RACV Solar, one of Australia’s largest rooftop solar, home storage, and EV charging outfits has been caught out and called out by the Clean Energy Regulator for making false submissions under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).
The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) said earlier this month it had taken “compliance action” against RACV Solar, and registered agent Formbay Trading, a Sydney-based company behind a platform used to generate small-scale technology certificates.
According to the CER, between 1 July 2021 and 5 August 2022, “RACV Solar submitted false written statements to Formbay claiming the installation of 28 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems was completed or supervised by a particular Clean Energy Council accredited installer when in fact those systems were installed by another person.”
Formbay in turn relied on those false statements to create 1,945 small-scale technology certificates.
The regulator says both companies have been cooperative in resolving the matter, and the CER has “accepted enforceable undertakings offered by Formbay and RACV Solar to address the non-compliance.”
Specifically, the proposed enforceable undertakings commit Formbay and RACV Solar to each implement a compliance program to inspect and, if necessary, rectify the solar PV systems involved in the reported time period.
The Clean Energy Regulator announced the resolution of its investigation into RACV Solar and Formbay on January 7.
This followed a cryptic press release published on December 11 which claimed the CER had “executed a monitoring warrant on the Melbourne offices of a business involved in solar panel retail, installation, and renewable energy certificate creation.”
According to the CER’s December release, “The purpose of the warrant was to assess the company’s compliance with the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000” under concern that the business and other companies “are part of the network have been found by us to not be fit and proper and have had their registration permanently suspended under the Act.”
It is unclear at this stage if the two releases are directly related or not.
RACV Solar has become grown into one of the biggest solar installers and retailers in the country since its takeover of regional Victorian success story, Gippsland Solar back in late 2019.
A flurry of further acquisitions followed, including of Great Ocean Solar and Electrical, the Merrimbula arm of Pacific Solar, and Bendigo-based regional outfit Cola Solar.
The parent Victoria-based insurance and motoring company, meanwhile, extended itself further into the home energy market with a retail electricity offering, called Arcline by RACV.
In the CER’s enforcement undertaking, published here, the regulator noted that RACV Solar has no previous compliance history, but that in this instance, “compliance requirements were not adhered to by the company, resulting in improper creation of certificates within the SRES.”
“Solar retailers are reminded of their responsibilities and are strongly encouraged to have appropriate procedures in place to reduce the risk of breaching regulatory requirements,” the regulator said last week.
“We take fraud and non-compliance seriously and take necessary action to ensure the integrity of the scheme. Solar retailers who are a party to the improper creation of STCs may be subject to enforcement action.”
