Solar in Rhode Island starts with wind, salt, and the roof under them. An exposed house on the bay or the south shore needs attachments that can live with uplift and with hardware that will not turn to rust in a season. Shade from close neighbors matters on the tight lots of the older cities. A soft deck or a second layer of shingles is a reason to repair the roof before anything is mounted. Say the material and the exposure.
A chimney, a dormer, or the building next door can cut the sunny part of the day short. That is siting, not a promise of output. Flat roofs on mill blocks pond and need a layout that does not block the drains. Slate and older decorative roofs are poor places to drill. Snow here is less of a mountain story and more of a wet load that slides off a smooth surface onto a porch after a coastal storm.
Electrical panels in older three-families are often full, in damp basements, sometimes split by floor. A meter buried behind a later porch changes the path. Historic streets may care what the front roof looks like from the sidewalk. Ask about structure first. Ask how each mount gets flashed so the next sideways rain does not enter through the new holes.
Access on a cottage lot or a tight city street may mean no driveway and a ladder over a garden the wind already beats. Shade you will not remove belongs in the first call. So does a roof that is near the end of its life. Putting equipment on that roof makes the later tear-off harder and gives water a new path. Say so before anyone gets excited about the slope.
Call with the town, how exposed the roof is, and what shades it. Mention salt air, a flat mill roof, or slate if those are yours. Ask how the equipment is held down in a gale. Do not expect a promise of what it will produce. Call the number on this page.