Fly-by-night operators installing faulty solar panels
Rod Grono spends about half of his time repairing poorly installed and cheap solar panels in Sydney’s west.
Rod Grono spends about half of his time repairing poorly installed and cheap solar panels in Sydney’s west. ‘‘Solar orphans’’, as the 50-year-old boss of Western Sydney Solar calls them, are installed quickly by companies that fold, change their name or simply don’t answer phones or complaints.
“I get a lot of calls. A lot of them are solar orphans. The sharks have come in, they’ve whacked it in. No design, no care, poor workmanship,” Mr Grono said. “There are thousands that have closed. They change their name, they have a different director. Half of my customers are solar orphans. The companies may be there, but they don’t answer.”
Mr Grono welcomed an audit report that found up to a quarter of the nation’s solar panels installed between 2011 and August 2018 were “unsafe” or “sub-standard”. If anything, he sees an even higher percentage of shoddily installed panels.
“ I had this poor old fellow who spent all his money. Retired. He put on as many as he could. He called a couple of years later, they weren’t in business any more,” he said. “I did the tests. I pulled the panels apart — every panel was faulty.”
The electrician, who entered the solar industry 8½ years ago, said consumers needed to be wary of “sharks”, but insisted there were plenty of honest operators out there. “Look into their eyes,” he said, “and see if they’re genuine.”