{"id":14,"date":"2025-07-07T04:01:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T04:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/?p=14"},"modified":"2025-07-07T05:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:14:21","slug":"approved-solar-products-how-long-does-cec-listing-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"Approved Solar Products: How Long Does CEC Listing Take?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve often heard solar manufacturers and importers lament the lengthy process for solar panels, inverters and batteries to get a coveted Clean Energy Council approval. And now we have a better idea of how long it\u2019s currently taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Clean Energy Council is gatekeeper for solar products (small-scale renewables) connecting to the grid in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAs the product accreditation body, it is our role to protect Australian families by ensuring products meet high standards of quality, safety and reliability,\u201d states the organisation. \u201cApplications undergo a thorough and rigorous review process to ensure compliance with quality and safety standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approval is a very big deal as without it systems are not eligible for some incentives, such as the just-launched\u00a0Cheaper Home Batteries program\u00a0and the\u00a0national solar panel rebate; both of which can knock thousands off the up-front cost of purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when it comes to solar inverters and batteries, most (all?) electricity networks won\u2019t allow them to connect the grid unless they have this accreditation. It\u2019s also worth mentioning the gatekeeper role is a\u00a0nice little earner\u00a0for the organisation and is very important to the ongoing viability of the CEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEC has been accrediting\u00a0solar panels\u00a0and\u00a0inverters\u00a0since 2011, and\u00a0batteries\u00a0since 2021. And for as long as I can remember, there have been gripes concerning the timeframe involved in getting new gear approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a rushed job is often a bad job and it\u2019s super-important solar components are of good quality1<\/a><\/sup>, I had previously seen some manufacturers claim waiting up to a year to complete the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, then-Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor ordered a review of Australia\u2019s Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) that included scrutinising the approval process for and managing ongoing compliance of panels and solar inverters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The review was carried out by the Clean Energy Regulator, which after a lengthy investigation arrived at the conclusion the CEC should continue in this capacity \u2014 with a significant change being accountability to the Regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid some protests, that came to pass in late 2024. But the Regulator made it clear a number of improvements would need to be made, including more rapid application processing times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEC Reboot Progress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the time the Clean Energy Council was battling to maintain its solar guardian status, the organisation said it was already making changes in this regard; including doubling the capacity of its Products team, with more staff to come on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also committed to streamlining processes and providing applicants with transparent application tracking, along with having stronger focus on customer service and response times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, now the CEC has had a renewed lease on the job for some time, how are things going on listing timeframes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation has recently started publishing information on the backlog for equipment approvals based on the previous month to help manufacturers plan ahead, with timings updated at the beginning of each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the calendar has only just flipped over to July, processing times for June aren\u2019t available just yet for all categories in terms of *beginning* the engineering technical assessment process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Solar panels:<\/strong>\u00a03 weeks in May.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Solar inverters:<\/strong>\u00a013 weeks in June (up from 11 in May).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Batteries:<\/strong>\u00a012 weeks in May.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    And in each category, full accreditation was typically taking a *further* 2 to 6 months (quite a range), depending on application completeness says the CEC \u2014 up to 9 months from go-to-whoa in the case of inverters and batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, if you\u2019re hankering after solar gear you\u2019ve seen overseas that\u2019s not available in Australia yet and the manufacturer claims the hold-up is with the CEC, there\u2019s a good chance this is indeed the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We\u2019ve often heard solar manufacturers and importers lament the lengthy process for solar panels, inverters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solartechs.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}