Solar panels wreak havoc in the UK, lighting a fire (literally) every other day

 

By Olivia Murray

As if we needed a new reason to just say “no” to solar panels, here it is: According to new findings presented by a global insurance group, solar panels are responsible for a substantial surge in rooftop fires. From a report at The Telegraph on the matter:

UK fire services faced a blaze involving a solar panel once every two days in 2024, according to data gathered by insurance company QBE, marking a 60pc increase in the past two years.

A 60% increase?! A house fire literally every other day? That is actual insanity. But there’s more to the story, and that is that the fires are actually outpacing new installations:

Adrian Simmonds, a senior QBE risk manager, said: ‘Solar is essential to the UK’s clean energy transition but the rapid pace of deployment is raising risk concerns.

‘Our analysis shows fires involving solar panels have risen at twice the rate of new installations over the past two years.’

There’s two considerations when looking at the “why” behind the massive increase in infernos: First, the leftist government’s “rapid pace of deployment” under Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband includes skipping over “safety regulations”:

Mr Miliband’s recent Solar Roadmap … proposes minimising planning requirements, which can incorporate safety regulations.

Obviously, a major issue, but there’s also this: The government subsidizes the installation, but does not subsidize their upkeep, which is quite expensive for the average person. (Consider that many of the subsidized solar panels are going onto low-income housing—people who already don’t have a lot of money.) A quick internet search yielded that typical annual maintenance cost in the states can run anywhere between $300 and $850. And, from the QBE risk manager: “Safe solar panel installation and maintenance are essential to reducing fires.” Per the Telegraph article, the most common “source of faults” were the inverters, which require proper ventilation—this is where the maintenance comes in. All that being said, it just goes back to the “right-wing” gripe that solar panels are not affordable (a fact which should be obvious as soon as you see they’re subsidized), and therefore, are not ready for mass adoption, or the market.

The article also reports two other reasons: “Poorly trained installers” and the lithium-ion batteries used to store the energy. Do those “poorly trained installers” happen to be third world, low-IQ foreigners who lack the capacity to function in the first world? I’d wager so, because as Google’s AI reports: “Foreign-born workers made up an increasing share of ‘green’ employment growth….” And this, from the Center for European Reform:

Between 2011 and 2019, foreign-born workers made up about a third of total new green employment. There were higher shares of employment growth in construction, energy, and occupations in which over one-third of working time is spent on green tasks. After the pandemic and Brexit, foreign-born workers took an even greater share of green employment growth overall.

When considering public policy, our electeds should be running ideas and proposals through a cost-benefit analysis, or at the very least, once the idea has been implemented, taking a look at the net gain or loss. Why is that so much to ask?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/11/solar_panels_wreak_havoc_in_the_uk_lighting_a_fire_literally_every_other_day.html