Go Solar Go Dot Com : It's Not So Simple, Being Green

by dan — Monday, April 7th, 2008

In an example that illustrates the number and complexity of the challenges facing solar power - and the larger movement towards clean and green energy and products - a lawsuit pitting two seemingly eco-conscious families against one another has been (tentatively) settled in Sunnyvale, CA. The dispute centers around a residential solar PV system and a strand of redwood trees that had grown tall enough to shade it. How you weigh the merits of localized, clean energy generation by solar PV against natural, oxygen-generating and eye pleasing tree, I'm not sure. But a judge found it clearly defined by California law that solar PV has the right of way. Luckily, this is a headline making case for the very reason that it is the exception to the rule. The Solar Shade Act is a valuable tool for providing home- and building-owners the assurance that their investment in solar PV will not be diminshed by a neighbor's upward expansion of their structure. This is surely not the last time, though, that distributed solar generation will face growing pains from unlikely, even ironic scenarios.

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