Posted on 10/27/2024 5:56:01 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Asolar power system is a big expense, but if it gets enough sun, it can pay for itself and reduce your carbon footprint in the process. Unfortunately, obstructions can substantially reduce the power your panels provide and make it much harder for your investment to pay off. That's why it can be so frustrating if your neighbors plant a tree in the wrong place.
If there’s a tree in the way of your energy production, it's important to understand what your options are. They may depend on where you live and whether the tree or your panels were there first.
Can you make your neighbor cut down a tree? If your neighbor's tree is stopping the sun from shining on your solar panels, the first big question to ask is whether it was in place before you put the panels up. If so, you can't just force your neighbor to cut down pre-existing vegetation on their land. Ideally this issue is something you or your solar energy technician would anticipate prior to the installation.
However, if your panels were there first, you may have some recourse. Many states and municipalities have rules in place that regulate vegetation to protect solar access.
For example, California's Solar Shade Control Act prohibits someone who owns a property from planting or growing an obstructive tree if solar panels have already been installed and the tree or shrub would cast a shadow over more than 10% of the panels between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The tree was there first. They guy with the solar panels created his own problem.
Thanks for the compliment. Here's how I explained it to my wife. The bureaucrats who manage energy policies are detailed enough to find places to nickel and dime us more and more to enrich their pockets and take our freedoms away little by little. If we're going to do more than just fuss at the Dims, we have to be equally determined to make our homemade energy be efficient for us.
I rather doubt the whiner placed solar panels on the ground under a giant tree. So let’s assume rooftop mounting for the panels.
If a massive tree is shading the solar panels, it is also shading the panel owner’s roof.
Trees with a “massive” structure and canopy are typically deciduous, losing their leaves in winter.
If the tree truly casts such massive shade, it provides substantial temperature reduction, and reduces the energy required for a/c in Summer and early Fall. Then it lets sunshine through to warm the house in the Winter.
Thus Panel Whiner enjoys major benefits from the neighbor’s tree, but wants to destroy the tree to justify his unwise investment.
He should send the Neighbor a Thank You note, or perhaps a check.
Is the neighbors name Jack?
...and the company who installed those panels did not explain that the tree would present a problem?
There is no paradox. Tree huggers aren not pro tree, they are anti-people. They will side with whichever position harms their countrymen the most.
The existential struggle between trees and solar panels is an interesting twist, but the same core issues arise with regard to building heights and setbacks. And in the adjoining silo are issues arising with regard to inappropriate developments that significantly alter the long-existing character of a neighborhood.
Can a developer set his sights on a quiet, tree lined street in a residential neighborhood, buy a row of six houses, and insert a noisy commercial venue, open a junkyard, or build a skyscraper?
Good zoning heads off a lot of these disputes, but zoning can’t anticipate everything, and sometimes the zoning regs can be suddenly flipped with a little slick lobbying. In a lot of places, local pols will sell out neighborhoods without hesitation to chase tax base or appease a militant activist group.
Air rights, sunshine rights, and viewshed rights are tricky areas, but I’d step cautiously here. A presumption in favor of whatever was there first is a good place to start, and “whatever was there first” includes the preexisting zoning rules, not an ad hoc accommodation made by local pols who got bought for a few campaign contributions. In the typical case, I would presume that the trees predated the solar panels. But new plantings are something that should probably be discussed with the neighbors.
That tree is providing 100% Natural Heat Reduction for Mad Guy’s neighbor. Solar is lie and a fraud, and a giant polluter in all phases.
SELLER OF SOLAR PANELS ONLY WANTS A SALE
You are not to a view or sunlight at your neighbor’s expense. Same for smells.
IT took YEARS for the LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL to stop that scam.
Here in North Texas we get these Super Cell thunderstorms that sometimes breed tornadoes but more likely produce giant hail. Last summer a commercial solar farm was wiped out by hail.
Good on ya for doing some research and thinking ahead of time! Most people that install solar don’t do that.
Folks,
This is fake news with an agenda. It is like all the question to Dear Abby.
LOL! Discussion completed.
I’d tell him to stick his solar panels where the sun doesn’t shine.
“This guy bitching about his neighbors tree is making a mountain out of nothing so long as his panels can see sky above. “
A most peculiar comment, as though an obstruction between the sun and panels is not an issue. Backscatter from the “blue sky” provides no useful solar insolation. Shade results in effectively zero photovoltaic efficiency. Regarding angle of the panels with respect to the solar path, off-angle but direct insolation is less efficient than perpendicular but is still substantial.
It would not surprise me if the owner lives near an airport and complains about the noise.
I would love to see the fight between a solar panel disciple and someone with a big oak tree blocking the panels.
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