Solar panels and wildlife

zinglefiffy · Jul 6, 2019

We have solar panels on our shopping list. We also have a cat who thinks the Cali and the neighbours cars have been parked to provide him with premium sun-lounging facilities. in fact, on arriving home with new cali, by the time I'd entered the house and the kids had come out to have a look, it already had muddy pawprints up the windscreen and a very pleased moggy on its roof.

So this poses a question - are the solar panels robust enough to cope with this behaviour? Will they deal with:

1) being lounged on by a lion-like domestic cat
2) potential scratches from cat-claws
3) muddy pawprints etc requiring anything more cleaning than rain would provide?

WelshGas · Jul 7, 2019

zinglefiffy said:
We have solar panels on our shopping list. We also have a cat who thinks the Cali and the neighbours cars have been parked to provide him with premium sun-lounging facilities. in fact, on arriving home with new cali, by the time I'd entered the house and the kids had come out to have a look, it already had muddy pawprints up the windscreen and a very pleased moggy on its roof.

So this poses a question - are the solar panels robust enough to cope with this behaviour? Will they deal with:

1) being lounged on by a lion-like domestic cat
2) potential scratches from cat-claws
3) muddy pawprints etc requiring anything more cleaning than rain would provide?

As they are Black they will get hotter than the surrounding roof so may not be his preferred spot.
Our cat goes on the roof, but steers clear of the Solar panel, even walks around it.

Roger Donoghue · Jul 7, 2019

The panels we use are held taught over the roof so number 1) is no problem. They don't flex once fitted,

2) scratches - not great if they get through the thick plastic layer, but cats don't scratch flat surfaces , they scratch vertical surfaces to keep their claws under control. My parents cat slept on their BMW soft top for years and the only issue was cat hairs. Not a scratch (cats don't use their claws to climb smooth surfaces either)

3) just wipe over before going away. It's just mud after all. Rain isn't great at cleaning cars, as my Landover will testify too