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.
What Does This Mean For SolarEdge Product Owners?
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.
Polarised Perceptions
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.
Moving On
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). 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.
A Turbulent Time For Solar
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.
How To Contact SolarEdge
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.
About Anthony Bennett
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This isn’t great news for me as I have an 8kw Solaredge system I got from Solahart a couple of years ago.
Solaredge optimisers and Solaredge inverter.
How many other brands offer optimisers?
There are many different brands of optimisers that are universal and can be used for all PV inverters
Tigo is one brand I’ve seen mentioned online, they also have panel level monitoring apparently.
Can be fitted to any panel, any system from what I have seen mentioned.
Haven’t heard anything about them as far as reviews or feedback.
Surprised they weren’t mentioned in the paragraph about iStore, but maybe that’s another article potential to round up what’s out there now.
That news makes me sad. The engineering and technical support was great and I will miss having access to what I thought was the best SolarEdge support in the world (judging by forum comments), regardless of their Byzantine systems.
I have never been a huge fan of the SolarEdge app and I always felt my system was overpriced.
However I do love that using power optimisers I can see the amount of electricity every panel is producing every day.
I have a lot of shading so was told power optimisers are a must.
I have second solar system – a dumb string out the front without optimisers running on a Fronius inverter.
With Solaredge it would be easy to see when either a panel or an optimiser was failing.
How would I know if one of the panels in my Fronius controlled string was failing?
We have major shading issues at house and our SolarEdge system has worked really well for us, including excess solar charging for our EV.
We were planning to add the new 3 phase Nexis battery. What battery option would you recommend now?
Sorry to see SolarEdge go from Australia, but I’m not surprised.
I installed an SE system 3 years ago, and was happy with its performance, but there was a continuing problem. My backup unit was installed at the meter box, about 50 metres away from the inverter. The two were connected by a serial link for communications. I queried this because I’d previously experienced problems with long serial links. They assured me there wouldn’t be a problem.
But every few months the comms link would fail (no backup or monitoring) and system components had to be replaced.
SE support was poor with it sometimes taking months to get my system fixed. Then after one outage during an electrical storm, SE said my system had been hit by a lightning strike (it hadn’t), and they were cancelling the warranty on my whole system!
It took a threat to take the matter to NSW Fair Trading, and some help from Anthony at SolarQuotes, to get my system repaired. SE support was abysmal.
I’ve got a solaredge 5kw home hub connected to 10.66kw of solar panels. I’ve now got it AC coupled to a sigenergy system 40kw battery, 15.66kw solar panels, 15kw inverter and the 25kv DC EV charger.
I was hoping to add 2 solaredge batteries to the system. They might be cheaper now
individual optimisers are likely the first thing to fail, so I’m assuming local stock of these will diminish somewhat rapidly over the coming years. They supposedly have a 25 year warranty!
Does anyone know if there is an atlernative brand or after-market optimiser that can be swapped in if one of the existing SE optimisers fails?
I have a 13.2 KW Solar Edge system with micro inverters with a Solar Edge HD-WaveGenesis SE10000H (10KW) inverter. The system has been excellent in our particular shady location. I was planning to upgrade to a battery and EV charging system when we take those 2 next steps.
I guess my question is now what should I do and can alternate EV chargers + batteries be successfully coupled to my current inverter without creating ongoing compatibility problems.
I was waiting on any upgrades with a view that in time a small town EV suitable for our limited could also in the future be my battery as we are retired now and some drawdown overnight would not be a problem in our current situation.
Any suggestions on should I upgrade the inverter in preperation prior to the Solar Edge exit from Aus appreciated.
As an aside we currently export 70% of our generated power to the grid with the system installed for 3 years during the first 2 years no power bills. Now $60 per month
The provision of fast shutdown capability is simply not understood well in Australasia, nor is it’s role in ensuring the safety of emergency service workers. After a lifetime of work in the electricity sector, the idea that any circuit has no means of effective isolation, no earth fault or over-current protection – but it’s operating at voltages well into the potentially lethal range – scared the hell out of me. It should scare the hell out of you too.
I’ve seen SolarEdge products described as a scam, which they clearly are not. SolarEdge has certainly had reliability problems, but the underlying technology provides a level of fault handling simply not present in your average unfused, unmonitored, uncontrolled solar string operating at lethal voltage.
As to warrant claims, how many people think that getting a replacement for a five year old purchase will be straightforward (or even possible). Putting your faith in 25 year warranties seems, ahhhh, optimistic
If my SolarEdge inverter failed could I connect it to my existing (LG) panels?
I’m not sure how the approved hardware list views this sort of update.
Hey, I don’t think that’s an accurate reflection on the SA rep Anthony calling him ‘Mythical’, and if you ask anyone who knows him well, that is tripe. I never had any issues with him, support has been anwesome and communication prompt and honest.
Not a good time to go criticising when people who have been working for the company for many years have now lost their jobs.
Jason
Well said, he’s an absolute ripper, and so is the rest of the SolarEdge crew. Have a chat with any installer who deals with them regularly and you’ll hear exactly the same thing. Not a good look putting the boot in mate.
I am currently having two 9.7Kw SolarEdge batteries and EVOne charger fitted to my current system. I wish I could change my mind now but too late.
SE can send notices via their app, they didn’t send this or any email advice.
This proves that companies with good products can still screw themselves.
Been an SE owner since 2013, had 3 inverters, original failed and replaced. Its warranty replacement was lost in transit for 3 months.
The 2nd was replaced and upgraded with our recent SE battery installation. I did not expect the inverter to be upgraded with the battery & backup replacement in June 2026. We did have to wait nearly a year for the battery. I highly suspect that was due to the USA factory coming online. I didn’t want multiple systems from various vendors and then have them dispute who did what to break it. I had no issues with our local installer and apart from actually getting the unit they had no problems with SE support.
Lifetime production is 46mw. It started as a 3kw system, now it’s 6 with a new 10kw inverter. Installing old or new non approved panels may void insurance. No cheapies
I have a SolarEdge system with optimisers which was installed because of issues with shade. I investigated getting a solaredge battery earlier this year, but could not find a (responsive) installer who would do solaredge.
A follow up article about options for people with SolarEdge systems with optimiser would be very helpful.