Citing integrity, quality and safety concerns, Federal Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor has reportedly requested a review of Australia’s rooftop solar sector.
The ABC reports the inquiry will be carried out by the Clean Energy Regulator, which is the body overseeing programs under Australia’s Renewable Energy Target. This includes the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), the mechanism that has provided Australia’s hugely popular “solar rebate”.
Further details of the inquiry are expected to be announced today, but it appears it will delve into a wide range of issues including:
- Accreditation of solar installers
- High pressure and other shonky sales tactics
- Financing practices e.g. buy now, pay later schemes
- Installation quality and safety
- Fraudulent Small-scale Technology Certificate claims (STCs form the basis of Australia’s solar subsidy)
Approved Solar Retailer Program Under The Microscope?
It seems the Clean Energy Council’s Approved Solar Retailer may also get some attention.
Part of becoming a CEC Approved Solar Retailer involves a business meeting requirements set out in the Solar Retailer Code of Conduct. The Code’s reauthorisation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is currently in progress, with the ACCC publishing its draft determination last week.
Aside from the ACCC proposing an independent appeals process for businesses that apply to become signatories to the Code but are rejected, nothing else will need to change at this stage – even though other important issues were raised during the consultation process. The ACCC expects to announce its final decision in October.
A Busy Time Ahead For The Clean Energy Regulator
Given the Clean Energy Regulator will be tasked with the Taylor-triggered review, it should be a thorough process – well, as thorough as it can be given the lead-up time and two months the ABC says will be provided for the exercise. But perhaps the Regulator was given the heads-up a while back and has been preparing. Minister Taylor say the Regulator will also be able to draw on the support of his department.
How Minister Taylor interprets and communicates the findings of the Clean Energy Regulator to the public will be interesting.
Back in 2018, Minister Taylor seized on an audit report that found a significant proportion of installations were substandard; without acknowledging a substandard rating is typically because one or two relatively minor defects not affecting performance are found in the installation.
Any level of substandard solar installations is undesirable and there needs to be zero tolerance for shonky solar businesses, installers and unsafe installations1 – but amplifying and distorting things isn’t particularly helpful to anyone. To be fair, it appears the wording of the report Minister Taylor based his alarm on was somewhat inaccurate.
Hopefully some good will come from this inquiry. We’ll update this post with further information – or publish another news item – when more detail is available.
Footnotes
- Current DC isolator requirements play a significant role in terms of unsafe installations ↩
About Michael Bloch
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Perhaps I am being overly cynical, but i can’t see Well-Done’s motivations as anything but hampering the renewable energy sector.
I’m not entirely convinced myself. I guess we must just be bad people with no faith in people’s good intentions. Or maybe we’re simply capable of learning from past events.
I have not seen good intent from the minister so I too am very apprehensive as to the motivations of this inquiry. Could it be a fishing expedition looking for reasons to hamper the economics and growth of the home solar market? he may move to overregulate the sector and slow the rollout to more homes. Don’t the states get a role in regulating this sector? Do EV’s fit into this inquiry?
Reply to Ronald B
Retarding renewables take-up would perhaps aid the cause of nuclear. However the eventual actual implementation of nuclear is also retarded, if overseas experience is any guide.
It does seem to me that slowly but surely more and more people in OZ are becoming genuinely concerned about environmental issues. Now that so many are unfortunately out of work due to COVID related influences, that does leave people more free to think about other things,
I’m somewhat cynical myself about the proposed inquiry. Depending on how the inquiry findings are publicly presented in their final report and which findings are emphasized, I suspect that ‘negative’ aspects about solar will be seized upon by some.
But, its pointless to overly speculate, People do tend to ‘vote with their wallets’, and once the initial fanfare is over, the Inquiry will be filed with all the earlier ones that relate in some way to ‘energy’.
To be fair though, it’s a good idea to put yourself in the shoes of some of the Parliamentarians. Some decisions are very complex overall and hard to make. What would you or I do ourselves if confronted with a ‘choice’ of that type and also had to factor into things that the final decision potentially impacts the lives of some millions of people.
And if you’re a career pollie, then you have a duty to take into account the specific wishes of the people in the electorate you represent.es
Where the enquiry into the 800 deaths directly linked to Coal power stations in Australia. Not to mention the much greater number maimed and injured?