Skylights and Solar Panels on One Roof: An Exeter Landmark PRO Project

This Exeter home asks its roof to do two very different jobs at once: hold solar panels that make electricity, and hold skylights that bring in daylight. Both are openings and mounts in the roof, and both have to stay watertight for decades. The home got a new CertainTeed Landmark PRO roof in Evergreen built to carry them both, with VELUX skylights flashed in the right way. Pinnacle roofs go on fast — often as a one-day roof replacement — and flexible financing keeps a project like this within reach, with plans as low as 0% interest for 18 months.

An Exeter home received a new CertainTeed Landmark PRO roof in Evergreen supporting both rooftop solar panels and VELUX skylights, each integrated so the roof stays watertight around every penetration. This project is in Exeter, Rhode Island, finished in CertainTeed Landmark PRO — Evergreen.

Scope of Work

The re-roof was built to serve a roof doing double duty. The slopes were built up with ice-and-water shield, synthetic underlayment, and new edge metal, then finished in Landmark PRO shingles in Evergreen, a deep green blend. The VELUX skylights were set into the roof and flashed with their engineered metal kits and ice-and-water membrane up each curb, so daylight comes into the rooms below with no leak risk. The roof was also built to carry solar panels, whose mounts penetrate the shingles and must be flashed and sealed correctly so the array that makes power does not become the array that leaks. Getting a roof with both skylights and solar right means treating every penetration — glass or panel mount — as a place water wants to get in, and flashing each so it can’t.

What We Installed (And Why)

A roof with both skylights and solar panels is a roof full of penetrations, and every penetration is a decision about how to keep water out. The two systems do opposite things — skylights let light in, panels keep power flowing — but they share the same requirement: whatever passes through the roof surface has to be flashed, not just fastened. The VELUX skylights here are handled the proven way, with engineered metal flashing kits lapped into the shingle courses so water is carried around each unit; VELUX sells them as No Leak Skylights for exactly this reason. Solar panels mount on rails anchored through the roof into the rafters, and those anchor points are the make-or-break detail — done right, each is flashed with a metal plate that tucks under the shingle above it so water sheds over it; done wrong, they are just bolts through a roof waiting to leak. Building the roof to carry both means the shingle underneath has to be sound and warrantable, which is why the home got a new CertainTeed Landmark PRO roof — the heavier-weight architectural shingle rated to 130 mph, with Max Def color depth and SureStart™ PLUS warranty eligibility — in Evergreen, a rich green that suits a wooded Exeter lot. With the skylights bringing in daylight and the panels making power, the roof does two modern jobs at once, and the flashing on every opening is what lets it do them for the long haul without a leak.

Project Photo Gallery

The Exeter home with skylights and solar on a new green Landmark PRO roof

The Evergreen roof carrying solar panels and skylights

Bright daylight through a VELUX skylight

Good To Know: Can you have both skylights and solar panels on the same roof?

Yes, and many homes do — but it puts a premium on how the roof is built and flashed, because both add penetrations that have to stay watertight. Skylights and solar panels serve opposite purposes: a skylight is an opening that brings daylight into the rooms below, while solar panels are mounted above the roof to generate electricity. What they have in common is that both interrupt the roof surface — a skylight through its curb and flashing, and each solar panel through the rail anchors bolted into the rafters — and every one of those interruptions is a spot where water will find its way in if it is not flashed correctly. For skylights, that means engineered metal flashing kits lapped into the shingles, not caulk. For solar mounts, it means each anchor is sealed and flashed with a metal plate that sheds water over it. It also means the shingle roof underneath both needs to be sound and warrantable, because you do not want to be pulling panels or re-flashing skylights on a roof that is failing. The cleanest way to end up with a roof that carries both reliably is to do the re-roof first, on a quality shingle, and integrate the skylights and plan for the solar mounts as part of that work — which is the situation on this Exeter home, where a new Landmark PRO roof supports both the skylights and the panels with every penetration properly sealed.

Why This Approach Works

A roof carrying both skylights and solar panels is full of penetrations, and each one — skylight curb or panel anchor — must be flashed, not just fastened. Building both on a sound, warrantable shingle roof and flashing every opening correctly is what lets a roof bring in daylight and make power without leaking.

Why Pinnacle

A roof doing double duty with skylights and solar rewards a contractor who treats every penetration as a waterproofing detail and builds it all on a warrantable roof. As a VELUX 5-Star Skylight Specialist and CertainTeed ShingleMaster™, Pinnacle qualifies our customers for CertainTeed’s full SureStart™ PLUS extended warranty — coverage most contractors cannot offer. We’ve served Rhode Island since 2012, hold a 5.0-star Google rating across 100+ reviews and an A+ BBB rating — see our full credentials.

Exeter, Rhode Island

Exeter is a rural, wooded inland town of open land, farms, and homes set among the trees, where owners often lean into self-reliance — including rooftop solar. Those same wooded lots make daylight from skylights especially welcome. A new Landmark PRO roof in a green that blends with the trees, built to carry both skylights and solar panels, suits how Exeter homes are used and sited. Explore our work across Exeter roofing services.