Dodgy tradesmen and dwindling returns are behind a decline in solar power installations in north-western suburbs, according to a former Caroline Springs installer.
With feedback tariffs slashed from 60 cents to eight cents per kilowatt hour, Steve Micallef said he had got out of the industry because he ‘‘stopped believing in it”.
“It’s a pig of an industry, and the pig troughers are getting their share and then running,’’ he said.
“A lot of people thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but more recently a lot of people realise [that] with the bills still coming in, the feedback is hurting the market.
“The whole industry stinks – it was poorly governed and poorly regulated. There’s a lot of snake oil salesmen out there.
“I’d do jobs in Melton for people who couldn’t rub two cents together [who were] being sold systems that would take 10 to 15 years to see a return.’’
While state Greens leader Greg Barber said the statewide uptake of solar power was “booming” in the first two months of 2014, the latest figures from the federal government’s Clean Energy Regulator reveal a more than 50 per cent drop in postcode 3023 – including Cairnlea, Caroline Springs, Deer Park and Burnside.
There were 64 installations in the first three months of 2014, compared with 124 in the same period last year and 208 in 2011. There were just two installations in March, compared with 39 the previous year and 89 in 2011.
In nearby Kealba, installations dropped from 33 to four. The regulator said data for March was incomplete because people installing solar systems had 12 months to create a small-scale technology certificate.
Another Caroline Springs installer, Matt Williams, said he had installed only a handful of systems locally since he started a year ago.
Australian Solar Council chief executive John Grimes said a drop in tariffs was the primary reason for falling demand.
“However, many customers are installing solar not to get an export feed-in tariff, but to reduce the amount of electricity they use,” he said.
“In any industry there is an undesirable element. There are strong sanctions for those who misrepresent and fail to deliver what was contracted.”
