In my last post I shared that Australia’s regulator finds roughly one in five rooftop solar installations are substandard.
The obvious question is – why?
I don’t think it’s because the industry lacks good people. From the projects I’ve scoped and priced, the same issues come up again and again. They aren’t random.
It starts before anyone climbs onto the roof
A single-line diagram looks fine in the office. But if a job gets priced and scheduled off that paperwork without a proper site visit, the surprises don’t show up until the crew is on site. The switchboard isn’t where it’s meant to be, the cable route is different, the access isn’t what was described. Suddenly the plan has to change.
Then there are the things nobody allowed for: access, roof complexity, penetrations, cable runs, lifting gear, remote sites. Individually minor – together they change the whole job.
I’ve also seen crews put on work that doesn’t match their experience: excellent on a simple roof, out of their depth on a multi-building or remote site.
Installers are people, and life is unpredictable
Most run small crews. A kid gets sick. Someone has an injury or a medical event. A vehicle gets written off on the way to site. When a small crew loses someone on install morning, the whole job can stall – and with no backup, it slips or gets rushed.
This can be addressed by calling on additional electricians and crew at short notice, if you have them available in the network. A sick kid or a written-off ute becomes a quick swap, not a cancelled install.
The labour market cuts both ways
After the rebate rush, a lot of good electricians don’t have sufficient work to support their expanded crews and are actively looking for work. So today the real constraint isn’t finding hands – it’s making sure the right ones end up on the right job.
But it swings. Jobs and Skills Australia still puts the shortfall at around 32,000 electricians by 2030, and plenty in the industry expect work to pick up again toward the end of the year. When it’s flat out, crews get stretched and often overcommit, resulting in schedule cancellations or, worse, a rushed job. When it’s quiet, price pressure can push people to cut corners and rush to the next revenue-generating job.
Either way, the pressure lands on quality. So planning, supervision and quality assurance matter through the whole cycle, not just when everyone’s busy.
Projects rarely come unstuck because the panels, inverter or battery failed. They come unstuck between the design and the installation.
Project delivery deserves as much attention as system design.
Which of these catches you out most – the skipped site visit, the stretched crew, or the plan that changes on the day? Get in touch.
Next in this series: what actually closes that gap.