By ROBYN SIDERSKY, The Patriot-News Follow 
View full sizeJohn C. Whitehead, The Patriot-NewsView of two solar panels getting installed a few feet from a neighbor's back yard in East Pennsboro Twp. When Carrie Lewis looks out the windows of her East Pennsboro Twp. home, it`s difficult to escape the two arrays of solar panels in her neighbor`s yard.
She has nothing against solar energy, but she`s worried the blaze and the passion from the 10-foot-wide panels might hurt her fence.
All over the country, people are installing energy alternatives like solar panels. But the motion to green energy has been too quick for many municipalities to prevent their rules up to date.
East Pennsboro Twp. is one of the few municipalities in the midstate to compose an ordinance on solar energy systems. That ordinance just had its maiden test.
It failed.
The panels - installed about 15 feet from Lewis` property line with the license of the township - point at Lewis`s bedroom window. The proprietor of the panels didn`t return phone messages seeking comment over 3 years this week. A knocking on the door went unanswered.
The township wrote the regulation in February, with the model suggested by the state`s Department of Environmental Protection.
The pattern is alleged to provide municipalities with a situation to go and then set it based on their needs, said John Repetz, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.
"I guess maybe we gave license for something we didn`t know enough about yet," said township manager Bob Gill.
The expanding use of solar panels is sending waves of controversy about the nation.
A California couple tested that state`s right-to-sunlight law in 2008. After installing solar panels, they sued their neighbors whose redwoods cast shadows on the panels. The redwood owners were needed to cut about 4 feet from their trees.
Last month, the East Pennsboro board of commissioners put a temporary closure to solar energy systems being installed. The moratorium requires the commissioners to survey each petition for a permit to establish the systems until it can recommend appropriate changes to the ordinance.
Lewis said earlier the regulation is rewritten, she thinks the card should seek expert advice on the effects of solar panels.
Other municipalities have been more hesitant about setting their own standards for solar energy systems.
In April, the Hampden Twp. commissioners discussed adopting a solar ordinance but has since put the mind on hold.
Township manager Michael Gossert said they`ve held off on writing a new regulation for the systems because they`re still researching how to get past potential conflicts.
"It`s hard to speak near because you`re talking about a construction on somebody`s property," he said.
Dickinson Twp. is in the operation of composition a solar ordinance, with the spirit to get a proactive approach, township manager Ron Reeder said.
The town already has several solar systems installed of varying sizes.
"All we`re trying to do is avoid future problems with them by making sure how they`re leaving to be," Reeder said.
Reeder said they need to prevent neighbors from feuding and save everybody as glad as possible. The planning commission has consulted other solar ordinances for guidance over the last six months.
West Hanover Twp. adopted its ordinance on solar panels in 2009, and Robert Leonard, the township`s zoning administrator said they haven`t run into any problems.
Leonard said in the final year, they`ve had seven or eight residents install them on their homes, more than twice the count put on in 2009.
The town did, however, add language that said no adjacent property owner would be needed to cut or transfer any plants or structures to hold the panels.
So if, say, a tree grows in the way of the panels, there`s nothing the town can do about the tree.
East Pennsboro`s standards require that the panels be 15 feet from the property line and no more than 18 feet high. Panels cannot be in the front yard and cannot gallop past the front wall of the building.
In the final year, the stake in installing solar energy systems has grown, thanks to government incentives.
As of June, Cumberland County has 49 residents using the state rebate - the 7th most in the state. Lancaster is number 3 on the name with 104 installations, and York County is number five, with 65 installations, according to the Section of Environmental Protection.
Lewis said she has a job with companies that establish the systems targeting homeowners.
"I see the trust to decrease energy bills, but when does saving energy overtake the power to love my family and back yard?" she said.
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