Featured in Work in progress – 04-2023

‘Solar crime’ on the rise

With copper prices rising, inflation driving up the cost of living, and organized criminal gangs stepping up operations in the United Kingdom and across Europe, solar project owners need to be more conscious than ever of security, reports Max Hall.

By

Max Hall

05 Apr 2023

A DeterTech PID360 (perimeter intrusion detector) CCTV unit. | Photo: DeterTech

When the UK police visited an address in Staffordshire they suspected of harboring solar panels stolen from a Worcestershire site in 2019, they not only recovered 13 modules but also found paperwork indicating planned shipments to Madrid for resale. The international disposal route linked to the raid – on a solar farm owned by water …

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