A little too much solar success perhaps?
Solar panels in Queensland and NSW in Australia have been providing some householders with energy in a more concentrated form than they bargained for. At least 70 houses with rooftop solar panel arrays have had solar driven burnouts. The fire risk means that nearly 30,000 faulty solar power isolators have been recalled. The company that imported them went bust on Friday. (Ain’t that the way?)
Remember if your house burns down, it is the price we pay to save the planet. It will, unfortunately, blow your personal carbon footprint through the roof. (A point that will, no doubt, grieve you as you sift through the smouldering ruins.)
A QUEENSLAND company that sold allegedly faulty circuit breakers that caused at least 70 burnouts in rooftop solar panel arrays has gone bust, leaving tens of thousands of homeowners at risk of electrical fires.
Advancetech, based on the Sunshine Coast, went into receivership on Friday, only four days after Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie ordered the immediate recall of 27,600 Avanco-branded DC solar power isolators imported and sold by the company.
Installation of rooftop isolators are compulsory in some states, and hundreds of thousands of solar rooftop arrays were installed under state and federal schemes. Most of the Avanco isolators, designed to automatically break the circuit and shut down solar panels if they become overloaded, were sold in Queensland, but some were also sold in other states. The NSW government is expected to issue a press release today advising of the Queensland recall and receivership.
A spokeswoman for NSW Fair Trading said “there have been approximately 57 incidents of varying degrees of severity in Queensland and up to 13 failures in NSW”, and it is understood some of the fires caused wall and ceiling damage.
“Though the recall is a mandatory recall imposed by Queensland it … is considered to have national effect,” she said. “The Queensland Electrical Safety Office … is understood to be investigating options for action against company directors.”
Mr Bleijie said the Avanco branded isolator “was found to have an internal fault that can lead to overheating and fire’’.
“We’re asking as many homeowners and installers as possible to check their solar power system and if they have the affected isolator, to disable it so it can be replaced,” he said, while warning homeowners not to take risks and contact an electrician or installer.
All forms of energy generation have risks. Solar Power produces less than 0.1% of our global electricity needs. Solar power can’t meet baseload requirements at 3am, and nor does it reduce peak load at 6 -8pm in the evening either. It also goes without saying that any rushed government program with massive subsidies will attract shonky operators.
From a previous post on solar energy: Solar Panel subsidies are a billion dollars to provide cheap electricity to wealthy households
In the end the government drew money from the population-at-large to help Chinese solar panel manufacturers, and to provide “cheap” electricity to 107,000 households in mostly medium-high wealth areas. It reduced Australia’s emissions by a piddling 0.015 per cent, at an exorbitant carbon price of $300/ton.
Thank goodness no one has been hurt so far.
One day solar power will probably be useful.
- A nation still drawing 18,000MW in it’s sleep can’t go solar…
- When your subsidies undermine your subsidies
- Renewable energy is a $250 billion dollar industry that makes about 3% of our electricity
- Imaginary solar panels rort renewables scheme while Alarmists “worry” about coal investors.
- The worlds biggest solar PV seller was worth $13bn: now bankrupt
- UK Government hides its own graphic comparing Nuclear to Wind and solar