How Likely Are Solar Panels To Be Stolen [Video]

This is my 10th video interview with Tony Boniface President of Independent Power Systems filmed in Superior Colorado.

SolarDave: How like are solar panels to be stolen?

Tony Boniface: I have been in the industry for 15 years and watch it grow and watched it manifest itself out there on the roads and the DOT (Department of Transportation) and have been using solar panels for their signage and I used to pass by these DOT sites and see dozens and dozens of these panels on these signs and think to myself wow, there is theft waiting to happen but Joe P Public did not know what those things were worth at the time.

And sure enough probably the first time I heard of theft was 7 years ago and someone wiped out a DOT site as a matter of fact, just cleaned them out.

So people are starting to understand that these panels are very valuable. I believe in German there has been theft on homes becoming an issue and in fact I was at a conference and someone came up with a clever device that even at night time they push a current back through the system to measure the impedance and if the impedance of the line ever changes the alarm goes off.

It is bound to be more of an issue when we are putting 10’s of thousands of dollars on these roofs. It would not take a lot of time to remove these panels.