Four separate authorities are examining the conduct of one Australian solar retailer. South Australia's Consumer and Business Services has issued a public warning notice. The NSW Building Commission, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading and the federal Clean Energy Regulator each have open investigations. The matter was reported by the ABC's 7.30 on 13 August 2026 and by trade press the following morning.
The retailer trades as Solar Power Nation. The South Australian warning notice names the business alongside related entities Solar Power Nation Pty Ltd, 1 Solar Australia Pty Ltd and Solar Australia Pty Ltd. None of the allegations has been tested in court, and every investigation named here remains open.
Forty-one of the 94 South Australian complaints turned on a deposit
Consumer and Business Services recorded 94 complaints against the business or entities related to it between July 2025 and April 2026, all concerning the supply and installation of solar products.
The composition of those complaints matters more than the count. Forty-one customers reported paying a deposit and not receiving installation within a reasonable time. Twenty-six reported a product that never worked or stopped working. The remainder covered delivery delays, refund and warranty requests that went unanswered, and installations described as unsafe that the business declined to rectify.
The notice cites the Fair Trading Act 1987 (SA) and the Australian Consumer Law (SA). Section 158 of that law makes it an offence to accept payment for goods or services and then fail to supply them, or to be reckless as to whether they will be supplied.
In New South Wales the Building Commission has recorded more than 240 complaints about the business since 2024.
The code acted first, and the trading continued
The New Energy Tech Consumer Code expelled the retailer in December 2025. The expulsion followed six upheld breaches, with findings spanning business conduct, consumer information and financial disclosure, contract and delivery obligations, installation and safety standards, and cooperation with the code's own compliance framework. That is close to the full range of what the code covers.
Roughly eight months separate that expulsion from the regulator investigations now running. The business continued to sell and install throughout.
That sequence is the substance of this record. The code is a voluntary program administered by the Clean Energy Council. Expulsion withdraws a credential. It does not withdraw a licence, close a trading name, or prevent a business from taking a deposit the following week. In most of Australia there is no automatic step from one to the other.
Western Australia is the exception, and the reason is recent
In this state the credential carries a consequence the other jurisdictions do not attach to it. Since 1 October 2025, accreditation to the WA Residential Battery Scheme has required the vendor to hold Approved Seller status under the code. A vendor either holds it at application or commits to obtaining it within three months. Energy Policy WA publishes the requirement and the scheme administrator applies it at accreditation.
A business expelled from the code in Western Australia therefore loses eligibility to deliver installations under the state's battery scheme. That is a commercial consequence rather than a licensing one, and it is narrower than a licence condition, but it is the closest link between code standing and the ability to trade that exists anywhere in the country.
The code's own review named this gap two days earlier
The first independent review of the New Energy Tech Consumer Code was published on 12 August 2026, and is recorded in full here. Its central finding was that the code now functions as consumer protection infrastructure while retaining the mandate and capability of a voluntary industry uplift scheme.
Three of its ten recommendations describe the mechanism visible in this case. The review calls for a data-led and proactive compliance model capable of identifying emerging risk earlier than a complaints queue allows. It calls for stronger audit and assurance functions with more transparent outcomes. It calls for closer formal alignment between the code and the regulators who hold the enforcement powers the code does not.
The review documented complaints rising from 168 in 2023 to 445 in 2025 across roughly 2,020 Approved Sellers. A single business generating 94 complaints in one state over ten months, and more than 240 in another over two years, sits well outside that distribution.
The register is the only check that holds, and the deposit is the exposure
Current standing under the code is held on the Approved Seller register rather than on a certificate a business displays. A certificate proves status on the date it was issued and nothing after. Registers of this kind are the only reliable check, and the same applies to installer accreditation with Solar Accreditation Australia and to electrical contractor licensing, which in this state is administered by the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
The deposit is where the exposure concentrates. Forty-one of the 94 South Australian complaints turned on money paid before any work occurred. The relevant question before a payment is what the deposit secures, what triggers a refund, and what the buyer holds if the business does not return.
PSW Energy and Perth Solar Warehouse each hold separate Approved Seller certificates expiring in May 2027, and the compliance pressure the federal battery program has placed on the sector was recorded in an earlier account.
The South Australian public warning notice is published by Consumer and Business Services at cbs.sa.gov.au (opens in a new tab).
The maintained solar and battery consumer protection guide brings the register, contract, deposit and complaints checks into one decision path.
