Across the country, prosecutors are investigating high-pressure sales tactics and misleading financing arrangements. Some customers say they were victims of fraud and forgery. This threatens rooftop solar's impressive momentum. Now, some solar companies are working to repair the industry's reputation.
That figure – reported by Detective Superintendent James Taylor, head of UK serious organized acquisitive crime unit Opal – included a rise in small-scale thefts of solar panels as rising energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis bite. And the UK experience is far from unique.
The FTC released a total of 1,219 complaints in response to CfA's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for complaints pertaining to the sale or leasing of solar panels and their installation on the roofs of customers' homes from 2012 to the present.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an investigation, and state attorneys general are actively monitoring the industry. Background The adoption of rooftop solar panels has grown dramatically in recent years as more consumers have purchased or leased solar panels for their rooftops.
Emanuel Minto, 91, stands outside his Philadelphia home, where he says a salesman created an email address and then forged his name on an electronic contract for solar panels.
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Prosecutors are investigating these deceptive and sometimes illegal practices. Alleged bad behavior ranges from unpermitted work and nonworking systems to forging documents and
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As the global shift toward renewable energy gains momentum, a troubling trend is emerging alongside it: the rise in solar panel theft. While once a rather niche concern, solar crime is
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The Treasury Department works with other federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to spread the word about
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The good news for solar panel owners is that large energy companies are obliged to pay for the excess energy that is exported, under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme.
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The rise of organized crime raids has been accompanied by more opportunistic thefts in the UK, of panels for resale. “The cost-of-living crisis has worsened matters and there has been a big
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While everyone''s talking about new installations, there''s a quiet revolution happening in photovoltaic panel reselling that''s turning retired solar arrays into gold mines.
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The growing presence of photovoltaic modules known as “fake power” – that do not deliver the expected power as stipulated in the datasheet – has been causing big concern between
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Rapidly increasing demand for sustainable energy sources has sparked an explosion of alternative energy companies, especially in the residential solar market.
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Complaints against these two – among the largest providers – constituted nearly 56 percent of all the complaints consumers filed with the FTC about solar companies. Among other things,
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