Solar panels have slowly been added around the world in sunny regions on rooftops and yard setups at a modest pace. Within the last few years, business has been picking up and analysts see the fast growth of the last few years reaching a fourfold increase in four years. The Financial Times reports here, in 2006 the industry produced $20bn in revenues and is expected to reach $90bn in 2010. With the tightening costs of all utilities, gas and a wavering economy some are saying the industry might see an even bigger unexpected growth. With all the growth comes growing pains and courts in California are feeling the results.

Just recently, a law was uncovered deep in the books in California called the Solar Shade Control Act. It was put on the books in 1978 and has been relatively unvisited until a neighbor dispute. The law basically states that it’s illegal to shade solar panels with trees. More specifically, in California if your trees shade your neighbors solar panels more than 10 percent between 10am and 2pm you’re breaking the law.

One question that seems to come up is if the trees were already planted and growing, is it still illegal if they grow into a position to shade your neighbors solar panels. The simple answer is yes. However, in the most recent court case in Sunnyvale, California the trees were planted before the solar panels were installed, but not obstructing the sun. The redwood trees were planted in 1997 and 1999. A little bit of photo evidence that seemed to foreshadow the coming court case showed the redwood trees were not shading the solar panels after installation in 2001. After about a year of sun producing electricity the redwoods crept past the 10 percent coverage allowed by law and the bickering started.

The neighbors were actually living in two different cities but their backyards met at the redwoods. On one side you have Richard Treanor the redwood enthusiast and on the other side you have the 128 solar panel owner, Mark Vargus. Mr. Treanor has stated to the numerous news agencies that took off with the story that Mr. Vargus has made the situation slightly worse by practically dictating that his neighbor take down his trees or he might take him to court. Mr. Vargus claims that he actually offered to pay for the tree removal himself. Whichever account is true, they both still ended up in court to battle whether solar panels or trees would survive after the dust settled.

The solar panels won the battle and a Sunnyvale judge ordered Mr. Treanor to cut down two of his redwood trees. An arborist was hired to cut the trees so that they didn’t cast any shade on the solar panels. While battling for green technology it seems the greenest thing of all, trees, have taken a loss and will soon find a recurring battle barking up their trunks. As green as trees may be, they will often shade a neighbors property and in suburban areas this will be a hot issue. Senator Joe Simitian has pledged to take a closer look at the law to help protect trees that were already established and hopefully remove criminal charges and move them to the civil dispute side of the law. CNN reported on this story and we have included the link to the video here.

As the laws evolve to support the green movement interesting new technologies keep popping up that could provide solutions to nature and man’s problems. Just yesterday EcoGeek.org released a cover story which you can read here, from a Reuters press release about floating solar balloons. While tanking up a balloon full of helium seems far fetched this technology seems viable and also cheaper than the cost of solar panels. When pitting the two technologies side by side the costs are $4,000 for 1Kw of energy from solar balloons and $10,000 for 1Kw producing solar panels. The question really is, will your neighbor sue you for preventing a clear view to the sky because of your solar balloons pumping in power from the sky through a wire cable? Let us know your thoughts, do you think trees should be cut down to save a solar panel’s access to the sky?