Solar panels are new hot property for thieves

[phantom power]

It was an inside job, see?

Hoffman was the victim of a theft that one industry professional has dubbed "the crime of the future". Another observer has come up with the term "grand theft solar" to describe the spate of recent burglaries in sunny California.

In May Hoffman lost 16 solar panels from her roof in three separate burglaries, one while she slept below. Happily for Hoffman her insurers have agreed to pay the $95,000 (£48,000) cost of replacing the panels. But as energy prices soar, and solar power takes off - at least in California - so opportunistic thieves have turned to the lucrative, and complicated, business of dismantling solar panels.

(...)

Tom McCalmont, who runs Regrid Power in Campbell, close to California's Silicon Valley, said that the sophistication shown by thieves suggests that industry insiders are behind many of the thefts, a suspicion bolstered by supply difficulties with new solar panels.

McCalmont has experience of solar panel thefts: his own company lost $30,000-worth of panels to burglars this summer. "They knew which wires to cut, which not to cut," he said. "This showed a level of expertise that indicated that whoever did it was from the solar industry."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/26/solarpower.renewableenergy

[phantom power]

1. I wonder how you fence stolen PV panels?

Psssst. Hey, you... want some cheap solar panels? Yeah, they fell off the back of a truck.

[Greyskye]

2. The newest "white van" scam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speakers

For years people have run a scam all over the country out of white vans. They flag you down in parking lots, tell you that they just finished a speaker installation at a local club, and they've got extra speakers left over that they are willing to practically GIVE away. Or some variation of the above - when in doubt, asking yourself if the scenario is "too good to be true" will reliably provide the answer.

I've no doubt that similar shenanigans will be done with stolen solar panels.

[phantom power]

3. I was approached by one of those guys once.

In the parking lot of a Home Depot. He was selling Bose, which I assume means the speakers were either illegally labeled knock-offs, or the real thing and stolen.

We should come up with good knock-off brands for PV!

Seamen
Everclear
Kyocelery
...

[Throckmorton]

4. DOn't pick on Everclear

It is the Drink of the Gods.

[kristopher]

5. More likely professional installers cutting costs

If you have a business installing solar, you'd probably at least triple your profit with free panels. That's a much greater incentive than selling them out of the back of a truck - and a lot less risky. What customer is going to question the origin of the panels installed by a legit company.

[FREEWILL56]

6. Yes, it is a new crime wave happening in California,

but be aware that they all have serial numbers and in many instances the manufacturer knows who received those panels. Just like cars the numbers can be scratched off, but then that would be a dead giveaway that they are hot. The owner of these panels need to copy down the serial numbers even if only for their insurance company or to give to the police. I personnaly have little confidence in the police to recover much of anything and in many instances to be involved in the misdoings if not turning the other way. If confronted with such panels then offer them a real low amount and the message might get to them that it won't pay for them to steal the panels if they won't get much $ for their efforts and believe me this is not usually an easy theft.
For the few good cops out there, please don't take what I said personnaly, but you do know what I say to be true from the standpoint of the victims of theft in this country. Even if all good cops are on the case the odds on recovery of anything is low.

[diane in sf]

7. time to go to film on metal roofs and windows, it would be entertaining to

watch crooks try to scrape it off, thought I suppose you could come home and find your roof and windows missing.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Yep, or solar shingles. Would take them a while to pull all of those up too.

[joshcryer]

9. Competitively priced solar shingles would completely remove the incentive to even try, though.

They aren't competitively priced becauase there are few producers (as far as energy output of produced panels) compared to fossil fuels (again as far as energy output is concerned). Ban coal and natural gas for electrical production and I guarantee you there would be thousands of producers popping up everywhere.