Western Australia is considering following NSW’s lead in audits of rooftop solar panels to crack down on shoddy workmanship and Queensland has studied warnings of potential dangers from incorrect wiring of home solar systems.
WA Commerce Minister Simon O’Brien said WA Consumer Protection had taken more than 50 complaints against the solar industry and more than 300 inquiries, with most consumers worried about unreasonable delays in installations and others citing misleading claims made about cost savings.
“The results from the NSW audit will enable other electrical regulators to learn from their finding and target the audit inspections in WA,” Mr. O’Brien said.
This week, NSW announced statewide checks of solar panel installations, warning that 6000 of the 120,000 home solar-power systems installed across the state could have serious problems, based on an early sample audit.
A spokeswoman for Queensland’s Electricity Safety Office said it had warned the industry in December of potential dangers from badly-wired isolator switches for solar panels and from incorrect shut-down procedures. She said the office had issued enforcement notices due to non-compliance in four of the 68 photovoltaic system audits conducted, but said no immediate electrical safety risk had been identified.
South Australia found one non-compliant photovoltaic system out of 50 audited between November 2009 and March this year.
SA Energy Minister Michael O’Brien said he understood the federal renewable energy regulator would soon embark on a new national audit which could see up to 800 rooftop solar systems checked in his state.
Victoria is awaiting the results from the federal inspection regime but its electrical safety watchdog identified “several procedural errors” last year in its own audit of small-scale solar installations, a government spokesman said. So far there was “no evidence of any safety issues arising”, he said.
