Solar Panel theft

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estiaanf

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We run a small wisp in the eastern cape, and are struggling with solar panel theft, anyone have any experience in stopping this?
 
Crack them very carefully.

You will lose about 20% of the output, but 100% of the secondhand value.

I feel your pain.
 
What sort of security does the site have? Anyway to hook up to a security company or alternatively one of those building management systems you see at the back of Popular Mechanics if you want to deal with the thieves yourself.
 
Fudzy said:
What sort of security does the site have?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for estiaanf, but we try to be as environmentally responsible as possible when we build high sites that are not on the roofs of buildings.

Unfortunately solar and wind are the power generation methods of last resort. I would rather bite the bullet and run 500m of armoured cable up a hill to get electricity to a site than put down solar panels that get stolen or have to be broken to prevent theft, or put down a wind generator that's bearings will seize in a fierce Cape storm and leave us high and dry - even if the 'brake' is on.

The problem comes in when you have a site that's too far from the electrical supply, but still accessable by humans. If it's a site that can only be reached by helicopter, you are normally safe, but when the site can be accessed by walking for an hour or two, people will try to steal your kit. It's these sites that are a nightmare. Insurers won't touch them and there's no way that the security / reaction guys can do anything.

Two years ago we had half a ton (18 x 102Ah deep cycle) of batteries stolen off Helderberg in one night. The Helderberg Crime Watch / Farm Watch / local paramilitary were on the scene shortly after the GSM Commander sent an SMS to say the door had been opened. Those batteries - and the people who stole them - vanished into thin air. Chances are they were less than 10m in the bush from us, but you can no longer take an R4 and start shooting into the bushes to see what you flush out so they got away with the batteries.
 
estiaanf said:
We run a small wisp in the eastern cape, and are struggling with solar panel theft, anyone have any experience in stopping this?
Click to expand...

Queenstown must be rife with panel & battery theft. Farmers in the Cathcart
District had the same problem until Piers Miles installed a set of solar panels for them them

He had to winch the panels up as they were encased with concrete, panel loss now NIL
If they do manage to pinch the panels, they will get killed in the process trying to remove.

I know of another WiSP in Somerset East that had all their panels go missing
Pays to install a small Vivotek Outdoor Infra-Red Bullet Webcam overlooking
your highsite,when an intruder is detected, you have a head start to go up
to your repeater site

Alternatively get one of these IP Based Optex Redscan Laser Detector
Price not sure -
Some more info on the Detectors
 
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Another alternative is to also power an energiser with the batteries and then fence the site in, but they'll still get in if they really really want to...
 
portcullis said:
Take a ball pein hammer to the glass - gently.
Click to expand...

Problem with cracking the glass, is these f....rs that steal the panels can't see the cracks at night-time so they still steal them.

The best tower I've see was at Bottleray, the tower has no mains power, only panels and wind generator, however these are a good 8m or so off the ground but to get up the tower to them you have to climb up over barbed wire as well as an electric fence, and then the panels and batteries are secured in a very heavy duty steel cage.

I'll find a pic and post it here.
 
warwickw said:
Problem with cracking the glass, is these f....rs that steal the panels can't see the cracks at night-time so they still steal them.
Click to expand...

These guys case the sites during the day and return at night.

warwickw said:
The best tower I've see was at Bottleray, the tower has no mains power, only panels and wind generator...
Click to expand...

You're not talking about our tower there are you? They stole all our panels there about two years ago and we ended up running 400m of power cable to the site.

View attachment 20769
 
Well, The tower is a 2hour 4x4 drive to get to it, with no close power point, or Borehole pump, or anything to it.
There is about no cellphone recption, And the only way we can see what going on there, is an IP cam.

These idiots did not even take the camera out, We had an energiser thats live on the solar panel brackets, and outdoor enclosures thats mounted on the tower, with the tower being earthed. The brackets are isolated using conveyer belt, We tested it, and It ill put you down, or atleast moer of the tower.
The solar panels are 5metres up on the tower, with the batteries above that.

When those idiots came, the energiser was disabled (apparantly because of ligtning close by). Its a 3hour journey to get there.

My next step is concreting these in the ground - http://www.interlock.co.za/Portals/10/pdf/Interlock Flyer - Solar Panel Protection.pdf

Another video to show what it does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU60p-wBvKg&feature=plcp
 
Wow, I'm impressed that system if freaking indestructible. That could be possibly worth investing in on the towers.
 
estiaanf said:
Well, The tower is a 2hour 4x4 drive to get to it, with no close power point, or Borehole pump, or anything to it.
There is about no cellphone recption, And the only way we can see what going on there, is an IP cam.

These idiots did not even take the camera out, We had an energiser thats live on the solar panel brackets, and outdoor enclosures thats mounted on the tower, with the tower being earthed. The brackets are isolated using conveyer belt, We tested it, and It ill put you down, or atleast moer of the tower.
The solar panels are 5metres up on the tower, with the batteries above that.

When those idiots came, the energiser was disabled (apparantly because of ligtning close by). Its a 3hour journey to get there.

My next step is concreting these in the ground - http://www.interlock.co.za/Portals/10/pdf/Interlock Flyer - Solar Panel Protection.pdf

Another video to show what it does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU60p-wBvKg&feature=plcp
Click to expand...

Eish, I don't even have a use for solar panels and I want one of those enclosures :)
 
AstroTurf said:
Eish, I don't even have a use for solar panels and I want one of those enclosures :)
Click to expand...

Holy crap...that enclosure is awesome!! Totally agree...makes you want to buy a solar panel just to try it out :)

I think they need to steal one of those once and I can't imagine they'll do it again.
 
I think those solar panel enclosures are brilliant, but you're not going to get very far with a 40W solar panel. It would be nice if they made them for 120W panels.

Then there's the issue of panel angle. If you want to get the most out of your panel it has to be aimed correctly. That angle changes from Pretoria to Bloemfontein to Cape Town. I wonder if these guys make these units for specific longitudes.
 
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