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Birds and solar panels.....

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Mark Tilden

3/10/2026 10:46 PM

Hey Friends:

For those of you with solar panels in the hardtop and/or pilothouse roof, what has been your experience with birds on them? Mine has been TERRIBLE. The seagulls LOVE our solar panels. I suspect they are warm, which they like and they are large flat surfaces where they can drop their shells to break them open and then eat and relieve themselves.

There were times when I would get them thoroughly cleaned off and within a matter of a few days they would be just covered in bird sh** and broken shells. It was almost not worth cleaning them off. (See the attached "before" photo).

A friend suggested that I find a way to string fishing line across the panels about 6" above the panels as that will keep the birds from landing on the panels. I had to try!

It wasn't a simple project. My rigid panels are bolted to a pair of 4' long aluminum angle brackets (one on either side) that we welded some "tabs" on so that the tabs fit into standard bimini hardware clamped around stainless tubes running across the hardtop. Here's an article I wrote for PassageMaker several years ago with photos of the install details:

https://passagemaker.com/lifestyle/the-sound-of-silence-2022/

What I decided to do was to un-mount the solar panels, remove the aluminum angle brackets on either side of each panel and have some aluminum threaded "coupling nuts" (essentilly 1" long nuts) welded along each side of the aluminum angle brackets. Welding the aluminum was tricky, but I have a friend here who is a very good welder and he was able to do it. We put 5 coupling nuts vertically on each of the rails.

Once the coupling nuts were welded on to each of the angle brackets, we re-anodized them, and re-installed them on the panels. I bought a bunch of pre-cut 6" long 1/4-20 aluminum threaded rods and threaded them into the coupling nuts, so that the threaded rods stick up about 6" above the panels on either side.

I used a pair of nuts with a pair of washer sandwiched between them at the top of each stud. Then I ran some 40 lb test Flourocarbon leader (the Flourocarbon line is supposed to stand up to UV much better than regularmonofilament) across the studs in a "Z" pattern. See the attached photo of one of the panels with the line installed on the studs.

It was a bit laborious, but I did this on all six of our 400-watt solar panels. Then three of my awesome friends and neighbors came and helped me lift the panels back up on to the hardtop and pilothouse roof and re-mount them.

It's still a little early to declare a complete victory, but preliminary results have been very encouraging. The birds seem to pretty quickly learn that my solar panels are no longer a safe "landing zone". At least a couple of times while I was aboard, I heard a bird try to land and obviously get caught up in the fishing line and take back off! YES!

One of the big advantages to mounting the fishing line this way is that it swivels up with the solar panels when we lift them up on one side to clean under them (See the photos in the PassageMaker article).

So.....if you're struggling with bird "residue" on your solar panels, this might be a viable solution. It's not a trivial project, but the results so far would suggest it was worth it!

Mark Tilden

Selene 60 "Koinonia"

Ron Sernau

3/11/2026 3:21 PM

The gulls are resillient but they don’t have a chance against Mark Tilden.

Tony Bale

3/11/2026 10:23 PM

Hi Mark

Thanks for sharing.

We too have had similar experiences with seagulls and various other avian species leaving their droppings on our solar panels. We have 4 panels totalling 1600W on our flybridge roof, and apart from the lack of any panels on our pilothouse roof, our set up looks similar to yours.

Our solution, which has proved to be very effective for us, is via bird deterring rotors. We have two of these mounted in the gap forward of the radar mast in between the two sets of panels. These rotors were supplied by "Bird Busta" here in Australia.

See pic attached, and link to the supplier.

https://birdcontrolaustralia.com.au/blog/the-effectiveness-of-the-bird-busta-bird-sweeps-for-bird-control-on-boats-and-beyond/?srsltid=AfmBOork68xnEW4R_X1UqXvdWM8DQIy1dEPJQyoxXgzwDoheEuR5xUKE

There are similar products available from other manufacturers.

We have also tried the solar powered ultrasonic devices, and have had mixed results with these, depending on the mounting location and the frequencies selected.

Since installing the two rotors, we haven't had any major issues requiring us to clean bird droppings from the panels, and the rotors don't seem to cause any issues with shading on the panels.

I'd be interested to hear how your static lines perform over time. It looks like an elegant and low-maintenance solution.

Cheers

Tony and Cheryl Bale

"Kianda"

Selene 5592

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