Solar Panels Generate
Energy and Arguments

As solar-power devices appear on more roofs around the nation, they are generating more than just hot water or electricity: Some are creating controversy from neighbors who think they're ugly.

In Florida, as many as 50 homeowners associations a year try to keep residents from putting solar panels on their rooftops, despite a state law that forbids them from imposing such restrictions, say attorneys for the solar industry. The law provides no punishment to inhibit associations from seeking such restrictions. That forces residents who want to install panels to file a costly lawsuit against an association, or to try to negotiate a compromise that may include a visual barrier or moving the panels farther back on a roof.

In Arizona, installers of solar equipment say they have met with dozens of homeowners associations in recent years to mediate concerns that the panels detract from a community's aesthetics. Even though Arizona law expressly prohibits such associations from making it difficult for homeowners to use solar power, installers say many residents opt to drop their plans to avoid the inconvenience of going to court.

"I think that the tactic of many associations is to just make it hard for the homeowner, and it's a shame," says Kelly Dancer, director of Heliocol Solar Pool Heating, an installation company in Tempe, Ariz.

The 18 solar panels on the roof of this home in Los Altos Hills, Calif., generate up to 2,970 watts.

Mr. Speak prevailed last year when a state judge ruled that the association's restrictions conflicted with state law advocating solar power; an appeals court upheld the decision.

His neighbors remain unhappy, even though most profess to support solar power and other alternative energies. "You don't want to see some eyesore up there," says Frank DiLodovico, treasurer of the Garden Lakes Community Association.

Similar run-ins have flared in dozens of Sunbelt cities, from Florida to California, as the U.S. uses more solar power. Although highly touted in the 1970s, solar-generated electricity didn't start taking off until the 1990s, when the cost of the systems began dropping sharply thanks to new technology and state and federal tax incentives for using it.

This home in Los Altos, Calif., was outfitted with 20 solar panels to generate as much as 2,400 watts of power. Some residents oppose the panels, calling them ugly.

Yet the sight of the flat, rectangular panels in different colors popping up on rooftops is creating a stir in some neighborhoods. In California, where the nation's solar movement has gained the most ground, as many as 20 communities have enacted laws making it harder to install the systems.

Even a company that sells solar energy systems got into hot water after it installed solar panels on its own roof. The company, Akeena Solar, in the Silicon Valley town of Los Gatos, Calif., was notified by local officials last year to erect a fence to hide the panels after a city inspector reported being able to see them from the street, a violation of municipal code.

But Akeena officials complained that the cost of building such a screen would offset their solar power savings, and say they had already gone to great lengths to conceal the blue-colored panels atop their 3,400-square-foot headquarters. "You have to tip your head to see the panels, which are peeking out from behind two air-conditioning units," says Barry Cinnamon, president of Akeena, which is suing to gain an exemption from the city ordinance. "And you almost miss the solar panels because they match the color of the blue sky."

Town officials defend their action, saying they are trying to protect the architectural integrity of the upscale community, where Victorian homes press up against the Santa Cruz Mountains. Yet many residents have spoken out on behalf of Akeena, saying the town shouldn't be stifling a clean energy source that it officially supports. Some also point out that Akeena's building sits in an industrial zone. "What all my customers gripe about are all the power lines over this street, not solar panels," says Jim Kooper, a nearby barber.

Meanwhile, some manufacturers report getting more orders from customers to match the colors of their roofs, in hopes the power systems will blend in better. Officials at PowerLight Corp. of Berkeley, Calif., for example, say they are selling more panels that resemble actual roofing material.

"You can put these panels on your roof so it looks like an add-on [an addition]," says Tom Dinwoodie, founder and chief executive of PowerLight, "or you can add it on to make it look like a skylight, and it looks fine."

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