‘Broken’ solar panels manufactured to deter criminals in South Africa
It defeats the purpose when it becomes common knowledge that the panels are deliberately made to look damaged. Probably also makes it convenient for thieves as they can sell actually damaged panels and claim that they're these deliberate ones.
Outside of remote farms and businesses in industrial areas, there are claims that some of the installers will tip off their friends/associates about large residential installations so they can come steal them and go reuse them elsewhere. Most people who install panels would live in houses that would require an electrical certificate of compliance, which TMK have to be issued by certified installers. So it makes it plausible that some installers probably buy stolen goods to increase their margins.
It's sad what humans will steal. In some South African rural areas, people have opted to start pouring concrete on a grave during a burial. A few months back I attended a relative's funeral, and there were a few freshly dug out graves (where it shows that someone was recently buried), and people were just going on with the business of the day, not seemingly bothered by this.
I take great care to keep my bike dirty. I regularly maintain and grease the transmission clearance and bearings, but the frame must always be a little greasy and muddy, the handlebar tape slack and the saddle full of tape for fictitious repairs. Every part is carefully chosen for its quality and style mismatched with the others.
I have just purchased 1500 brand new but broken panels (660 kilowatts)
The reason is a little different though... By being broken they are classified as scrap electronics rather than solar panels as far as import taxes go. That makes them half the price.
It makes good business sense when they still have a 25 year manufacturer's power output guarantee. The only element of the guarantee that is lost is that they no longer will be electrically isolated from rainwater. That means I need to install them inside barbed wire fences and extra signage to prevent trespassers and thieves getting electrocuted.
There’s an interesting incentive cycle here: decades of underinvestment in the power grid[1] have driven wealthier (in turn, primarily whiter) South Africans towards individual power sources, in turn fostering a market for stolen solar panels, etc. A good example of how private power sources (even green ones) exacerbate underinvestment in public utilities (since the people most capable of financing the utilities can opt out of doing so instead).
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_energy_crisis
I have heard of travel photographers doing this with high-end DSLRs. You can use miniature painting techniques to make cameras look incredibly worn to the point of broken.
South Africa has had very serious crime problems for a long time. It's not a 3rd world thing because it's richer than its neighbors but seems to have far more violent crime. In general though, when the government is corrupt, suffers state capture, cannot even properly put a former PM in jail for corruption etc then you can imagine they're not sorting out any of the causes or causees of this sort of crime.
Seems like a useful trick for any existing manufacturer: Any defects that still mostly function could be sold to South Africa instead of being broken back down for parts.
With almost "everyone" (read: middle class ++) getting solar panels these days, I seriously doubt that we'll be seeing this much. I suspect it's just a gimmick, playing on our reputation for high crime.
I'm in SA (near Cape Town) and my house is surrounded by other houses that have solar panels - none look broken and I've yet to heard about one being stolen.
A long time ago I had to set up a remote office in South Africa and the local finance officer insisted on a wireless connection. I explained that an ADSL connection would provide a much more reliable connection (no shared medium, less interference etc) and his retort was something along the lines of "only up until the point that someone steals the copper wire". Apparently it happened so frequently that most wired connections were no longer viable.
Perhaps the South African "Blaster" anti-carjacking device from the 90s could be adapted for solar panels?
Looks like solar panels have a lot of enemies! Even crows are attacking them
It’s like putting a ticket on your car to avoid getting one.
anecdotally, I know of some south african ISPs that have gone to extreme measures with steel armored containers, razor wire and such to prevent telecom battery systems from being stolen. Along with any other electronics. It's a hard problem to solve when you have lots of remote, unstaffed locations with electronics and batteries.
It is kind of on point for us - you have to put metal grilles around your gate motors or A/C compressors otherwise it gets stolen - not surprising considering the worst gini coefficient in the world (63).
Would this affect the transmission of light through the glass?
Reminds me of the reinforced door in my old apartment; when I got in there it was evident the door had been previously forced open. It was also repaired and would work properly, but signs still were very easy to spot. I chose to keep it although apartment theft was quite common there, the idea being that it should have worked as a deterrent, and it did: I left that house over 20 years later without any burglaries.
> In the first quarter of 2023, South Africa imported five times as many batteries as it did in the whole of last year.
> It shows South African households and businesses are becoming energy-independent and kissing Eskom goodbye.
I know this is kind of painted as a humorous article, but things are pretty dire in South Africa. You are seeing a lot of hallmarks of a failing state - there's just an overwhelming lack of faith in the government to provide basic services. Either providing utilities or deterring crime.
An underrated aspect of what is going on in the solar market is the enablement of off-grid living. This is HUGE right now, around the world. And while there is a positives that can come with individual self-sufficiency, it's important to note that it's not necessarily for the betterment of society. The people doing this are going to live in further remote areas - cutting down green spaces and consuming more fuel and resources than they would living on a city grid.
This particular green revolution is going to be privatized and inegalitarian.
You know your country's broken when you have to design things around thieves instead of customers. Hopefully the US doesn't get this far, but it does seem we're on the road to it.