Solar in New York starts on the roof you already have, and the state does not share one roof. City arrays sit on flat membranes, behind parapets, among bulkheads and tanks, often in shade from a taller neighbor. Upstate arrays sit on pitched houses that also carry snow. Upstate weather is not the city. Hardware that belongs on a harbor roof can be the wrong detail for a lake-plain winter.
Structure and covering come before equipment. A tired membrane, a soft deck, or shingles that are already at the end of their life should be handled before racks go down. Attachments and flashing have to match the roof you have, not a roof in a drawing. A picture from above has not seen an ice-stained attic or a patched parapet. If you do not control the roof, say that, because a building roof is not yours to pierce on a whim.
Shade and snow are local. In the city the next building is often the shade, and ponding plus foot traffic for other roof gear still matter. Upstate, trees and a low winter sun matter, and modules can sit under snow for long stretches. Buffalo adds lake cloud and lake snow on a roof that was already working hard. Say flat or pitched, what shades the surface, and whether snow stays.
Say the roof shape, the condition of the covering, and what the electrical service looks like in plain words. Ask who pulls the permit and who files the interconnection. Ask how the array is flashed, and what happens to it when the roof is replaced later. Ask who owns the modules once they are up and who you call when an inverter goes quiet. Leave every money question out of the first call. The site is the subject.
Panels do not fix a bad roof, and they do not turn a city parapet into an upstate gable. Describe the roof, the shade, and the winter you actually get. Solar in New York is that site, or it is the wrong project. Call the number on this page.