The Clean Energy Regulator has spent the first half of 2026 turning its attention squarely to solar battery installations, and the published numbers explain why. Clean Energy Regulator solar battery compliance in 2026 now rests on a national inspection program, new photographic evidence requirements, and a stated willingness to remove non-compliant installers from the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).
For installers, retailers and the electricians who work alongside them, the message in the regulator’s 2025–26 compliance priorities is: written statements must be true, installations must meet Australian Standards, and repeated failures now carry defined consequences. This article sets out what the regulator is targeting, what the inspection data shows, and how McKercher Corporation positions its operating brands against those expectations.
Brief
- Of the solar battery inspections finalised by the Clean Energy Regulator as at 20 March 2026, 60.8% were rated substandard (technical non-compliance) and 1.2% unsafe. None of the issues related to the batteries themselves; all stemmed from installation practices.
- From 1 March 2026, every battery STC claim must include geotagged, time-stamped photographic evidence showing compliant Australian Standard labelling.
- Solar Accreditation Australia limits accredited installers to signing off no more than two installations per day, and the regulator enforces on-site attendance obligations for solar PV.
- The regulator can declare an installer ineligible for the SRES after adverse findings on three separate occasions, and it works with state electrical safety regulators when acting on non-compliance.
- McKercher Corporation treats these controls as the baseline. Photo evidence, accurate written statements and standards-compliant labelling are built into the installation workflow across PSW Energy and Perth Solar Warehouse.
Australia installed 266,959 solar batteries between 1 July 2025 and 20 March 2026, equating to 7.7GWh of storage capacity. That growth triggered a new national inspection program under the SRES, and the early results have set the regulator’s enforcement tone for the year.
As at 20 March 2026, the Clean Energy Regulator had conducted 1,278 solar battery inspections on installations that received small-scale technology certificates (STCs), with 451 finalised. Of the rated installations, 32.3% were assessed as adequate, 60.8% as substandard (technical non-compliance requiring rectification) and 1.2% as unsafe, meaning the system was shut down or made safe on the spot. Western Australia accounted for 118 of those inspections.
The detail matters more than the headline figure. The regulator reports that no inspected installation had a fault with the battery product itself. Every issue traced back to installation practice: missing or incorrect warning labels at switchboards, backed-up circuits that were not labelled or grouped, absent green ‘ES’ emergency services reflectors, incorrectly configured residual current devices, and insufficient mechanical or fire protection. Labelling was the most common cause of a substandard rating.
That distinction shapes the regulator’s response. A product problem would point at manufacturers. A workmanship problem points at installers, which is where the 2025–26 compliance priorities and the new controls now sit.
Photographic evidence requirements from 1 March 2026
The most visible new control took effect on 1 March 2026. Every STC claim for a solar battery must now be accompanied by geotagged, time-stamped photographic evidence demonstrating that the system complies with Australian Standard labelling requirements. The regulator introduced the control specifically because labelling is the most common reason installations fail inspection.
Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA) has published training materials to support installers with compliant labelling, and the regulator has flagged that it is working with SAA on additional mandatory training modules based on non-compliance trends.
McKercher Corporation covered the mechanics of the new requirement when it was announced. The companion article, photographic evidence rules for solar batteries, sets out what the photos must show and how the company’s installation teams capture them as part of standard job completion.
Written statements, attendance and the daily installation limit
The 2025–26 compliance priorities restate two obligations that predate the battery inspection program and remain enforcement staples.
First, written statements for STC claims must be true and correct. Installers and retailers certify that an installation is eligible, electrically safe and standards-compliant when they sign. The regulator treats false or misleading statements as a compliance matter in their own right, separate from the physical state of the installation.
Second, installers must meet on-site attendance obligations for small-scale solar PV installations. Connected to this is the SAA installation limit: an accredited installer who is physically undertaking or supervising all stages of an installation cannot sign off on more than two installations per day. The day of sign-off is the STC claim date, and a solar system and battery installed at the same property count as two systems even where they share a common inverter. The limit exists to make attendance obligations physically achievable; an installer signing off five jobs a day was, in practice, not attending them.
non-compliance costs
The regulator’s enforcement powers under the SRES are specific. It may, by written notice, declare a person ineligible to design or install solar PV systems or batteries where that person has received adverse inspection findings on three separate occasions. The same declaration power applies to a person who has made three or more significantly false or misleading statements about installations, breached local, state or territory requirements on three or more occasions, or failed to comply with the accreditation scheme on three or more occasions.
The regulator is also acting at the company level. On 5 March 2026, it permanently suspended the registration of Phenix Trading Pty Ltd under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000, determining the company was no longer a fit and proper person under the Act. The suspension followed regulatory action by state regulators in New South Wales and Victoria, which illustrates a point the regulator makes throughout its compliance reporting: it shares inspection findings with state and territory electrical safety regulators, and actions in one jurisdiction increasingly inform actions in another.
The January to March 2026 compliance update carried two further signals. The regulator wrote to retailers and installers ahead of the 1 May 2026 changes to solar battery STC settings, reminding them of their obligations under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001 and Australian Consumer Law when advertising, selling and installing solar batteries. It also alerted state and territory fair trading agencies to watch for poor consumer practices, including misleading quoting. Scheme settings and enforcement detail change throughout the year; installers and retailers should check current guidance directly with the Clean Energy Regulator rather than rely on summaries.
McKercher Corporation's approach to compliance
McKercher Corporation operates its installation brands, PSW Energy and Perth Solar Warehouse, on the position that regulators’ control descriptions are a floor, not a target. The company’s installers hold current Solar Accreditation Australia accreditation; installations are completed by licensed electricians who sign the paperwork; and photographic evidence of compliant labelling has been part of the job completion workflow since before the 1 March 2026 mandate took effect.
The company’s ISO 9001 quality certification (Bureau Veritas-certified at the group level) requires documented procedures and internal auditing throughout the installation process, which is the same mechanism the regulator’s inspection checklist tests from the outside. Where the inspection program finds labelling gaps across the industry, the practical response inside a quality-managed business is procedural: labelling forms part of the completion checklist, the photo record proves it, and the written statement that follows is accurate because the work it describes was verified.
The inspection data published this year shows the industry adjusting to the scrutiny it has not previously faced over battery work. The regulator has stated it expects compliance rates to improve materially in the coming months and that it will not hesitate to suspend installers who fall short. For installers, the path through 2026 is unremarkable in the best sense: attend the job, install to standard, label correctly, photograph the evidence and sign only what is true.
