Grand Theft Solar
Honig's solar array before green thieves stole part of it on Thanksgiving.
Rutherford, Calif. -- Honig Vineyard & Winery sent an alert to fellow members of the Rutherford Dust Society following the theft on Thanksgiving night of 39 photovoltaic panels from its 819-panel array. Winery president Michael Honig noticed that the panels were missing when walking to work the next morning, and alerted the Napa County Sheriff's Department.
The purloined panels were removed from the bottom of two separate rows, perhaps to evade immediate detection, perhaps because they were the most accessible. Honig told Wines & Vines they represented approximately 5% of the winery's solar-generated energy. Each of the Sanyo 200-watt panels weighs upwards of 35 pounds; typical retail price is around $1,000 each.
Rob Erlichman, founder and president of San Francisco's Sunlight Electric, which installed the system in 2006, was able to pinpoint the timing of the theft; Sunlight monitors its clients' arrays electronically to make sure they are working, and received an alert at about 10:30 p.m. on November 26. Because of extraneous "noise" on the system, most often caused by wildlife intrusions, alarms don't trigger immediate response unless the entire system goes off grid.
"It was a holiday weekend, we figured it was just a bug in the system," until Honig reported the burglary, Erlichman said. This was not the first such theft he was aware of on Northern California farms. Last August, thieves took 22 of 48 panels from Star Route Organic Farms in West Marin County, also a ground-mounted array in an isolated area.
He noted that stealing solar panels is not for amateur criminals. "First and foremost, it requires some technical expertise. Everything is bolted down. You need to have tools, and be prepared to use them. And then, you need to be able to sell the panels." Selling them through a fence may not be easy; each panel has an individual ID number, and is theoretically traceable.
"A person buying (stolen panels) would most likely be in a remote location, not on the grid," Erlichman said. Among the many advantages to going solar are the ability to sell back excess power to the local utility and also, at least in California, to earn tax rebates. To be eligible for the rebates, however, "You'd need to go through a rigorous inspection from the utility," which could reveal the source of the equipment, Erlichman said.
Erlichman noted that his company is now as a matter of course installing special, theft-deterrent hardware on all easily accessible arrays. For security reasons, he declined to describe these devices in detail, but said that although the hardware is not 100% theft-proof, it will probably discourage would-be panel pilferers. "If someone shows up with their (usual) tools, this hardware will defeat them," he said.
Katie Romans, spokesperson for Northern California's Pacific Gas & Electric, said that while the utility's main role in the solar stream is to administer the California Solar Initiative rebate program, "What we do through the initiative is to require a purchase order for all equipment, so no incentive is available for black market panels." She agreed that grand theft solar is becoming more prevalent, and observed, "The industry is working hard to protect its customers through hardware as you've described and inscribing numbers on panels so they are traceable."
Honig had insured its full array, and is expecting delivery of replacement panels next week, including the theft-deterrent hardware. Erlichman said that retrofitting existing systems is a simple and relatively inexpensive matter, and recommended that all solar users install the hardware to protect vulnerable equipment.
The Napa County Sheriff's Department is investigating the Honig case, but was not able to report any positive progress. Captain Jean Donaldson noted that Napa Valley Community College had also been victimized, losing some panels from its campus a few months ago. He recommended that panels be situated in inaccessible locations, but this is not always feasible, given their mass and the necessity for maximum exposure to sunlight.
"Our detectives do look at Craigslist and e-Bay for stolen property," he noted, and sometimes successfully recover the loot using those channels, which he termed, "A pool used to get rid of stolen property."
This morning, there were several postings on the San Francisco Bay Craigslist offering solar panels by the unit or the case, priced at $150-$600 per panel.
Michael Honig is looking into using a laser-beam alarm system, low to the ground to avoid false-alarm-by-bird, behind a deer-fenced perimeter. "You like to think that people are good," he said ruefully. "It's disconcerting for something like this to happen, when you try to do something good for the planet."