The Clean Energy Council is cracking down on panel suppliers that make unsubstantiated marketing claims and/or avoid their warranty responsibilities. Paul Skelton reports.

According to an internal review conducted by the Clean Energy Council (CEC), not all solar panels and inverters are made equal. And some international suppliers of solar equipment act questionably when it comes to honouring warranties, if they act at all.

While not at all surprising, these findings have led to the introduction of some tough (yet very welcome) new measures that aim to substantially lift the bar on the quality of solar power products sold in Australia.

CEC chief executive Kane Thornton says the changes are the latest in a series of steps designed to ensure the highest standards for people buying solar power systems.

“Solar panels and inverters already need to be independently tested and demonstrate their compliance with Australian Standards before they can be sold here,” Kane says.

“These products are then included on lists of approved solar power modules and inverters, which are available from the CEC’s Solar Accreditation website.

“Now, an independent testing program is being introduced for solar panels and inverters to ensure that the actual performance of products being sold in Australia live up to their marketing claims. Products that are not up to standard will be removed from the CEC’s lists of approved products.

“Likewise, products can now be de-listed if suppliers breach consumer law – such as a failure to honour warranties – effectively removing their eligibility for government incentives.”

Kane says these changes will improve overall product quality in the solar industry by making sure customers get what they pay for when buying panels and inverters, and by penalising companies that do the wrong thing.

“At the CEC, we don’t like misleading marketing. And we want to stop customers from being misled, whether deliberately or inadvertently,” CEC policy manager Darren Gladman says.

“For a long time we wanted to introduce a requirement for independent testing. But in order to give us some teeth, our system had to become more robust.

“Two years ago, we were approached by an importer of inverters who had warranty issues with an overseas supplier. The company was operational but not responding to warranty claims. While we agreed that this was a very serious issue, the system the CEC had in place at the time meant we weren’t able to do much in response.

“This motivated us to review our supplier agreement terms and conditions and for the first time, include mandatory requirements that would give us the power to take action against suppliers who disregard warranty applications.

“We are now able to remove suppliers who act in bad faith from our lists so they can’t claim small-scale technology certificates (STCs).”

The changes to the panel listing process are as follows:

• New terms and conditions will allow products to be de-listed from the registers of approved modules and inverters if suppliers breach consumer law – such as a failure to honour warranties.
• An independent testing program will be introduced to ensure the alignment of marketing claims, product performance and safety. Products that fail this program will be removed from the CEC’s list of approved products.
• An independent Product Listing Review panel has been appointed.

From a performance perspective, the CEC will now require module suppliers to demonstrate compliance with the international standard known as IEC 61730-1:2004 (Amendments 1 and 2) and IEC 61730-2:2004 (Amendment 1). This will ensure that the polymers used in the modules can withstand exposure to high levels of ultraviolet light.

The standard was published several years ago and many modules are already certified to it. Almost all of the certificates that have been lodged in the past year and the majority of certificates lodged in the past two years have been compliant. Most modules that were certified more than two years ago will not comply and will need to be recertified to avoid being de-listed.

According to the CEC, all panel suppliers will have to sign an agreement that says:

“I agree to the terms and conditions for listing a PV module on the Clean Energy Council (CEC) approved product list. As a responsible supplier of PV modules to the Australian market I will:

• Ensure my products are compliant with all relevant requirements as specified by Australian standards, regulations and legislation;
• Expect that my product could be the subject of a testing program and understand that non-conformances with certification could lead to removal from the CEC approved product list;
• Include full disclosure of country of manufacture in my customer documentation;
• Provide details of my after-sales warranty process;
• Keep records of the serial numbers of all modules supplied to the Australian market and make this information available as required by CEC and the Clean Energy Regulator; and
• Comply with all of the Terms and Conditions for listing a PV module on the CEC approved product list.”

To ensure ongoing compliance, there will now be regular policing of the approved supplier list, with the CEC adopting a ‘mystery shopper-style’ program.

Kane says the introduction of this program in concert with other initiatives by the CEC, such as the Solar Retailer Code of Conduct and the continuous professional development program for solar installers, were also helping to progressively improve standards across the industry.