Wisconsin Supreme Court Sees the Light: Nuisance Remedy Granted for Obstruction of Solar Access

Until relatively recently, legislators and legal commentators gave little thought to providing legal protections for a solar energy user's interest in unobstructed access to sunlight. In the years following the 1974 Arab oil embargo, however, Congress enacted several programs to provide incentives for solar use in order to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil,' and legal commentators began critically to evaluate various statutory and common law methods available to protect solar access. 2 In addition, several states enacted legislation requiring consideration of solar energy options in local zoning and land use planning,3 or establishing procedures to describe and record express ease-