Solar Panel Pigeon Protection in Derby - Ten-Year Guarantee
Solar panels are a common sight these days, but way back in 2011 Derby hit the national news as the Toyota plant in Derbyshire went solar, one of the first companies to do so in the UK, installing a solar array of some 17,000 panels in partnership with British gas to help power the Japanese car manufacturer’s operations.
Since then the government rules on grants and solar feed in tariffs have changed much, but the solar panel industry has adapted to the changes and householders have turned to solar panel companies in Derby to help them power their own homes.
The figures can still stack up, but only if the panels are working efficiently. And one thing that can be a problem in that area is that pigeons take a real shine to them. Pigeons breed all year round in the UK and if you were to design the ideal place for a female pigeon to rear her young, it would be hard to come up with a better location than under solar panels which provide a warm, sheltered and secure spot high up and safe from predators like cats and magpies.
Pigeons and solar panels go together like Ant and Dec, and if you already have solar panels on your home, chances are you are going to be ‘Googling’ solar panel pigeon proofing companies in Derby sooner or later.
Once the birds are there, they are a real pain, creating a great deal of noise, and mess. One pigeon will ‘deposit’ some 25lb of guano a year, and any amount of that on the panels themselves is going to shade the photovoltaic cells that do all the hard work, and make the panels less efficient than they should be. Plus the uric acid in pigeon droppings can corrode fittings and panels over time.
Pigeon guano is pretty nasty stuff all told. It’s a vector for some very unpleasant bacteria and disease that can quite easily pass to humans and make us very ill. Local authorities classify pigeon guano as hazardous waste. To clean it up you need the correct PPE and to dispose it you need a special waste carrier’s licence (which we have). If you have pigeons under solar panels, they create a host of problems and the situation needs resolving by a professional, long term.
Here at British Bird Control we can help through our specialist Derby solar panel pigeon proofing service. We know just how stop the pigeons getting underneath solar panels, so that they will move on, long term.
We offer a gilt-edged TEN-YEAR GUARANTEE with all our solar panel pigeon protection work in Derbyshire and we cover most of the surrounding area including Burton on Trent, Sudbury, Ashbourne, Cheadle and Matlock.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does solar panel pigeon protection cost? solar panels?
At British Bird Control we like to keep things nice and simple when it comes to the cost of solar panel pigeon protection, and we are very competitive indeed on price. Our cost structure is largely based on whether or not our operatives will require scaffolding to carry out the work safely.
We can usually work this out from a telephone consultation and a quick look at your property on Google Earth, and can often provide you with a quotation over the phone. We require a 25% deposit to book in. Call us on 0800 327 7293.
Pigeons are creating a mess on my solar panels and roof tiles. Can you clean this?
Providing you can provide an in-reach external tap, the work includes free-of-charge removal of mess and fouling from inside the gutters beneath the installation where we can get ladders to the gutters and where it’s safe to do so, and also a rinse down (not a full clean) of the panel surfaces.
This should shift any light build-up of fouling and dirt, but if you have a heavy build-up of fouling, algae and/or lichens on the panel surfaces a specialist chemical clean would be needed and this is not something we can offer as a pest control company.
We do not clean roof tiles which again is a specialist service and take no responsibility for blocked downpipes which can become clogged up with a build-up of fouling and are not able to help with this as freeing it requires specialist equipment. We treat where nesting has been going on regardless of whether we can safely get all the nests out with biocide.
Are pigeons affecting the performance of my solar panels?
If you have birds getting under solar panels and believe this could be adversely affecting the performance of the panels and the very reason you got them in the first place, please let us know during the telephone consultation.
We have teams that can evaluate and fix solar panel performance on the spot, but if this is the case we may need to make a separate visit before the solar panel proofing takes place to check whether there is a short circuit, broken solar panel inverter, or other electrical issue which would make it dangerous to be on the roof until fixed. Please also let us know if you think there are dead adult pigeons under solar panels when we talk on the phone – they may have been electrocuted!
