Chinese solar inverter brand de-listed over safety issues

Published by


 
The Clean Energy Council’s crackdown on rooftop solar system quality in Australia has claimed another scalp, this time the inverters of China-based company Shenzhen Sofarsolar.
The CEC said on Wednesday that all inverters made by Shenzhen Sofarsolar had been “de-listed” from the organisation’s catalogue of compliant products, after tests turned up a potential safety issue.
“A PV grid-connect inverter of model Sofar 3000TL has failed testing by the Clean Energy Council for compliance with AS 4777-2,” a statement from the Council said.
“As a result of failing the Passive Anti-islanding test, the Active Anti-islanding test and other issues, all inverters from Shenzhen Sofarsolar have been de-listed as of 21 February 2018.
“This failure is regarded by the CEC as a potential safety issue for personnel as the inverter may not shut down under some grid failure conditions,” the statement said.
The CEC conceded that this might not be the case for all of the company’s inverters, but said that – as it was not practical to test all of the manufacturer’s products – it was taking the results of the testing on this model as representative of other models until demonstrated otherwise.
It also advised solar installers who had stock of the brand to stop using it – and to seek advice from the manufacturer or the electrical safety authorities on what to with inverters that had already been installed.
At this stage, the CEC said, no advice had been given by the company or electrical safety authorities.
As we have reported on One Step Off The Grid, the CEC has been working hard to tighten the rules and standards of Australia’s booming rooftop solar market, since introducing a suite of new guidelines and standards in early 2016.
The new rules have allowed the CEC to take action against suppliers that fail to meet standards, and also introduced a random testing program for solar panels and inverters to ensure the performance of products being sold in Australia was living up to marketing claims and safety standards.
As regular One Step Off The Grid contributor and long-time solar industry insider Nigel Morris noted, the new rules had a swift and major effect on the market.
By November 2016, the CEC had slashed the list of approved solar panels for the Australian market from more than 400 to 217.

This post was published on February 22, 2018 10:04 am

View Comments

    • I also wonder when I see these 'solar deals' in the paper how they can do it for such low prices....the quality isn't there?

  • I understand that this inverter failed the 2second test by 0.02 seconds, if so this seems like a super over-reaction.
    Also this brand inverter is already accredited by the CEC so it seems as though

Share
Published by

Recent Posts

Unemployment is one of the strongest factors driving rooftop solar

New research shows postcodes with higher rates of unemployed have higher rates of rooftop solar,…

November 21, 2024

Solar Insiders Podcast: Four million and counting – the race to make the PV puzzle pieces fit

UNSW's Baran Yildiz on how Australia's millions of rooftop solar systems and other consumer energy…

November 21, 2024

Flow Power enters home retail market offering big benefits from small behavioural changes

Flow Power is branching into the residential market with a "technology integrated" electricity plan –…

November 20, 2024

SwitchedOn Podcast: Why the jobless are also turning to solar PV

New data shows unemployed people are also turning to rooftop solar to have certainty about…

November 20, 2024

Solar battery surge expected for plugged-in households seeking to cut costs

More households expected to investigate solar batteries as a way to save on the cost…

November 18, 2024

If hot water ran off daytime solar, we could slash emissions and tame the solar duck

Switching water heaters to charge during the day can soak up solar and make sure…

November 15, 2024