Solar Access Laws and the Rules of Your Neighborhood  

As you consider all of the details involved in installing a solar energy system, you will need to check your community’s covenants, codes and restriction requirements, or CCRs, for solar installations on your premise, whether it is for your home or office. Your Homeowners’ Association may have some contentions regarding solar installations, such as visibility of solar panels in public places, or areas that are limited to alteration due to historical protection, or zoning issues with regard to building heights.

However, there is now more awareness towards the benefits of solar energy, and with that, more positive laws are being drawn up to replace the restrictive ones that have limited solar energy solutions in the past. It is enlightening to note that Homeowners’ Associations and Historical Preservation groups are becoming more open and supportive of solar installations. 

If you do encounter existing restrictive covenants as you plan to install your solar energy system, you might want to confirm whether the covenants or laws are outdated or unenforceable. Moreover, with the growing awareness of the advantages of solar energy, there may be little resistance to your solar installation and your home improvement may even start a neighborhood trend. More and more Homeowners’ Associations have been quite flexible in allowing variances to their statutes when the neighbors are not greatly inconvenienced.

Solar Access Laws

Early solar access laws came about during the reign of the Roman Empire, when it was discovered that energy from the sun could help solve the abuse of firewood for energy. Even in those days, many Roman homes enjoyed a south-facing room or extension to their homes which was heated or kept warm by a solar furnace - known scientifically as a heliocaminus. These deliberately positioned south-facing rooms were kept effortlessly warm by bright sunlight even during the winter season. 

 As the population grew, lifestyles changed, with taller buildings constructed to meet the needs of the population. One of the downfalls of this progress was that these south-facing rooms lost their warmth, as they were frequently shaded from the sun’s rays. Around 2 A.D., the government enacted a ruling stating that one’s home is not to be shaded over by another’s, ensuring that those who had been able to exploit the sun’s energy to warm their homes would continue to be able to do so. This ruling was later incorporated and enforced in the Justinian Code of Law.

 Similarly, Canadians and Americans have followed suit, basing their laws on English common law, where accessibility to solar energy is provided for in the ancient lights law. This ancient law states that a home should not be shaded by any structure or means if it has been enjoying the sun’s rays for 20 years. The reasoning for this law may have been due to the same or similar reasons for which the Roman Empire imposed their ruling on using sun energy in 2 A.D. So far, this law has not been enforced in North America.

 However, it may be time