In Part 2 interview with Rob Haddock, CEO & Founder of S-5!, we discussed what can happen when a lower-quality solution is chosen just to save money in the short-term and why material selection is important. In Part 3, we explore projects throughout the MENA region and what makes S-5!’s mounting attachment solutions different from others in the marketplace.

Where Are You Active Around the World?

S-5! has a global portfolio of more than 3.5 Gigawatts of rooftop solar arrays. Our attachment solutions are featured on some of the world’s most notable buildings, including many Fed-Ex and Walmart buildings; some 700 Costco stores in eight countries; Gemini Observatory; many airports; and the corporate headquarters for Google, IBM, NATO, NREL and Apple―including a 7.4 MW rooftop solar PV array, six miles of walkways, conduit and fall protection, and totaling more than 100,000 penetration-free connections. We are also affordable for domestic applications with more than 15,000 residential solar installations in 40 countries from Australia to Zimbabwe. 

Tell Me About S-5! Projects in the MENA Region…

“In about 2004, well before the solar ‘revolution’ in MENA, S-5! was ‘pulled’ into the region, in a sense, by numerous requests to quote supply of our clamps for fall protection applications,” said Rob Haddock, S-5! Founder. 

“Fall protection was/is more highly regulated than solar and other applications. Due to S-5!’s diligent load testing, we became a ‘global standard’ for its attachment very early on. Fall protection mandates started in the UK in about 1997 and spread to other parts of the world, including MENA over time. When solar ramped up in MENA, we were sought out by scrutinizing users for the same reasons (tested/engineered attachments), and we became more proactive, expanding our tradeshow presence in pursuit of solar applications starting in about 2015.”

S-5! has contributed to multiple prestigious projects in UAE and Saudi Arabia, including:

• EXPO 2020 (delayed to 2021) – S-5! standing seam clamps secure the solar modules on the EXPO’s architectural showpiece, Mobility Pavilion; 

• S-5! products were utilized on the ADNOC Headquarters, a 175,300-square-meter, 75-story tower that serves as the corporate headquarters for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company; 

• A solar PV array utilizes S-5! assemblies at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology); and 

• Many lifeline/fall protection projects utilize S-5! penetration-free clamps, including the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center and numerous IKEA stores.

What Makes You “the Best” at What You Do (doesn’t everyone say that)? 

“We have an unsurpassed knowledge of metal roofing and waterproofing technologies,” said Haddock. “We are not a manufacturing company that one day decided to get into attaching solar to roofs. Rather, our people have been rooted in the metal roofing industry for nearly five decades, so we brought that expertise into mounting solar. We have a track-record of attaching things to nearly 3 million metal roofs—more than anyone in the world. We invented the very category of engineered metal roof clamp attachments and now with 60+ issued patents, we continue to innovate new solutions all the time.” 

“We are a family company,” continued Haddock. “Our family’s name, integrity and reputation are reflected in what we do. We demand excellence of ourselves in everything. Quality and dependability are our focus, and every product we offer is designed to last the life of the roof.  We follow rigid standards and undergo third-party audits to maintain our hard-earned certifications (UL 2703, ICC, ISO 9001-15, etc.). We stand behind our products with the most comprehensive warranties in the world – for the life of the roof – and we have never had a documented failure of any S-5! product in our company’s 30-year history.”

“Attaching things to metal roofs is not part of what we do; it is the whole of what we do—our only business,” said Haddock. “We do it ‘the right way®’ and, we have documented proof for every claim we make.” For more information, visit www.s-5.com.

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the exclusive interview with Rob Haddock, Founder and CEO of S-5! if you missed it! 

Prepared by

Dania Musallam

Research and Content Manager