Criminal Charges Laid Over Alleged Solar Scheme Shonkiness

Multiple charges have been laid against an electrical company in relation to solar power system installation documentation.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator (CER) announced yesterday its investigation into the yet-to-be-named company revealed allegedly false or misleading documents under Australia’s Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).

The SRES is the mechanism that provides for Australia’s solar panel “rebate” through the issuing of Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) for eligible solar systems. These certificates have a value that is traded for an up-front discount on the purchase of a system, with the certificates created and then cashed in by the retailer/installer or their agent once the installation has been performed.

The Regulator states on 14 occasions between March and July 2019 the company provided STC assignment forms alleged to have contained  false information concerning the identity of the installer of the solar systems.

“The Clean Energy Regulator expects information provided to it to be true and correct, has zero tolerance for wilful fraud or non-compliance and will take enforcement action where that is warranted under our Compliance, Education and Enforcement Policy,” states the CER.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter, which is to be mentioned in the ACT Magistrates Court on March 17 – tomorrow.

Regulator Now Has Sharper Teeth

As in any industry, there are great, good, not-so-good and simply crappy solar businesses.

In 2020, Federal Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor tasked the Regulator with carrying out a review of Australia’s rooftop solar sector in relation to the SRES. The results of the review were released in September last year, which contained 13 recommendations. The Federal Government agreed to 12 of those, with one recommendation noted as work already under way.

You can learn more about the Clean Energy Regulator’s boosted powers here. In short, the rejiggered regulations provide the agency additional authority to disqualify installers and designers, retailers and components from participating in the SRES on the grounds of dodginess or shoddy quality. The new regulations will also help prevent “phoenixing”, whereby a solar retailer known for crappy installations or other unethical behaviour shuts up shop and then starts up again under a different company name.

In other relatively recent compliance news from the Regulator, last month the agency reported another investigation resulted in the successful prosecution of a Tasmanian solar panel installer who was convicted for providing a false system owner signature on a Small-scale Technology (STC) Certificate assignment form. In addition to the conviction, a good behaviour bond and court costs were imposed, and the installer’s accreditation was cancelled by the Clean Energy Council.

While both these cases are paperwork and rebate related, it raises the question – if a firm is purposely engaging in shonky stuff on that side of things, what is the quality of their installations and customer service like?

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