While NSW continues to give leads on poorly manufactured solar panels, Western Australia considered following it as more and more complaints and inquiries against the solar industry continues to rise from 50 and 300 respectively.
Meanwhile, Queensland studied warnings of potential dangers from incorrect wiring of home solar systems.
WA Commerce Minister Simon O’Brien said consumers are 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,” O’Brien added.
The Herald Sun exposed that based on a sample assessment, NSW declared that half of the 120,000 home solar-power systems installed across the state could have serious problems. Furthermore, NSW announced statewide checks of solar panel installations shall be conducted.
In December, a spokeswoman for Queensland’s Electricity Safety Office said it had warned the industry of potential dangers from badly-wired isolator switches for solar panels and from incorrect shut-down procedures.
The spokeswoman accounted that the office had issued enforcement notices due to non-compliance in four of the 68 photovoltaic system audits conducted. In return, no immediate electrical safety risk had been identified.
Between November 2009 and March this year, South Australia found one non-compliant photovoltaic system out of 50 that were audited.
SA Energy Minister Michael O’Brien relayed that the federal renewable energy regulator would soon embark on a new national audit which could check 800 rooftop solar systems in his state.
“Several procedural errors” describe Victoria’s waiting time for the results of its own audit of small-scale solar installation from the federal inspection regime.
