Santa Coloma de Gramenet, near Barcelona, finds new ways to catch solar energy. A network of 462 photovoltaic panels generating 125,000 KW hours mounted on the top of mausoleums. The power produced by the solar panels is equivalent to the yearly use of 60 homes.
Installer Conste-Live Energy placed the panels at a low angle so they would be unobtrusive. The cemetery was chosen because it was the only open area in the densely populated town.
Solar panels on mausoleums
Posted in Installation Options | Tagged panel location, solar installation estimate | Leave a Comment »
Contra Costa California, with over one million residents, is a suburban bedroom community for both San Francisco and Silicon Valley businesses as well as a thriving high tech community in its on right. As such, it has been home to many residents, businesses and municipalities who have had the technical know how, environmental concerns and just plain political correctness to install solar panels as an alternative energy source.
In such a rarified atmosphere who should emerge, but solar panel thieves. Solar panels have been taken from such locations as a school, a church and a private residence. Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association said she believed that the thieves know how the panels work, and how to properly dismantle and rewire them. She stated that the panels have no value as scrap and there is some speculation that installers may be using them on their jobs or that they are being used by marijuana growers.
In July, a Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy found a resident with 39 stolen panels worth $800 each. A spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect is believed to have been selling the stolen panels on craigslist.com.
Posted in Shady Side of Solar Panels | Tagged panels stolen | 1 Comment »
California enacted AB 811, 7/21/08, that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, high-efficiency air conditioners and other energy-saving improvements.
The loans are paid back through property taxes. If the property is sold the new owners assume the loan along with the home improvements. California requires investor-owned utilities to get 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 33% by 2020.
Posted in Subsidies/Incentives/Permits | Tagged California, loans, property tax | Leave a Comment »
California bill SB1399 was signed into law 7/24/08 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill takes effect January 1, 2009. SB1399 amends the 1979 Solar Shade Control Act by making disputes over trees and shrubs that cast shade on a neighbor’s solar panels civil matters rather than crimes. Trees planted before solar installations are exempt.
The law was prompted by a Sunnyvale, California couple who ordered to top their redwood trees to allow sunlight to fall on their neighbors’ solar panels.
Read the specifics of BILL NUMBER: SB 1399.
Posted in Legal Issues | Tagged California, legal, shade trees | 1 Comment »
