Find Renewable Energy Subcontractors in Australia

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Solar and battery work carries an accreditation layer that sits on top of the electrical licence, and it is the accreditation, not the licence, that determines whether a system qualifies for rebates and certificates.

This page covers what gets subcontracted in this sector, the credentials worth confirming, and how a job runs on Workforce Marketplace. Early access is open.

What gets subcontracted

The work most often subcontracted covers:

Residential and commercial solar PV installation
Battery storage installation and retrofit to existing systems
Commercial and industrial rooftop and ground-mount arrays
EV charger installation across sites and fleets
Inverter replacement, fault-finding and system remediation
Operations and maintenance contracts on installed assets
Grid connection applications and the network liaison that goes with them

Credentials that matter here

Two things must both be true: the business must be licensed to do electrical work, and the installer must be accredited for the system type.

CEC Accreditation, Solar PV Installer, issued nationally by the Clean Energy Council. Required for a system to qualify under the certificate schemes
CEC Accreditation, Battery Storage Installer, a separate accreditation from solar PV. Holding one does not confer the other
Electrician’s Licence and Electrical Contractor Licence, issued by the state electrical safety office
Working at Heights and EWP tickets, which apply to essentially all rooftop work
ASP Level 2 where the scope includes the network connection itself

The accreditation is held by an individual, not the business. On a commercial job it is worth confirming that the accredited person is the one who will actually be on site and signing off, rather than a name on the company profile.

What to confirm before work starts

An active ABN. Where a supplier does not quote one, you are generally required to withhold 47 per cent of the payment and remit it to the ATO. Their GST registration also tells you whether the price should carry it.

That the credential is held by the entity you are contracting with. A person can hold a qualification while the business you are paying holds nothing. Check the name on the document against the name on the invoice.

Insurance appropriate to the scope. Public liability is the common one. Depending on the work you may also need professional indemnity, and workers compensation if they carry their own staff.

That the engagement is genuinely a contract for services. Since the Fair Work amendments the test looks at the real substance of the relationship rather than the label on the paperwork, and getting it wrong creates back-pay, superannuation and payroll tax exposure. Contractor vs employee in Australia sets out how it now works.

Writing a scope that gets comparable quotes

Solar quotes are notoriously hard to compare because the panel and inverter selection dominates the conversation while the install conditions drive the cost. Say what the roof is and its condition, whether the switchboard needs upgrading, how far the cable run is, whether scaffolding or an EWP is required, who handles the grid connection application, whether monitoring and commissioning documentation are included, and what the workmanship warranty covers as distinct from the product warranty.

How it works on Workforce Marketplace

Post the scope with the payment structure it actually uses, whether that is fixed price, hourly, daily, quoted or split into milestones for staged work. Subcontractors apply, and you compare them side by side rather than chasing callbacks.

Every account is ABN-verified at sign-up. Beyond that, subcontractors can submit licences, certifications and insurance for verification, which we review rather than grant automatically. Their profile shows the status against each credential without showing the document, the licence number or the ABN. Verification is opt-in, so a profile may hold credentials that have not been submitted, and it reflects the document as at the date it was reviewed rather than standing indefinitely.

Applying for work costs nothing and there are no leads to buy. Payment runs through Stripe, and Workforce Marketplace never stores your card or bank details.