While I am no expert, this came up when I was contemplating installing roof solar panels. What I was told was that any part of the neighbors trees that cross your property line can be cut / removed but you can not demand the neighbor cut down their tree. Eventually I determined it was not cost-effective for me to put up solar panels as they would replace about 50% of my energy use IF they were 100% effective. At current price it just was not fiscally responsible to proceed with installation.
This solar panel company - several of them, actually - have been soliciting in my neighborhood despite the sign not allowing door-to-door sales.
Makes me wonder if the people who have suffered recent hurricanes are still paying on their solar panels. The companies here offered 10 yrs interest free. About 25k spread out over 10 yrs.
Bottom line to solar panels. VERY expensive to install and require a new battery every 5-10 years at $1000’s. The monthly payment is usually offset by the savings in electricity. Unless the plan is to stay put for 15+ years, youre in the hole and most people will not pay extra for the panels when you sell the house.
Best to have your crawl space encapsulated and double insulated vinyl windows installed which increases the value of your home.
Well, at least you are asking the right questions.
I working in the spacecraft industry today. And while solar cell are not my area of expertise, I took full coursework in post grad on them and have a decent knowledge of how the work from academics and some research projects.
Fact is, while in space point the solar panel to the sun is super important for its efficiency, here on Earth mostly all you need is a clear view to the sky. It helps to be pointed at the sun, but the drop in efficiency for not pointing at the sun is much less than in space. This is due to all the specular light we get from the atmosphere (our blue sky). This is also why most solar on home does not track the sun and you mostly engineer it to be on a south facing roof.
This guy bitching about his neighbors tree is making a mountain out of nothing so long as his panels can see sky above. And no panel works at 100 percent efficiency anyway. Most start at about 20 percent in perfect conditions and go down from there at times when the sun is not directly overhead or when clouds are present or when other things like trees partially block the view.
As I understand it, any fruit that falls on your property is yours. The article didn’t say it was a fruit tree.
A small vertical wind turbine may be a better option.
Good on ya for doing some research and thinking ahead of time! Most people that install solar don’t do that.