APEX, N.C. — Aaron Snead didn’t want to be reliant on gas for energy, so in 2017 he began the process of installing solar panels on his home.
It didn’t go as he expected.
What You Need To Know
The Supreme Court of North Carolina ruled that homeowners in HOA communities can install solar panels on the front of their homes
The placement of panels can't prevent "reasonable use"
Other homeowners, like Aaron Snead, had fought for the same right in their neighborhoods
Because of his HOA, he wasn’t allowed to install the panels on the front or side of his home, which is where he got the most sunlight. Instead, he had to install them on the back of his home, so, he decided to work with his neighbors to change things.
“Over the course of about a month, I walked most of the neighborhood, not most of the neighborhood, about 125 homes to get signatures. Saw there was a 95% approval rate. From that point, we went to the board and showed these signatures,” Snead said. “They then petitioned the neighborhood. The neighborhood came back with a majority vote of making the change. At that point they ensued the change in the neighborhood to allow solar on the front and side of the home as long as the surrounding neighbors approve.”
The official rule change didn’t come though until earlier this year, years after he began the process.
The results, however, are already visible.
Walking around his Apex neighborhood, you can see signs for solar installation and solar panels on the front of homes.
It was a long process, but one that other homeowners won’t have to go through.
In June, in a case not related to Snead, the Supreme Court of North Carolina ruled in favor of a homeowner who installed solar panels on the front of his home.
The court ruled that an HOA can’t prevent a homeowner from installing solar panels on the front or side of their home unless it’s specifically stated, or if it prevents reasonable use.
“Yeah it’s great,” Snead said. “It was a lot of time and effort, right? Forty hours walking the street to get signatures only to then wait for another approval to come through. So I think this is great. I mean it moves things in the right direction. You can see where the industries are moving, from solar panels and other EV cars, that there’s a need and a desire for this.”
Snead is passionate about clean energy and helping others find the right way and right company for them.
Now that his neighborhood and others can move more toward solar, he wants to make sure others who can’t aren’t paying the cost.
“Working with others in the community, like the mayor, he’s aware of this in the Town of Apex,” Snead said. “He wants clean energy from when I’m talking with him, but he also wants to make sure it’s reasonable, and that we’re not raising the rates of solar when it comes to the less fortunate or maybe someone that can’t get a loan for solar.”