‘Grand theft solar’ - September 26, 2008
Posted for Ashley Yeager
Hold on to those solar panels or they might show up on eBay. As energy prices soar and consumers turn to the Sun for their power, opportunistic thieves are cashing in on the new market by dismantling and reselling solar panels.
"I wouldn't say it's pervasive, but it's going on," California Solar Energy Industries Association executive director Sue Kateley told the Contra Costa Times in August. According to UK paper the Guardian a rash of thefts in California has led one wag to coin the term ‘grand theft solar’
California is the US leader for solar panel installations, with 33,000 across the state, the New York Times and the Guardian report. It’s no surprise, then, that California is also the US market leader for solar panel thefts. Note that figures are hard to come by and cases have been reported in Oregon, Minnesota and even in Africa.
On 22 September, in fact, the South African Sowetan reported that police caught an off-duty officer in Thohoyandou, Limpopo possessing solar panel band cutting equipment and suspected stolen property. Similar property thefts were reported by The New Vision Online, a Ugandan Web site.
Stealing solar panels is a high-tech evolution of copper wire and highway guard rail thievery, which aims to cash in on high commodity prices for metals. This has led to everything from streetlights to two-ton sculptures being stolen and (presumably) melted down. The Guardian thinks it is all going to China.
However, as a spokesman for the California Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department told radio station KCBS in early September, lifting a solar panel “requires considerably more knowledge than simply tearing out wire or ripping down a railing.” He added that taking solar panels is “going to take some time. It’s going to take some know-how.”
That information leads investigators to believe thieves lifting solar panels might have actually been trained in installing the panels.
At any rate, law enforcement officials, at least in the United States, are urging solar panel owners to etch their driver’s license number into their units or to install alarms and video cameras.
Some users, however, are trying simpler solutions. The New York Times reports that one man lost 58 panels, which will cost $75,000 to replace. He is now considering slapping bright pink paint on some parts of his remaining panels.
“At least if someone comes across them and they’re painted, they’ll know that’s my color,” he told the Times.
Glenda Hoffman, told the Times she is going with a different method: “I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow.”
Image: Getty
Comments
we have had something similar here in hackney, london. they'll steal anything around here unless its bolted down. and even then....
Posted by: Total Solar Energy | November 5, 2008 12:38 PM