Solar panel firm with Greta Thunberg ad sued over £1.5m house fire
By Paul Homewood
How dare you!
A solar power generating firm which uses Greta Thunberg to promote its products is being sued for more than £1.5 million damages over claims its panels led to a devastating house fire.
Mark and Sarah Evans are suing the award-winning firm Green Energy Electrical, which installed solar panels on their five-bedroom detached house in Essex.
The couple claim the catastrophic fire, which destroyed their home in April 2021, was caused either by a fault in one of the firm’s photovoltaic panels or a heating fault between a panel and electrical cables.
Essex-based Green Energy Electrical uses the example of Greta Thunberg’s activism over climate change as a way of encouraging customers to go solar.
Its website states: “Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s recent school strikes? Installing solar panels will reduce your carbon footprint as well as save you money on your energy bills.”
The firm rejects Mr and Mrs Evans’ claim, dismissing the couple’s theories of how the fire started as “speculative, inherently improbable, and not the most likely causes”.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
With a garden of that size, why on Earth would you put solar panels on your roof? It doubles the installation costs, and increases your chances of fire by an order of magnitude.
Green cult members, who venerate an invisible deity and a child saint, are as dumb as rocks.
Ralph
Maybe they have sheep
Any one daft enough to be taken in by quotes like –
“Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s recent school strikes? Installing solar panels will reduce your carbon footprint as well as save you money on your energy bills.”
Are Stupid Sheep !!
They ARE sheep…
R
Sheep don’t usually go on roofs.
That garden size beggars the question as to whether solar firms offer a ground based alternative or are they all geared towards tricky and expensive roof top systems?
In my coastal location any steel on a roof quickly rusts and loses its strength. Witness the number of TV aerials dangling after their steel clamps collapsed. All solar panels are held to roofs by steel clamps – as these rust and fail I wonder if we’re going to see a lot of solar panels crashing to the ground?
You would think that stainless steel had not been invented.
As for electric vehicles which are subject to too many unknowns for informed people to be comfortable with them, so installations on roofs. I think that those of us who have seen roof installation as potentially fraught with problems, are vindicated by this very sad event.
Virtue signalling knows no price.
Lemme tell you what happens in the US.
Homeowner files claim with insurance company. Insurance company jerks them around, but eventually pays. INSURANCE company sues the panel maker.
Assuming laws are the same, these geniuses voided their insurance with fine solar installation. Greta didn’t tell them about that. There is no situation where someone with insurance sues third party over fire; that’s the insurance company’s problem.
Not even America has a government and regulatory system as bad as in the UK.
Homeowner files claim with insurance company, insurance company jerks them around, homeowner goes squealing to government.
Government launches inquiry which takes ten years and costs £500M. Panel maker goes ‘bust’ and directors relaunch it with the same factory, same staff, same directors and states “weren’t me guv”.
Government changes law when inquiry concludes and forces insurance company to cough up £1.5M.
Building cost’s have doubled so householder obtains additional £1.5m loan to rebuild, from the mortgage company, that owns the insurance company.
Taxpayer pays inquiry lawyers £500M.
Win Win!
yes – same in uk. It is an insurance process called “subrogation” which takes place after the insured make a claim against their insurance company. The insurer believe that the liability for negligence sits with the installers of the panels, and so the insurer takes action against the installers, using their subrogation rights, in the name of their insureds to recover their costs.
personally i wish they could subrogate against Greta!
A cautionary tale. If you ever engage companies for major works, check them out first. Green energy Electrical ltd claims over a 1,000 installations, rather optimistic as their accounts show minimal turnover isn’t it.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07849351/filing-history
Then check out the director(s) by name. 3 previously dissolved £100 companies with negligible trading is not a good look- in this case Daniel Michael James Le-Gonidec. Or even foreign registers…https://www.abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?id=83283469957
And as Gamecock points out, make sure you are well insured first.
You will probably find out in the fullness of time that their insurance company have found a non disclosure loophole not to payout.
