What do you do when your neighbors complain about your solar panels?

[geckosfeet]

Towns grapple with larger solar projects

Should people be able to build solar arrays on their property? Basically these are appliances, like exterior ac units, swimming pools etc. IMO they are far less objectionable than parked junk cars that never move, lawns that go uncut for weeks at a time, badly planned outdoor decks and additions, overgrown weed infested lots and run down crumbling storage sheds.

A friend of mine (in Westborough) built a decent sized solar panel array to power his house with. They got building permits and town, state and federal subsidies to help with some of the cost of building. After it was all done and installed, their neighbors started to complain about having to see the array of panels in the adjacent property. They are trying to get the town to create and enforce new zoning regulations (my friends array would be grandfathered) to forbid anyone else building similar arrays on residential property.

Shouldn't people be allowed to install solar panels? They are not noisy. They don't smell or pollute. They are a positive contribution to the human energy footprint. And a row of trees can be grown to block the view.

[hlthe2b]

1. Sometimes they are jarring in neighborhoods replete with older architecture....

But, I don't think we can let our sensibilities dictate against a move toward more sustainable energy.

That said, I think there are some arrays that tend to blend in a bit better than others. I think technological advancements will help with this.

[thucythucy]

2. I wish to God my neighbors had solar panels

on their lawns. Instead they have riding mowers, weed whackers, leaf blowers, and just the day before yesterday my next door neighbor pulled out a new toy for churning the dirt in her (quarter acre) plot that emits about a hundred decibels and spews clouds of gas fumes down the entire block.

It's nearly constant--someone is always working one of these machines--not to mention the poisons poured into the ground to kill grubs, and then this petroleum fertlizer crap that people spray three or four times a year. All of it to make their grass grow, and then they cut it as soon as it gets more than a couple of eighths of an inch too tall. My neighbor with the new toy mows her lawn literally, and I mean literally, three times a week. When I've suggested maybe she could ease up on the grass a bit, she looks at me like I've said something perverted.

This society is so unbelievable fucked up. Solar panels no, but carbon spewing noise monsters--hey, it's the American way!

[ROBROX]

3. GOOD LUCK TO SOLAR PEOPLE

I wanted to install a solar power system on my property which is 5 acres. The company was great with roof work. The company also was stumped concerning my METAL roof which is much better than other types of roofs and cooler in the summer.
Good luck to those that install solar and I hope it becomes cheaper so that we can all have a better life.

[Demeter]

4. I have a plan for chronic Whiners

Living in a condo association, and serving as an unpaid board member of the association, I have lost too much useful time dealing with people who cannot accept NO for an answer.

I'm crafting a new policy for the board that says that after 2 denials from the board, staff will no longer have to process or even accept further iterations.

Of course, this is feasible because it's an incorporated community. If a whiner wants to change the policy, she will have to run and serve herself. Then maybe she'll have something worthy of whining about.

Your friend needs a PR campaign, support from outside, with suggestions that the neighbors provide themselves with some visual screen on their own property and nickel.

Some people will bitch at anything.

[geckosfeet]

5. Sad situation all around. He used to be friends with his neighbor.

Now they don't seem to get along. But yeah, I would have planted some arbor vitae and had a nice wall of green if it offended me so much. It's just a crazy situation because they both now have lawyers and have been to town meetings to represent their respective positions etc.

I agree with what you are saying, but what really boils my egg is that these folks built a solar array to sustain themselves and reduce carbon footprints and who knows maybe provide their whiny neighbors with a warm place during a winter power failure, and they get challenged on it like this.

No good deed goes unpunished.

[Demeter]

6. Truer words were never said.

Good luck to your friend.

[cleveramerican]

7. tell the neighbors to shove off

tell them to plant big bushes so they can't see

[geckosfeet]

8. Yep.

But then they go to the town and get a lawyer and all that nonsense.

Unfortunately it escalated way beyond "plant some bushes".