Some solar panels are shoddy quality: vast majority are good quality
Solar experts claim multi-billion dollar subsidies wasted on cheap and dodgy panels, The Age February 22, 2015 Heath Aston Political reporter More Australians are buying cheap rooftop solar panels that fail long before their promised lifespan, prompting claims a federal rebate scheme needs to be overhauled to prevent dodgy systems receiving public subsidies.Solar industry experts say lax rules covering the scheme – which provides incentives of up to $4350 for a $5500 rooftop system – mean it is not always delivering the environmental benefits promised.
They blame an explosion of cheap, mainly Chinese-produced solar panels that have flooded the market over the past five years that are failing to provide the 15 years of clean power expected. Installers in four states told Fairfax Media that the worst systems stopped working within 12 months, with others “falling apart” within two or three years.
Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton played down the scale of failures and warned against blaming production faults on systems from one country.
He said the “Chinese success story” had led to prices for solar tumbling dramatically, allowing more households to invest in green energy.
“If someone is getting a subsidy there is an expectation that the benefit to the environment and society equals or outweighs that cost. There are cases of systems not running for 15 years and people have got rid of them, but from our point of view most will run for 25 years,” he said.
“There are cases that come up just like in any industry, but failure rates are low.”…….
Nigel Morris, a solar industry analyst and consultant to the Clean Energy Council, said he wasn’t aware of any statistics that showed a widespread problem.
“Is the industry perfect? Absolutely not. Do we occasionally have quality issues with product and installations? Yes, we do … There is evidence to say it is not endemic.” http://www.theage.com.au/environment/solar-experts-claim-multibillion-dollar-subsidies-wasted-on-cheap-and-dodgy-panels-20150221-13kqub.html
A recent Choice survey found, while more than 80 per cent of solar system owners were satisfied with what they had bought, 17% of owners of Chinese-made solar systems and 11 per cent of those with a German inverter had experienced problems of some kind.
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