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What does a solar install legally need?

Pick your state. You get who must be accredited, what licence they need, who approves the connection and the certificate you should be handed.

The rule is set by your state, then narrowed by your council.
Almost every household install claims it. It is what makes who installs it a legal question.

General information, not legal or building advice. Rules change and your council can be stricter — check the source linked in the answer, then check with your council.

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The four things every household install needs

  1. Someone who must be accredited with Solar Accreditation Australia if the small-scale rebate is being claimed.
  2. An unrestricted electrical licence in the state the work is done in. The Clean Energy Regulator says an installer must be accredited and hold one of these. Two tickets, not one.
  3. Network approval from your electricity distributor, before the system is connected and in most places before it is installed.
  4. The safety certificate for the electrical work, handed to you at the end.

The accrediting body changed in 2024, and most pages have not caught up

Your installer must be accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia, which took over as the scheme operator for the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. The appointment was announced in February 2024 and installers had to transfer across by that May. The Clean Energy Council has confirmed it no longer accredits installers or designers.

Here is the bit that trips people up. The Clean Energy Council still maintains the approved products list — the panels and inverters. So the CEC is still in the picture for the hardware and out of it for the people. A quote that still names the CEC as the body that accredits its installers is using a title that no longer exists.

Victoria inspects; nobody else we checked does

Rooftop solar is prescribed work in Victoria. That means an independent licensed electrical inspector has to inspect it before it is connected to supply — the installer cannot certify their own job. If you are in Victoria and nobody has mentioned an inspection, ask why.

What the network approval is actually for

It is not paperwork for its own sake. The distributor is deciding how much you may export and under what conditions, and those conditions now reach into the equipment.

  • NSW. Ausgrid limits exports to 1.5 kW if the inverter loses its internet connection for an extended period, and approves premises without reliable internet on a static 1.5 kW export limit.
  • Queensland. Energex caps a fixed single-phase connection at 10 kVA of inverter capacity, and allows up to 20 kVA on a dynamic single-phase connection — 10 kVA of solar plus 10 kVA of battery — without moving to three phase. A dynamic system falls back to the lower fixed export amount if it loses connection.
  • Western Australia. The standard application path covers systems up to 30 kVA. Replacing a single-phase inverter with one over 3 kVA on a three-phase connection needs a fresh approval.
  • South Australia. Export limits are site-specific — the number of phases, the system size, the devices and where you sit on the network all feed into it.

Widely repeated figures we could not confirm at a primary source are not on this page. Queensland’s much-quoted “5 kW per phase” basic limit is one of them.

Safety gear on your roof is not the installer padding the job

A roof is a workplace. Safe Work Australia’s model Code of Practice on managing the risk of falls applies to workplaces covered by the work health and safety laws, and an installer has a duty to manage that risk.

Two honest caveats. It is a model code, adopted jurisdiction by jurisdiction — Safe Work Australia’s own page tells you to check with your regulator whether it has legal effect where you are. And we are not printing a height threshold, because we could not source one that holds across the country. The point stands without a number: harnesses and edge protection are the job being done properly.

What we could not confirm

Stated plainly, because a gap you cannot see is worse than one you can:

  • The post-install certificate name in Western Australia and South Australia. Western Power’s Notice of Completion is a network step, not the consumer certificate, and we will not name a document we have not seen at its source.
  • The electrical licensing pages for Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Energy Safe Victoria is confirmed as the certificate regulator and WorkSafe Queensland as the certificates authority, but neither is a licensing-page quote.
  • Planning approval outside NSW. Roof panels are normally exempt development, but we only verified that for New South Wales.
  • Queensland’s widely-quoted 5 kW per phase export limit. Not sourced. The ACT figure above is, which is why that is the one on this page.

Next

Check a tradie’s licenceEvery state’s register, and what to search. Electrical work always needs a licenceThe national rule, whatever the job is worth. DecksHeight and area triggers, state by state. ShedsFloor area, height and setback thresholds.

General information for Australian homeowners and trades — not legal, planning or building advice, and not a substitute for your council or a building surveyor. Building and planning rules change, and your council can be stricter than the state rule. Every figure on this page carries the source it was read from and the date it was read; check it against that source before you rely on it. No regulator has reviewed this page. Yamate does not issue, lodge or approve anything.