We noted with interest several reports indicating that several Adelaide based solar power installation companies had been placed into Administration this year. Some of the reasons cited were failure by one of the companies to replace faulty solar inverters failing within the warranty period in a timely manner. As was the case in N.S.W. a couple of years ago when that market was very buoyant with the high solar feed in tariff available at the time, some S.A. solar companies, trying to win business on price only were importing very low cost solar inverters from China that proved to be highly unreliable and prone to failing after a few months of installation. In the N.S.W. case one solar company had over 70 percent failures on one low cost Chinese inverter. The point of raising this is, as we mention on the Solar Energy Information home page, that investing in solar is, like any other investment, a matter of doing your homework, ensure you get several quotations and tend towards the tried and tested solar panels and solar inverters that have a good track record of operation in Australia and that have a strong Australian distribution network for those products should warranty claims, upgrade, technical advice or further support be required into the future.
Fundamentally a solar power system is fairly simple – solar panels feeding an inverter and solar meter with the appropriate circuit breakers, isolation devices and wiring etc. If the quality of the components used is good and the installation is completed by suitably qualified and experienced companies to a high standard (and in compliance to relevant regulations) then there should minimal be issues.