The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) is ramping up inspections of solar battery installations as part of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).
1,000 inspections have been completed to date ensuring that safety standards are being upheld, delivering stronger compliance and tougher new safeguards.
From 1 March 2026, additional photo requirements are being introduced for solar battery installations, addressing common issues with critical labelling.
Installers will be required to take clear, geotagged and timestamped photos of critical labelling. Compliant labelling is essential to support the safety of installers, emergency responders and future trades working on systems with solar batteries. This is in addition to existing installer on-site verification photos.
Demand for installations is expected to rise in the next couple of months as the installation discount is adjusted from 1 May 2026 according to the size of the battery.
Safety remains the number one priority of the SRES, and we’re working closely with state and territory electrical safety regulators to ensure installations are safe and meet standards for electrical safety.
CER Executive General Manager, Carl Binning, says whether you’re installing or supplying solar batteries, cutting corners will not be tolerated.
‘This is a busy period for the industry, and our focus is on making sure standards stay high and consumers stay safe.
‘I’m putting installers on notice that unsafe and non-compliant work will be identified, and we won’t hesitate to use our compliance powers. This could result in installers being removed from the SRES.
‘We’re committed to continuous improvement across the industry, that’s why we’re implementing these additional photo requirements for installers.
‘We’ll use sophisticated Artificial Intelligence as part of our assessment process to ensure all claims are meeting the new requirements.
‘The message to installers is do it once and do it well. Installers are required to return to site to rectify non-compliant work and failure to provide the required photos will result in claims for small-scale technology certificates being delayed or rejected,’ Mr Binning said.
We inspect a statistically significant sample of installations each year and provide those results to state and territory electrical safety regulators.
Almost 250,000 households and businesses have installed a solar battery since the program began on 1 July 2025, representing around 6 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery storage capacity.
Contact: media@cer.gov.au or 02 6159 3448