Queensland solar industry in “chaos,” with no clarity on rule change

One Step Off The Grid

The Clean Energy Council has slammed the Queensland government for the “complete lack of clarity” on its rule change for large solar installations, less than a week before the new – and potentially devastating – regulation is set to be introduced.

In its second formal statement on the controversial subject in as many working days, the CEC said that the Labor Palaszczuk government had “contradicted its own advice to the industry about how the regulation should be interpreted.”

The apparent contradiction was made on Friday by Queensland’s minister for industrial relations, Grace Grace, who said both licensed electricians and their apprentices would be able to mount, locate, fix or remove solar panels on projects of 100kW and above, under the law, starting May 13.

This is slightly different – and perhaps ever so slightly less devastating – than One Step Off The Grid’s original understanding of the rule change, which was that such work would be restricted to fully qualified electricians only.

And, as it turns out, it is also different to the version industry says it was originally given by the government, which means they are now both angry and confused – and more convinced than ever that the rushed amendment should be halted in its tracks.

“At a briefing with Queensland government officials on 17 April, about 40 industry representatives were told that only licensed electricians could do this work – and that this didn’t include apprentices,” the CEC’s director of energy generation, Anna Freeman, said in a statement on Monday.

To read the full story on RenewEconomy sister site, One Step Off The Grid, click here…