Pigeons under solar panels

[Rickenbacker]

There have been a few posts about pigeons and solar panels, but most are fairly old. I've seen a pigeon crawl under my solar panels, and on some days I can hear them late in the evening. I assume they've decided it is a good place to sleep at night. Should I worry? If I should, what have others done?

[RIT]

Once they move in you have to act as they will not leave on their own.

By the time I had the ones under my panels evicted there was 19 living there and it took a good few months for them to all move on.

Most companies who deal with this type of issue are local so you will have to phone around, but the company I used does have some photos on their web site of their solution

        https://www.aandhpestcontrol.co.uk/pages/solar-panel-protection

The galvanised mesh they use has the advantage that it is not noticeable from a distance and still allows rain and air to move around underneath the panels. Some other solutions I were quoted on were not so nice.


The next few months are a good time to act as there will be fewer chicks that get killed during the install process.

[MR GUS]

Was it fixed via a dab of a goopy mastic or something on the edges of the panels? curious for all the retro fixes.

[RIT]

Was it fixed via a dab of a goopy mastic or something on the edges of the panels? curious for all the retro fixes.

They were a bit more advanced than that.

- the metal mesh was cut and shaped to go around the corners of the panels. The result was a lot of overlap between sections of the mesh and no joins at the corners.
- the sections of mesh were wire tied together.
- metal screw clips were used to bind the mesh to the edge of the panels.

The aim was to allow the whole thing to be reversible and reinstallable if access to the panels is ever required.