As solar has grown in popularity, and people are becoming more and more aware of the value in solar panels, owners have had to become aware of how to protect their panels from theft.

Solar panel theft has been a growing problem in recent years. Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have written about the issue extensively, reporting stories of homeowners who had multiple panels stolen off their roofs while they slept and bandits pedaling panels stolen off a tollbooth for just $100 on eBay.

The Clean Energy Cooperative in Carbondale, Colo., erected extra fencing and installed alarms around its community solar array after panels were stolen there last fall. Schools in the Roaring Fork Valley also reported thousands of dollars worth of stolen solar equipment.

Until now, protecting panels has primarily depended on fencing and alarm systems.

There are a lot of problems with using an alarm system to protect a solar investment, said Bryce Campbell, owner and founder of Bryce Fasteners. Chief among those problems is that you have to deal with finding the culprit, getting the panel back and prosecuting the thief.

Campbell has developed a solution that he thinks will change the solar security scene forever. His company, Bryce Fasteners, has teamed with SnapNRack to protect a new installation in Hawaii.

Campbell has developed a special fastener that features a unique key-entry lock. He said the history of screws and nuts and bolts is steeped in security concerns. There are about a dozen fasteners that were designed to be tamper-proof because they were relatively customized. Today, they’ve become rather common, and where you used to have to special order the drivers to install and uninstall the fasteners from the manufacturer, just about every construction worker, mechanic, plumber, electrician and thief has the drivers in their toolkits these days, Campbell said.

One day, a hospital administrator called Campbell, who manufacturers screws and fasteners. The hospital had just lost $40,000 worth of computer equipment to thieves and the administrator asked if he could make something custom just for them.

Since then, Campbell has turned out hundreds of locked fasteners featuring keyed entries.

“It’s perfect for solar panels,” Campbell said. “To get them off, you can do it, but you’ll sit there messing with it for half an hour and then have to go on to the next one and spend another half hour on it.”

His fasteners make stealing solar panels a lengthier and more labor-intensive activity, which in turn makes it less profitable and riskier, he said.

“People in the solar industry are just starting to catch on,” Campbell said. His company’s relationship with solar installers is growing as they seek new ways to protect panels from theft.

Image courtesy of Bryce Fastener.