Criminals these days are finding easier and easier ways to make easy money by taking things that aren’t theirs for different reasons. As security on say, jewelry and banks are getting tighter, thieves are becoming adaptable and looking for easier targets, like solar panels. Solar panels are expensive, and relatively unprotected on the outside of your home. So how can you protect yourself from having your solar stolen right out from under you? Here are just a few suggestions.
One basic thing is to make sure you have insurance that covers solar panel theft. However, make sure that you keep up to date with your plan because insurance plans have been known to change if a crime spree on a certain item has risen. Another simple defense you can have is to install alarms on your arrays. The alarm can either be activated by cutting the wires from the alarm to the plates, or if a plate is disconnected from the array. Its simple, yet extremely effective at deterring potential thieves. Motion sensors with lights are a great defense as well that act as a deterrent to would be thieves.
If a thief does happen to get away with your equipment, you can have a video camera installed on your roof so that you have documented evidence that could help police in an investigation. If you bind all of the arrays components individually to each other as well, it would make sense that a thief wouldn’t want to waste time on taking down the array itself, thus acting as a good deterrent. Keeping these things in mind will help deter potential thieves from making an easy score off of your expensive solar panels.
