A discount solar supplier that has become Australia’s biggest rooftop panel vendor is being forced by the country’s Clean Energy Regulator to replace non-compliant modules it installed, or give up the small-scale technology certificates (STCs) it received for the projects.

“P & N NSW Pty Ltd., which trades as Euro Solar, was found by the CER to have claimed STCs from non-compliant panels on 10 different rooftop solar installations,” RenewEconomy reports. “In total, this amounted to 1,058 STCs worth around A$40,000.” The company has now been instructed to validate the serial numbers on solar modules in 78 installations over the next 12 months, and another 100 over the next 18.

“We are rolling out an innovative compliance program that reaches out into the small-scale technology certificate (STC) creation chain to detect the installation of unapproved panels, which are not eligible for STCs,” the CER said in a statement. In this case, the company “did not identify, at the time of STC creation, that the solar PV panels were non-compliant.”

RenewEconomy notes that the CER action “is part of a crackdown on rules in the SRES [Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme], which provides up-front rebates for rooftop solar installations. To qualify for STCs, solar panels need to have been approved and validated by the Clean Energy Council.”

A RenewEconomy podcast goes into more detail on quality control issues in the rooftop solar industry. “There is even a Facebook page called ‘Crap Solar’, put together by installers appalled at instances of lousy workmanship,” writes editor Giles Parkinson. “This has implications for consumers which are worth noting.”