March and April saw a “significant increase” in thefts and crime in British solar projects, with 11 reported incidents compared to only three reported in February.
The 11 incidents took place at seven locations in Dorset, Sussex, Essex, Derbantshire, Lancashire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, according to intelligence and security company Derntech. They consisted of six thefts, two authorities of hostile exploration, two reported suspicious vehicles and one confirmed burglary, according to crime analysts at Derntech.
The analysts noted that in particular one site within one month fell victim to three separate burglaries, which resulted in the theft of string cable with a value of approximately £ 90,000.
Kelly Barnes, senior crime analyst at Derntech said that the UK is now very clearly going into a peak period [of solar crime] When extra guarantees are advisable. “
“Many solar farms have external traces that run near the herlines that are accessible through Farm Gates that are owned by the farmers renting the country for the solar installation. These must also be checked as the removal of padlocks and chains is often a sign that a site receives undesirable criminal attention,” warned.
Maturation
Derntech said that the crimes of nature were organized and warns of “organized gangs that increase the refinement when achieving potential sites and distracting security staff on the site.”
An example case in Derbyshire, where criminals “lured mobile security patrols” to a bait location “as part of a deliberate and coordinated distraction operation”, which resulted in the theft of a “considerable volume” ironing cable from the project.
In comments from Solar -Energy PortalDernTech Intelligence Analyst, Richard Crisp, said that theft of string cables is most common on solar stands.
“Thieves will systematically remove all strings over a row, which immediately affects the power of the site to generate electricity,” said Crisp. “All sites are configured differently, but it is not unusual to have more than 100 panels in a row. That means that thieves can quickly get the cable of a whole kilometer.”
Affected plants lose money due to the lost power generation, and Crisp said: “Most have a kind of standard agreement on electricity produced, which means that they also risk fines of regulators.”
Although it is “unlikely” that theft of a solar project can lead to a local black -out or power shortage, he said: “Since Solar is the cheapest source of electricity, we all have to pay more through higher accounts when the solar production is disrupted.”
Fully industrialized, internationally
“Last year, enough cable was stolen alone in the United Kingdom to fully extend from the end of the country to John O’Groats and back,” Crisp told Solar -Energy Portal.
The cable is sent entirely abroad or stripped and sold to scrap traders.
Crisp said that the police have “a limited Intel image where the cable is going”, but the “huge volume theft” shows that “fully industrialized international removal routes have emerged throughout Europe to facilitate the sale of stolen cable.”
Thefts of solar modules of large -scale solar projects have been taken since a peak in 2022, said Crisp, largely due to the “arrest and disturbance” of a specific criminal gang that “targeted sun farms for panels on scale” and the wider use of products such as smartwater, a forensic security technology.
Panels that are still being stolen “are stolen much more often from other more public places such as the roofing of industrial estates and public buildings,” he said.
The “first” developers should protect against crime is to “limit access to screens of surrounding fields,” said Crisp. “Maintaining vegetation around the circumference of a site is also useful.”
He also advised CCTV monitoring, forensic markings and regular perimeter controls.
“Prior to a larger theft, most OCGs [organised criminal gangs] will first test the security response of a site by, for example, cutting a hole in a fence or beating a CCTV camera. And as soon as a site is the target, the data shows that it has a great chance of repeated victimization. “
Derntech contradicted PV Tech Premium” In two interviews in the past two years about the trends and solutions in PV Project Crime.
