I wonderd just how long it would take for this to happen...money in them thar solar panels! A recently "posted" Coconino County mandate was seen on a mom and pop grocery store up in AshFork Arizona. ( last grocery store around today for over 35 miles). It reads that any and all structures that have any type of solar panel/s attached to that structure, be it roofing or side/wall mounted, now requires a county permit prior to any installation and a follow up inspection of same! It's weird that this was just posted recently, as the law it seems was passed about 8-9 months ago! No one even cares up there! And the best part is: that this store is in Yavapai county but there's no other place to post it so people might see it! More bureaucratic garbage!
The 'conspiracy theorist' in me says this could be a way to keep track of who is off-grid so if shtf and regular electricity goes bye-bye, they can use eminent domain to take property of those who have their own power supply
I think what it comes down to is building codes. There is a potential for shock / fire due to incorrectly installed panels / solar systems. I don't think it's a conspiracy other than the county wanting to justify that building inspectors position. I think that most locations would require inspection of electrical systems during installation and hook up prior to buttoning up the drywall. Just sayin' If i were putting up solar, i'd be mounting the arrays on a post with the option to manually track the sun. Fixed loose a bit of potential power to manual track or auto-tracking systems. I prefer manual track/adjust. less things to break. and you wouldn't be able to see it from the road or the neighbors properties neither.
Solar Panels? Nope. That there shiny light you saw was the sun reflecting off my wading pool. Mighty hot out today...
My panels are set into their respective frame work, and held on the roof by 2 x 12's and large/heavy rocks ( lots of wind!) I had them on folding tables until they were blown over and I had to fight the trees and shade later on...I will be putting them into a 2 x 2 angle iron frames and mounted on 4 inch pipes (cooncrete filled!) Then there 's only 2 small units hard to see unless from a helo and they can't afford more than 5 deputies for the whole county! That should take care of that nonsense! Besides, right now I only have 2 panel sets ( 6 panels) and 4 battereis and they are wired into a travel trailer thru the rear accessory door where they stored the spare tire/s and leveling stands! But most people out there have LARGE arrays, a lot of batteries, and they are all roof mounted!
I guess that would work, as long as you didn't have anything else to do all day. Mine track east/west, and "jog" about every 15 minutes during the day. I'll gladly sacrifice the little bit of DC power it takes to run the actuators in return for the extra power better alignment returns, and no, I wouldn't consider doing it manually. If a system is grid tied in any manner, then I think inspections are warranted, simply for public safety. That said, it might ALSO be handy for the inspector to have some clue what he is inspecting. The one that came to my house prior to my intertie had absolutely no clue what he was looking at.....I could have had any type of crap installed and he would not have known the difference. On non grid tie systems, I'm personally in favor of letting anyone do what ever they want, even if they have no clue what they are doing and burn themselves out of house and home.....the same as I'm in favor of letting their house fall down on self builders if they don't understand basic construction techniques.....stupid OUGHT to hurt. For example: My neighbor, as a young man, built his house with the basement using 8" cinderblock, and the front wall a full 8' underground. Any building inspector ( we have none except electrical in the county here ) would have told him that wouldn't pass......and he learned that the hard way after a rain one day soaked the backfill, and the entire front wall collapsed into the basement. Next time, he used 12" block, and filled them with concrete. 30 years later, it's still there. I think any deed should have to carry a prominent warning that "improvements" to the property were self constructed and let any future buyer beware.
My idea of manual tracking it to tell the kids to line up the shadows again. They gotta earn their keep somehow.
Navajo county is problably the next county to do that ..i seen those signs up in a couple places as i went through the area ..
