Ready to get up to 3 free quotes?
Get up to 3 free quotes for solar, batteries, EV chargers or hot water heat pumps
GET MY QUOTES
After decades of polarising installers with their uniquely capable range of inverters, solar panels, batteries & EV chargers, SolarEdge has called time on Australia.
Orders will be accepted for the next fortnight for delivery by December 18th at the latest, so if you have plans to expand an existing system, you’ll have to hop to it.
Warranty and technical support will continue via their international call centre and online self-help; however, as we understand it, sadly, their Australian staff have been let go, which doesn’t bode well for the level of local support you can expect going forward.
SolarEdge have been on our recommended brand chart for many years, so we’ve stood behind them with our Good Install Guarantee. It works on the premise that we won’t recommend anything we wouldn’t be happy to see bolted to our own grandmother’s house.
Indeed some SolarQuotes staff have installed inverters and batteries from SolarEdge but I’ll spare you their reactions to the news. Rest assured nobody is pleased, but we’ve now removed SolarEdge from our recommended brand lists.
The official notice sent to approved solar edge installers
We sincerely hope SolarEdge will be good to their word because 12 years is a long tail of warranty to honour. For installers that point of difference in the sales pitch is now a significant liability.
What might be more challenging is support for Australian network companies and their connection requirements. The poles and wires people (DNSPs) are increasingly moving to internet-connected, dynamically controlled systems, which require your solar power and EV charger to respond to signals from the DNSP.
Getting them to respond correctly and making sure they still work after AEMO mandates annual testing of backstop controls may need intervention from the inverter makers, but without onshore familiarity this could be a challenge.
Our Recommended Brands chart for inverters no longer features SolarEdge. We’ve also removed them from similar charts for other product lines.
The company’s loss of local expertise is undoubtedly a shame, and commiserations go out to affected staff, but the rest of Australia’s buoyant solar industry will no doubt soak up the talent.
At least one SolarEdge employee I’ve spoken to was glad it was over – they’ve got certainty and a good chance to take some long service leave.
It was just days ago that I took this shot of a new SolarEdge package at the All Energy conference, but we won’t be seeing it in Australia.
I’ve installed a few SolarEdge units, but it was only because my company manager at the time bought a few pallets of cheap panels without realising they had integrated SolarEdge optimisers. It meant they were easier to install, and they worked fine.
For those who learnt all the intricacies, SolarEdge generated real loyalty because of great design flexibility, high efficiency, panel-level monitoring, rapid shutdown for safety and significant panel capacity oversizing. In fact I know of a recent install where a SolarEdge system was used for just 4 panels. It was AC coupled to a different hybrid, simply to save a salesman’s flawed design.
For the rest of the industry, SolarEdge were the red-headed stepchild of complexity – an unreliable heap of rubbish you’re glad you’d never dirtied your hands with.
What has driven many installers away from SolarEdge in the past is the convoluted process involved in getting warranty units. Some models in particular were well known to have a high failure rate, which SolarEdge knew.
And as installers we knew, and we knew that they knew, and they knew that we knew… but the technical help staff would still feign ignorance and ask for more site visits with more photos of electrical testing.
Diagnosing a dead inverter was NOT highly unusual. And submitting photos of multimeter readings was just theatre designed to make installers angry.
For markets like the US, “rapid shutdown” rules mean SolarEdge & Enphase make great sense and they have huge market share as a result. I don’t expect they’ll disappear anytime soon but there’s recently been some stiff headwinds, losses and restructures. Seems despite the huge uptake of batteries recently, the Australian market, with abundant Chinese competition, has proven too challenging.
As we go to press, SolarEdge still has an Australian website, and they haven’t responded to our request for clarification.
SolarEdge’s solar panels are no longer on the Clean Energy Council’s approved list, so they can’t be used in new installations that claim the federal solar rebate. We can expect their other products to follow suit.
Another support ticket from a punter we’ve helped with their Solar Edge recently
Some people will say good riddance. As we’ve written before, the company’s propensity for throwing legal threats around was viewed pretty dimly by the industry and the solar buying public.
I’ve dealt with a number of consumers who’ve had poor experience dealing with SolarEdge warranty (Credit where it’s due, Benjamin Cox in Queensland must be commended for excellent customer service, but the South Australian rep was mythical). Some had entire system warranties declared void by mistake, another has contacted us this week to explain he’s popping some champagne in celebration of the removal of SolarEdge equipment.
Many more have had their existing SolarEdge AC coupled to a different brand of hybrid battery system, because removing optimisers and rewiring arrays is too expensive, and some have decided spending more money with a company headquartered in a war zone is morally repugnant.
However if you’re set on using optimisers going forward, you could take a look at iStore. They don’t offer monitoring but they’re selectively deployable and come form the world’s largest inverter manufacturer.
The SolarEdge news is the latest big setback for a solar company in recent times amid intense competition. We’ve also seen Sonnen go into voluntary administration, while SMA departed the Australian residential and commercial inverter marketplace earlier this year.
At the time of writing, if you need to reach out to the company, you can use the following details:
Phone: 1800 465 567
WhatsApp: 0488 850 311
Email: [email protected]
If you’re having a good or difficult time dealing with SolarEdge for warranty claims or other issues, detail your experience on their inverter, solar panel, battery and EV charger review pages.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter!
Anthony joined the SolarQuotes team in 2022. He’s a licensed electrician, builder, roofer and solar installer who for 14 years did jobs all over SA – residential, commercial, on-grid and off-grid. A true enthusiast with a skillset the typical solar installer might not have, his blogs are typically deep dives that draw on his decades of experience in the industry to educate and entertain. Read Anthony’s full bio.
Please keep the SolarQuotes blog constructive and useful with these 5 rules:
1. Real names are preferred – you should be happy to put your name to your comments.
2. Put down your weapons.
3. Assume positive intention.
4. If you are in the solar industry – try to get to the truth, not the sale.
5. Please stay on topic.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
RSS – Posts
Read The Good Solar Guide Free Online!
Ready to get up to 3 free quotes?
Get up to 3 free quotes for solar, batteries, EV chargers or hot water heat pumps
GET MY QUOTES
© 2009 to 2026 SolarQuotes Home Electrification Pty Ltd
Get free quotes for solar, batteries,
EV chargers or hot water heat pumps
Download the first chapter of The Good Solar Guide, authored by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock, FREE!
You’ll also start receiving the SolarQuotes weekly newsletter, keeping you up to date on all the latest developments on Australia’s solar scene.
We respect your privacy and you can opt out from the newsletter at any time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.