“Orphan” Solar Systems in Australia as Installers declare Bankruptcy

The Australian rooftop solar market has been touted as one of the best success stories globally with more than 20% of Australia’s residences installing a rooftop solar home system. There are almost 2 million rooftop solar systems installed throughout Australia and that number is increasing day by day as solar is much cheaper than grid prices in most places.

However, these rooftop solar systems have a dark side in the sense that many of them are not performing optimally and in many cases, they are performing extremely poorly leading to huge losses for the owners of these systems.  They also do not have the option of getting these rooftop systems repaired, as the installers who had put up these systems have gone out of business or declared bankruptcy.

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The rooftop installer market in Australia is highly fragmented as is the case with the rest of the world. These small mom and pop installers frequently go bankrupt, as the management is not up to the market and also due to the boom and bust cycles of the solar market. The warranties that these installers provide for the rooftop systems also goes void with their bankruptcies, leading to their customers having no recourse in getting these systems repaired. Generally, the rooftop solar systems come with 5-10 year warranties with panels have 25-year warranties, but with the installer shutting shop in 1-2 years, these rooftop solar systems becoming “orphans” with no one baking these warranties. It is being estimated that almost one-third of the rooftop solar systems in Australia are now orphans without a parent.

It is, therefore, important to study the credibility of solar companies before purchasing/ installing their solar systems.