Valuable technology in largely unattended and sometimes remote country areas inevitably attracts attention from criminal elements. Increasing security costs money of course.
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Solar panels worth around £5,500 were stolen from an energy farm near Wellingborough, reports Energy Live News.
The theft occurred between Tuesday 20th June, at 10:30pm and Wednesday 21st June, at 3 am.
The incident took place when “unknown suspects” entered Chelveston Renewable Energy Park, located in Chelveston Airfield and “stole 52 solar panels from the site”.
Northamptonshire Police have launched an appeal for witnesses and information regarding the theft.
They are urging anyone with relevant details, such as CCTV footage, smart doorbell recordings, or dash-cam footage, to get in touch with them by dialling 101.
Full article here.
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But this is just one of many such incidents in various countries, some of which were on a much bigger scale, as pv magazine reported in April:
‘Solar crime’ on the rise
With copper prices rising, inflation driving up the cost of living, and organized criminal gangs stepping up operations in the United Kingdom and across Europe, solar project owners need to be more conscious than ever of security.
When the UK police visited an address in Staffordshire they suspected of harboring solar panels stolen from a Worcestershire site in 2019, they not only recovered 13 modules but also found paperwork indicating planned shipments to Madrid for resale.
The international disposal route linked to the raid – on a solar farm owned by water company Severn Trent, near Kidderminster, in the west of England – indicated organized crime involvement.
Police in the UK observed a 93% rise in reports of solar-related crimes from 2021 to 2022. That figure – reported by Detective Superintendent James Taylor, head of UK serious organized acquisitive crime unit Opal – included a rise in small-scale thefts of solar panels as rising energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis bite.
And the UK experience is far from unique. German solar security business Viamon tells pv magazine that more than 5,000 “major” solar thefts annually occur in Europe, with more than 400 in Germany alone.
In southern Italy, says Viamon Managing Director Oliver Strecke, the solar crime rate is 10 times higher than the European average.
Full article here.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
June 26, 2023 at 10:46AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 