Right to Sun Lawsuit WON! First of Many?

Posted on March 26, 2008
Categories: Solar Trends.

Solar Tree Lawsuit

The Solar Vs Tree battle grows!

The Mercury news wrote this great article (I call it “great” because the first word is “smackdown”).

Here is SolarPowerRocks.com’s 15 second eat-and-run version:

Couple A puts solar panels up (lots of them)

Couple B plants redwood trees next door (tall ones).

Couple A demands Couple B cut down trees ’cause they block sun. No dice.

Couple A sues Couple B and wins under “Solar Shade Control Act” of 1978

Couple B chops down some of the trees

I thought that the fine for violation is pretty incredible, $1000/day the trees are not chopped down. Wow!

We here at SolarPowerRocks.com are obviously a little biased towards solar and happy about this new case law, but for the people taking the trees’ side of things, there is good news. Senator Joe Simitian is probably gonna get through a bill that would change the law to something where, “whoever gets there first, wins” be that trees or solar. Honestly, as much as I love solar, I think that sounds fair.

-Dave

3 comments.

Earth Hour Tomorrow Night »« How are Solar Panels Attached to my Roof?

dean

Comment on April 1st, 2008.

“whoever gets there first, wins” sounds fair to me too. In this case I believe the trees were there first so they should win, albeit I love solar too. But does cutting down trees help the environment?

Leslie @ the oko box

Comment on April 19th, 2008.

Why can’t they just keep the trees “shaped” but not entirely chopped down - or bonsai them on a large scale somehow encouraging the branches to grow out instead of up Might end up being really beautiful and unique!

David Llorens

Comment on April 19th, 2008.

I believe that is acceptable…. In the verdict there was some percentage shading that was acceptable.