Infinite Energy quits solar coaster, with closure of rooftop PV and battery business

Australia’s solar coaster has struck again, with leading Australian solar installer and electricity retailer, Infinite Energy, bowing out of the rooftop PV and battery business, citing changing sector dynamics and fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Perth-based Infinite Energy announced the “very difficult decision” on Wednesday, to cease selling solar and battery systems for residential and commercial rooftops, after 12 years in the business.

In a statement, the company said that it would complete outstanding solar and battery installation contracts and continue to provide associated support services, while it reviewed the future plans for the business.

The company’s electricity retail and solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) services would also continue to operate while the review was conducted, the company said.

Established in 2010, Infinite Energy had grown to become the largest retailer of solar PV systems in Western Australia and the fourth largest in Australia before being bought up, three years ago, by the local energy arm of Japanese giant Sumitomo Corporation.

As well as selling batteries, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and managing embedded networks, Infinite Energy also owns and operates a port-folio of rooftop solar systems, and retails energy from them.

The company’s 2019 purchase by Sumitomo’s Summit Southern Cross Power Holdings was seen at the time as a major vote of confidence in the WA solar market, as well as a sign of emerging competition in the state’s retail energy market.

In a statement, Sumitomo said of the purchase that “introducing solar power systems in Western Australia, where power prices are high due to the costs incurred in transmitting power through areas of low population density, makes particularly good sense due to the significant sunshine the state receives.”

But three years is a long time in the Australian solar industry.

“While the WA solar market continues to add rooftop solar capacity, establishing a sustainable business model that can support a quality product offering in a highly saturated, low margin and low barrier-to-entry solar market has proved a challenge,” said the company’s CEO, Andrew Sutherland.

Indeed, this has proven an even greater challenge than ever over the past two years for Australian solar businesses, with supply-chain bottlenecks and Covid-linked freight and other more local market disruptions – including lockdowns – making margins tighter than ever.

Locally, Western Australia just this week became the second state to introduce new rules around rooftop solar installations to pave the way for the electricity market operator, AEMO, to switch them off remotely as an emergency backstop to keep the grid stable.

Infinite Energy told One Step Off The Grid that the introduction of the solar switch-off rule in WA had not influenced the company’s decision to get out of solar.