Tate pointed us to this article in the San Jose Mercury News and asked what we thought of it. Well, here's what I think of it: man o man, people are so dumb.
Here's the story:
- Between 1997 and 1999, a couple in Sunnyvale planted a bunch of redwood trees in their backyard. Looking at the overhead photo, it is pretty clear that they did this so that their neighbors did not have a direct view into their living room.
- In 2001, one of those neighbors installed 10kW worth of solar panels on his house.
- Now the trees are tall, and they shade a bunch of his solar panels.
- He invoked the little-known California Solar Shade Control Act, which is now levying stiff fines on the tree-owners for not cutting down trees that shade solar panels.
- The court found against the tree-owners, but they are appealing the ruling.
This is dumb on so many levels.
- Did solar-panel-guy think that trees weren't going to grow? If there are trees almost shading your site, then within a few years they will shade your site. By definition, that makes it a bad site for solar panels.
- For the amount of money that 10kW of solar panels cost, you'd think he could buy some common sense.
- The law says that trees that were there before the panels were installed are OK, except that it also says that if they grow to cover solar panels, then they're subject to removal/fines. So... trees are ok, as long as they don't grow? The law really should have some sort of "reasonable growth" clause.
Personally, I'm totally with the tree-owners on this one. Mr. Solar Panel was dumb to put his panels under baby redwood trees, and I'm pretty sure it's not fair to fine your neighbors for your stubbornness.