As can be seen from the Ariel photo the fire brigade won’t go near solar panels till it gets dark!
“the fire brigade won’t go near solar panels till it gets dark!” Solar panel installations are connected LIVE! Most sensible experienced electricians will not go near them at any time.
Most sensible electricians would cover them up.
Look closely, there is at least one water jet aimed at roof; from near the garage.
The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has a specific paper “Fire safety and solar electric/photovoltaic systems” on the risks & hazards.
“Fire safety issues
PV arrays with string or central inverters involve DC at elevated voltages and it is not normally possible to completely isolate the DC electrics between the PV array and the DC isolation switch. Additionally, PV modules are current-limiting devices meaning fuses are not likely to operate under short-circuit conditions which could mean a fault in the system goes undetected. This scenario can present fire and/or electric shock risks, although these can be minimised by good system design, product selection and installation practices.”
“Fire-fighting issues
There are potentially very high DC voltages (up to 1000 volts DC in large installations) which are more dangerous than car electrics and normal (AC) electrical installations.
Parts of the system are always live while light falls on the panels (artificial lighting may generate small currents). Unless micro-inverters, or remotely controlled safety devices are used at panel level, it is only possible to shut off the building’s AC system, not the supply to the DC isolator.
… Noting that large building-mounted PV arrays may generate up to 1000 volts DC, a particular risk to fire-fighters, and identified overseas but without verified evidence, is the limited potential for electric shock from current being conducted down a fire-fighting water jet or if they cut through PV panels as part of their strategy to vent the fire.“
I guess this is Hot Off The Depressed.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Next door neighbours say “LOL”.
51.5°N isn’t the best place in on Earth to rely on solar power.
Anyway, I would not have put panels on that house. Or any
house, actually.
seems that the australians have elected another climate nutter
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/24/my-job-to-convince-them-steven-miles-knows-climate-change-is-coming-for-queensland
YouTube suggests various EV and ICE related videos for me. It came with this gem yesterday. It’s worth watching the whole thing. It’s Canadian so Canadian $.
Two cases of what appears to be minor damage resulting in a scraped vehicle
just to note, the price quoted in $Canadian of around $60000 equates to £36000+
This could be interesting
A PROJECT aiming to invest £10 million into the Highlands every year by bringing together two key industries could be “transformative”.
Highland Renewables, which counts SNP MSP Kate Forbes (below) among its ambassadors, is looking to help the tourism and renewable sectors work together to the benefit of both – and the wider community.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24008543.renewables-partnership-to-invest-10m-scottish-highlands-yearly/
Are they planning coach tours around the windmills?? I can’t see the current windmills being lovingly preserved as is the case with our centuries old windmills. Neither will offering views over a field of solar panels draw in the crowds.
I would suggest that the homeowners are not short of a bob or two looking at the size of the house. A recently built one too as is the neighbouring one. You wonder if there is a battery car in their car port.
‘Mr and Mrs Evans said they paid Green Energy £4,627 for a solar-heating system with 14 panels to be fitted on their roof at Evershot Hall in Tolleshunt Knights, near Maldon, in 2017.’
Seems like a very good price. Though I don’t know what ‘a solar-heating system’ is. Actually, impossibly low.
Installation was 4 years old at the time. Unlikely an installation error would take 4 years to spark.
Gamecock is contemplating a startup to produce FAKE solar panels. Low cost virtue signaling. No fire hazard. Won’t affect your insurance. Your neighbors will never know you aren’t wonderful. Battle with HOA over installation will be hilarious.
That’s a great idea
All that smoke – signalling their virtue Kimosabi.
Reminds me of a commercial years ago for open fire and smokeless coal – “Come Home To Real Fire”.
“Come Home To Real Fire”. Reminds me of the time when the Welsh Nationalist movement were getting rather aggressive.
Know in the services engineering trade as ‘smoke emitting diodes’, fire service’s normal response is to watch it burn rather than die from electric shock for their pains.