Ron Schenone

Solar Power 1 – Redwood Trees 0

Posted by on Mar 25, 2008 | 5 Comments

A few months ago I mentioned the battle between two neighbors in Sunnyvale, CA. over whether some redwood trees should be cut down that were blocking a solar panel. At the time, California had a law [California’s Solar Shade Control Act] which made it unlawful to block solar panels with trees or shrubs. Unfortunately the law did not take into account the fact that older and established trees would have to be removed, if a neighbor chose to install solar panels, and the trees block out the sun.

After spending some $37,000 in legal fees, the tree owners have run out of cash, and chain saws will be removing the redwoods. Though it doesn’t help these land owners much, there may be a change in the law which will prohibit the removal of existing trees in the future.

One would hope that this will be an isolated case and future laws will take into account existing trees and structures.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

[tags]solar, tress, remove, chain saws, california, sunnyvale, owners, removal, fee, court costs, [/tags]

  • Scott King

    If the trees were there first, they should stay. Enough trees are cut down already. Sounds like a screwy law to me.

  • Denny

    IN . . CALIFORNEEE . . . He Who Has The Most Money . .WINS . .

    ___________IT’S. . THE . . LAW

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/dabrace1984/ dabrace1984

    Aren’t Redwood Trees on an endangered list of some sort? Maybe Sequoia Trees? I don’t know but it sounds like an argument between two neighbors even before the solar panels were installed:

    Neighbor 1: “Get our f***ing tree branches out of my yard.”

    Neighbor 2: “No, ”

    Neighbor 1 to their spouse:
    “Honey we need to install solar panels because the California Solar Shade Control Act will make them cut down these trees.

    Neighbor 1 spends thousands off dollars on solar panels.

    Neighbor 1: “Get our f***ing trees branches out of my yard.”

    Neighbor 2: “No, ”

    Neighbor 1: “See you in court then.”

    Our society has a major lawyer issue. If the smallest thing doesn’t go our way, we spends thousands upon thousands of dollars ways to make it work our way.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/dabrace1984/ dabrace1984

    I saw an interesting update to this story that ended up making the New York Times.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/science/earth/07redwood.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin

    I don’t know who to support more, the person that is trying to help the environment by saving electricity with the use of alternative energy or the person that has tree planted in their yard.

    –Doug

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Thanks Doug – interesting read. As the article states, there will be more future disputes. :-(