Solar complaints are hotting up

From Australia's newspaper The Age comes an interesting item on the success of efforts to promote solar photovoltaic energy production and use in the residential sector.

It seems that in half a year the monthly number of complaints has risen from 17 to 141 - and they run the gamut from meter reading issues to substandard and potentially unsafe wiring.

But the most remarkable complaint is that some of the homeowners who took the AUD $8,000 government grant to install energy saving solar panels and sell excess power to the grid (at "66 cents per kilowatt" - I think they mean per kilowatt-hour) found their electric bills going up.

This seemingly paradoxical, but fully foreseeable, circumstance comes from the loss of certain other rate preferences for things like off-peak water heating and heat pumps which only applied to the conservation of conventional power used in homes. It seems that those selling and installing photovoltaics were a bit lax in explaining this to their customers.

Of course, none of this can defeat the enthusiasm of a trade association lobbyist thrilled at the prospect of doing well by doing good:

Matthew Warren, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, said any problems with the solar program needed to be resolved or Australians would lose trust in green initiatives.

''I think the scheme has been an outstanding success in that it has transformed the solar industry … to make it affordable for ordinary Australian families,'' he said. ''But if there are problems … they need to be addressed quickly.''