Cape Town has sounded the alarm about shoddy solar panel installations.Rooftop systems were being poorly installed and connected to the power grid illegally, said mayoral spokesman Zara Nicholson.This was a "serious safety concern" for households and electricity department staff, and in the absence of national guidelines or accredited training for installers, the City of Cape Town has set down its own requirements, to be outlined today by mayor Patricia de Lille at the city council Energy Efficiency Forum.Since customers are allowed to feed excess electrical power back into the municipal grid, Nicholson says the requirements will ensure people do so in a "legal and responsible manner".Meanwhile, photovoltaic expert Mark Dawson, who owns clean energy company Heliogen, developed a carport that was meant to be a docking station where Joule electric cars could recharge using solar energy.After the Joule venture stalled, the carport now powers a neighbouring workshop in Montague Gardens, Cape Town, where mobile racking systems for cold storage are produced.The City of Cape Town has also unveiled its first solar-powered "smart bench" with free wi-fi, at the top of Adderley Street in the CBD...