A national inspection program has uncovered problems with solar panel installation.
NATIONAL inspections of solar electricity generators have found that more than half the systems audited failed to comply with installation rules, with a significant number of systems shut down due to significant defects.
According to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, an inspection program that ran from October 2010 to August 2011 found the majority of systems audited from both the National Solar Schools Program and Solar Homes and Communities Plan failed to fully comply with installation procedures.
The federal numbers correlate with Western Australian state government’s own experience, showing a high level of poor compliance in the solar panel installation market, which has boomed in the past two years on the back of significant incentives.
The rapid deployment of solar panels has raised safety questions that have hallmarks of the pink batts scandal, another federal energy efficiency program where safety problems were linked to a government-fuelled installation boom.
The DCCEE inspection report shows about 440 systems were shut down after defects were discovered among the approximately 2,500 units reviewed.
However, a change in the way incorrect wiring of key parts was recognised as ‘dangerous’ meant that nearly 300 system shutdowns prior to April 1 last year were downgraded and recorded as simply not being fully compliant.
According to the more stringent, post-April 1 recognition of serious defects, 9 per cent of schools audited and 6 per cent of homes audited had serious defects that warranted a system shutdown.
Findings that would result in a system being shut down after April 1 included: system mounting not properly secured; exposed live wiring; loose connections; water ingress; or the system not being properly earthed.
In WA, the state’s own audit has found a high level of poor installation due, it appears, to a lack of expertise and skills to deal with the rush of work in the sector, which has put about 55,000 units on homes mainly in Perth since the beginning of August 2010.
The WA Department of Commerce’s EnergySafety division found half of the 260 units it audited were defective, with 12 per cent of these a potential fire risk.
It also stated that the DCCEE audit found 28 per cent of units in Victoria were deemed hazardous and shut down. The climate change department did not verify that figure when asked by WA Business News.
While installation standards may have suffered due to the boom-like conditions created by government incentives, industry insiders have also warned of the dangers of flooding the market with cheap units that have not been tested in local conditions.
A sharp fall in solar panel costs added to the short-lived boom in the photovoltaic market, a bubble which burst after August last year when the state government suspended its subsidies for new customers and put a cap of 150 megawatts on the renewable energy buyback scheme.
The boom in solar panel installations has also added to the budget pressure on state governments.
In WA, the state has added $46 million to the cost of the scheme, which is now forecast to cost $180 million.
But the issue is not just in Australia.
The world’s biggest market for solar panels, Germany, is bringing forward plans to to phase out support for the industry after rising costs to the state were recognised by the government as a threat to the economy.
Germany reportedly installed panels with 7.5 gigawatts of capacity last year alone.
“We need to think about how to get out of the current system,” Economics Minister Philipp Roesler told an energy conference recently, according to Dow Jones.
While the decision to scale back will impact on Germany as a major solar panel producer, many of its manufacturers have faced competition from a flood of cheaper Chinese imports.