Can solar power street lights and stop copper wire theft?

Last week in Okolona, four people were charged with stealing copper wire from AT&T cables. The brazen thieves were caught on camera using a car to yank the cables free. Crimes like this have become all too common in the United States, costing millions of dollars and putting lives at risk.

In January, the price of copper surged to $8,991.41 per metric ton, a 7.83% increase from the previous year (YCharts, 2025). As the price of copper rises, so too does copper wire theft, with thieves removing
live wires from street lights and public infrastructure and selling it for scrap.

It’s a problem that Los Angeles has been battling for years, costing the city millions of dollars and jeopardizing the safety and well-being of the community.

In 2024, Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de León put forward a motion to combat the problem, saying, “the city, quite literally, is being stripped for parts.”

An expensive problem

Copper wire theft is a multi-million-dollar problem in the United States. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), estimates that copper theft costs the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars every year in repairs, replacements, and lost productivity (NICB, 2023). The actual cost may be much more though, with the U.S. Department of Energy estimating that metal theft more broadly costs U.S. businesses around $1 billion per year.

According to council member de León’s motion, repair costs in Los Angeles exceeded $17 million last year. In Minnesota, MPR News reported that more than 2,000 streetlights in St. Paul went out because of copper wire theft, and the city had to spend about $1.1 million to have the gutted lamps rewired. St.Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said staff cannot keep up with repairs with the high rate of copper wire theft from public infrastructure.

“When lights are out, it impacts pedestrian and driver safety. It can contribute to an increase in crime, and oftentimes, live wires present dangers both to members of the public and first responders.”

Traci Park, Los Angeles City Council Member 

Lives on the line

But the cost of copper wire theft is not just financial. Highlighting the dangers, the NICB reported that in Illinois, a man was electrocuted when he attempted to steal copper wire from a live line. In Washington State, copper thefts near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport disabled the approach lighting for one of the airport’s runways.

In Los Angeles, entire communities have been plunged into darkness. In May last year, Crosstown reported that over 11,000 streetlight issues were recorded in the first three months of 2024, with many linked to copper wire theft. “When lights are out, it impacts pedestrian and driver safety. It can contribute to an increase in crime,” Los Angeles City Council member Traci Park told Crosstown. “Oftentimes, live wires present dangers both to members of the public and first responders.”

In St. Paul, Minnesota a fatal crash that took the lives of a man and his dog on Christmas Eve was blamed on copper wire theft. CBS News reported that people were furious because the fatal crash could
have been prevented if a nearby streetlight had been working.

Neighbors say they witness copper wire thefts firsthand and St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said, “this tragedy is a stark reminder that copper wire theft dangerously darkens streets and puts us all at risk.”

Cracking down on the copper wire trade

With law enforcement officers already stretched, catching copper wire thieves in the act is challenging. Instead, some local authorities are tackling the problem by clamping down on the scrap metal recyclers who buy the stolen wires.

Last Year, the LA Times reported that Los Angeles council President Paul Krekorian and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced a joint venture to target metal recyclers and anyone who receives the
stolen material, notifying them that they must comply with copper-sale laws.

The goal, Feldstein Soto said is to help “eliminate the market for stolen copper.” Krekorian added: “The business owners who trade in stolen copper are just as guilty as the thieves who steal it and we’re putting them on notice that they’ll be held responsible.”

It remains to be seen whether the tough talk and new initiatives like these will make a difference.

ABOVE: Solar street lamps: a sustainable solution

Can solar power street lights and solve the problem?

There is another solution however that’s easy to implement and sustainable too. Unlike conventional street lights which are connected to the electricity grid by copper wires, solar powered street lights operate independently and completely off-grid. They generate their own electricity from the sun during the day, storing it to provide clean, sustainable power at night. With no copper wire service connections needed, solar street lamps eliminate the copper wire theft problem altogether.

Local authorities are beginning to catch on. In January last year another Los Angeles Council member, Heather Hutt introduced a motion for the Bureau of Street Lighting to investigate the feasibility of replacing copper wires with solar street lamps.

“The use of solar-powered lights could reduce the costs to power the city’s expansive streetlight network and minimize the impacts of vandalism due to copper wire and power theft, providing more reliability to the network,” she said.

David Pineda, the US Office Manager of Leadsun, a leading supplier of solar street lights agreed, emphasizing the role solar street lamps have to play in tackling the copper wire theft problem. “At Leadsun, we believe solar power street lights are the future. Our lighting solutions eliminate the need for vulnerable copper wiring, providing a cost-effective, theft-proof, and sustainable lighting alternative,” he said.

Although solar street lamps are an appealing solution to the copper wire theft problem, it will take many years to replace all of the conventional grid-powered street lights in the United States. Some say this may never happen. Until it does, copper wire theft will be an on-going issue, requiring urban planners and policymakers to find other solutions to the crisis.