The Solar Gold Certification program is an initiative of the Australian Solar Council that aims to benefit installers, designers and end users alike. Jacob Harris explains.

For some time, the Australian Solar Council (ASC) has been conducting audits of solar installations on behalf of the Clean Energy Regulator. Throughout this process, the ASC has recognised the need for ongoing professional development and training for solar designers and installers beyond the Council’s standard accreditation requirements. To this end, the Solar Gold Certification program was born.

“The ASC launched Solar Gold with multiple objectives: to provide a readily available, online resource to help installers stay on top of compliance issues; to protect the reputation of the industry and ensure all work is of a high quality; and see to it that end users are able to easily access reliable services for their systems,” says ASC program manager Laurie Kane.

The Council also sought to make it easy to identify solar installers and designers who are willing go the extra mile to maintain currency with Australia’s constantly changing standards and regulatory environment. With new technologies frequently entering the market, and components like micro-inverters and power optimisers being refined and modified, the ASC places no small importance on staying up-to-date with developments in this burgeoning industry.

For installers, the benefits of certification (and displaying the accompanying Solar Gold Trust Mark) are manifold. The program provides leads for installers through their ‘Find an Installer’ look-up that features both on the ASC website and Solar Gold website. This helps to promote the installers the ASC endorses. In addition to this, the program hones in on a host of industry specific problem areas.

“We provide content on areas of the market we’ve identified as problematic or confusing, such as the different inverters on the market (including how to deal with transformer-less inverters) and the possible fault currents of different situations and different earthing conditions. The voltage rating of isolators can also be a cause of confusion because, depending on the inverter, the rating can apply to the isolator as a whole or can be calculated per conductor. DC isolators are an important issue as it’s probably where most serious errors occur, particularly in terms of water ingress. There’s also a lot of information relating to compliance issues,” says Laurie.

For installers and designers to secure a Solar Gold Trust Mark, they must first undertake baseline training and then complete a compliance checklist. The initial training is comprised of seven online modules that can be completed at any time.

“Often it’s about taking the Australian standards and regulations and demystifying them – giving some practical examples of what’s expected and showing installers how to work to maintain those standards. A big part of that is effective communication and team supervision. On any given job, the accredited designer and installer are ultimately responsible for ensuring everything is up to scratch on site, so it’s imperative they can clearly communicate those requirements to their counterparts,” says Laurie.

Interested parties can register for Solar Gold Certification either as an individual or a company. In the case of company registration, all employees have access to information and training to promote a deeper understanding of issues and industry requirements company-wide.