THE financial cost to the state of promoting solar panels on rooftops may have been more fully quantified in the recent mid-year budget review, but the longer-term liability for householders remains unknown after a recent audit found safety problems with many installations.
Two days before Christmas, the Department of Commerce’s EnergySafety division issued a safety warning after an audit of 260 grid-connected photovoltaic systems found half were defective. Of these, 12 per cent were deemed “a potential fire risk if switch operated at full load”.
More than 75,000 of these units are now installed in Western Australian homes and small businesses, mostly in the Perth area, compared with just 20,670 at July 31 2010.
The Sustainable Energy Association said that, based on its own analysis and other research, the department’s audit sample was too small and the results had been blown out of proportion.
“… for a report that was based on work commenced in June 2011 to be issued on the day before the Christmas break to offer advice that has alarmed customers about a potential but low probability risk to contact their supplier is alarmist and irresponsible,” SEA chief executive Ray Wills said in an announcement.
WA Business News reported solar panel safety concerns in July after the NSW government issued a warning.
That news report followed concerns raised in confidence by industry players that government incentives had sparked a gold rush in the sector, which was leaving a legacy of poor installation by cowboy operators and an influx of cheap products untested in Australian conditions.
WA Business News found four structure fires in the past three years had been blamed on solar installations, including a house fire in Swanbourne six months ago.
In July, EnergySafety’s publication Electrical Focus, a bulletin for licensed electrical operators, said evidence from audits in the eastern states, especially Victoria, “revealed some worrying safety issues, including with a percentage of these systems” due to incorrect wiring and the installation of the wrong isolation equipment.
EnergySafety described circumstances where incorrect wiring of certain devices was a “serious fire risk”.
The division’s bulletin said a high percentage of installations in Victoria audited by the federal Department for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency had incorrect isolating switches installed, a common problem among the 28 per cent of units inspected and deemed to be hazardous and subsequently shut down.