That costs something, yes, but the actual hardware itself is absurdly expensive for what it amounts to - a few bolts, a few simple aluminium profiles.

I have several solar arrays at home - roof mounted, ground mounted.

The first array I ended up shelling out something like €2k for a mounting kit for a dozen panels.

The second array I went to a local builders merchant and bought a pile of aluminium profiles, and got a sack of cheap panel mounting bolts and clamps from China. 30 panels, about €200 in mounting hardware, and I went for the absolute bare minimum truss that would support them and be rigid through extreme weather. Commercially, it was looking like €3,500 just for the ground mounting kit. My labour cost was my sorry ass hauling gear up a cliff like a pack-goat and drilling bedrock to anchor them. Actually, the rock anchors were one of the expensive parts of that array - I think next time I’m just doing deeper holes, threaded bar and grout.

So yeah. The noun is bloody expensive, never mind the verb.

Most people don't live on a cliffside to be fair. I wouldnt have to carry anything for more than 20ft.

I appreciate that, but my impression is that even just the materials are more expensive before you take into account labour costs, which is the part that boggles my mind.

The panels are very light and quite flexible, the mounting material is much heavier and has to provide the stiffness.

Is there a reason you can't lay them flat on the roof?

Insurances too.