Call to protect consumers from the solar ‘shonks’ and failed businesses

Brody said the main change since the report’s publication was that Victoria had banned unsolicited sales, such as door-to-door sales, for businesses that want to claim rebates through Solar Victoria.

The other significant shift was the expansion of the Clean Energy Regulator’s powers in April to cover solar retailers for the first time. The regulator has the power to bar companies from participating in the federal solar rebate scheme, which can slash thousands of dollars off the price of a typical household solar system.

A spokesperson for the Clean Energy Regulator said it had not yet removed any companies from the solar rebate scheme, but had seen improved performance by many retailers and installers who were previously on the “watch list”.

Both Gladman and Brody advocate for solar businesses to be brought into the state ombudsman schemes, which cover traditional electricity retailers such as AGL and Origin but not solar. This would give consumers a cost-effective way to resolve disputes.

Engineer and inventor Saul Griffith said the consumer protection issues were a roadblock to the continued growth of the solar industry and other renewables.

“It’s definitely a concern and it’s going to become multiplied, when you add the battery, the vehicle charger, the electric hot water and the electric kitchen,” Griffith said.

Griffith, a proponent of electrifying homes and author of The Big Switch: Australia’s Electric Future, had first-hand experience of the consumer issues recently when he bought a house and the battery attached to his rooftop solar system broke a week later. The $14,000 battery was still under warranty but the installer had since gone out of business, so he had to seek recourse from the manufacturer.

Griffith argues that household renewables should be conceived as national infrastructure because of their combined importance for the electricity grid, and that implied governments had some responsibility.

Mark Jones spent about $10,000 installing 22 solar panels on the roof of his home in Davidson on Sydney’s northern beaches, and is keen to buy a battery when it makes economic sense.

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But while Jones was motivated by the knowledge that switching to solar was “the right thing to do”, he remained worried that either the technology company or installer could go out of business leaving him without a warranty.

“We all know that the banks are underwritten by the government – if your money gets stolen, you’re not responsible for the security of the bank,” Jones said.

“The same sort of thing should apply. Effectively, we’re using a utility service, and the security and the technology shouldn’t be our responsibility.”

Jones has recently had this experience on a smaller scale because he was a customer of Pooled Energy, a start-up offering energy efficiency automation for home swimming pools that had received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

In May, Pooled Energy was suspended from the energy wholesale market, and Jones’ home electricity supply was transferred to Energy Australia. The company is in administration and recently wrote to consumers saying it is looking for a way to save the service.

Jones spent about $300 on the Pooled Energy device and was spending $60 a month for the software subscription that let him control the pool through his smartphone, a service he was delighted with. He still has the hardware but it doesn’t work properly without the software.

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