofing customers understand that solar is coming into the marketplace as a sister industry to roofing. McElroy contractors that have been in the roofing business for a long time now recognize solar as an opportunity for new profits. “Working closely with Inovateus Solar, we are providing the latest in solar solutions. One of the advantages of working with Inovateus Solar is that they have such a wide variety of solar technologies we can offer our customers. Flexible photovoltaic panels installed with standing-seam roofing products will be a large part of the business, but we are also interested in offering crystalline solar to our customers,” Gieseke said.