Solar Shade Control Act

The Solar Shade Control Act was passed by the California state legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 1978 to give solar collectors access to sunlight. The act prohibits blocking access to solar collectors by trees on an adjacent property,[1] and provides criminal penalties for violation.[2] The solar collectors may be for water heating, space heating or cooling, or electricity generation.

The law was amended in 2009, allowing trees to remain, if they were planted before the solar collector was installed. The amendment also changed violations from criminal to a civil matter.[1]

Application

The law attracted little attention until 2008, when a dispute in Sunnyvale, California ended up in court. The tree owners spent $37,000 on attorney fees, before triming their trees.[2]

In Culver City, California, a furniture and cabinet maker spent $80,000 in May 2006 on solar panels to reduce his electric bill. The system worked well for two years, until his neighbor spent $60,000 to plant palm trees along the property line. The city became involved in trying to negotiate a compromise.[3]

In a 1986 dispute in involving two Stanford professors, the court ruled in Sher v. Leiderman that the law only applied to solar collectors, and not to homes designed to be passively heated by sunlight. The court reasoned that applying the act to passively heated homes would have given protection to all homes with windows facing south.[4]

References
  1. "CHAPTER 12. Solar Shade Control [25980 - 25986]", California Legislative Information, State of California, Division 15. Energy Conservation and Development, retrieved May 16, 2020
  2. Felicity Barringer (April 7, 2008). "Trees Block Solar Panels, and a Feud Ends in Court". The New York Times. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  3. MARLA DICKERSON (November 15, 2008). "Hey, your shade trees are blocking my solar panels". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  4. JEFFREY S. KLEIN (October 2, 1986). "Sun Casts Its Shadow on the Solar Laws". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
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