Grand Theft Solar

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Lincoln Dahl, managing director of a company that markets alternative energies to African businesses, recently stepped into a used solar panel shop in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He had come in to scope out his competition's wares. A few of the shop's solar panels looked stolen, still bearing the nameplates of their original owners. "Theft is a problem," Dahl says. "We find that to be a compliment--that means that there's a demand."

After years of slow growth in solar use, a rash of solar panel theft on five continents suggests that the alternative power source may finally be catching on. Missing panels have been reported this year in Australia, Spain, and the United States, …