Solar in Louisiana has to stay on a roof through uplift, wet air, pine shade in the north, and live oak shade in the south. The deck and the surface come first. A soft porch roof, a bruised shingle field, or metal with tired fasteners will fight the rails. Describe that roof before anything else.
North Louisiana exposure is broken by pines and interrupted by hail. Southern roofs take wind that lifts edges and blows rain at every penetration. Metal is common and does not take the same mount as asphalt. Raised-house porch roofs are nearly flat and a poor place to force equipment. Live oaks in Baton Rouge and Lafayette can erase the useful sun on the best-looking slope. Say what shades the plane after noon and which way it faces.
A foot, a boot, or a flashing that misses will leak on the first wind-driven rain, and this air will not dry the deck quickly. Skip sheathing and termite-hollowed framing in the southern parishes are reasons to open the attic before anyone lays out a rail. An inverter in a hot attic or a closed garage cooks. Older electrical panels are often full of window-unit circuits already. Hail north of Alexandria can pit glass and mark the surrounding shingles together.
If the roof is near the end of its life, mounting on it borrows the next leak. If Formosan damage has softened the eave, the attachment is the problem, not the sky. Coastal and marsh-edge hardware lives in wet air that films metal. Afternoon storms do not give a loose detail a grace period. Ask about the wood you cannot see and about how water is supposed to leave each penetration.
Call with the town, the roof, and the shade. Metal or asphalt, oak cover or open pine, a simple ranch plane or a cut-up older roof. Say whether wind has already lifted an edge and whether the attic is sound. Mention a crowded panel if you have opened it and seen no room. This is a weather and structure call. Leave the sales math out and talk about the roof that has to hold the equipment. Call the number on this page.