Going out on your own as a solar installer in WA
Checked against Electrical Licensing Board through Building and Energy, plus Solar Accreditation Australia for the rebate on 8 August 2026.
To take jobs in your own name
Electrical contractor's licence
The restricted licence exemption that helps air conditioning does not help here, because solar is electrical installing work beyond any restricted scope. You need both the electrician's licence and the contractor's licence.
And underneath it, to do the work
Electrician's licence (full, not restricted)
A restricted electrical licence does not cover solar PV installation. Building and Energy's position is that apart from some mechanical work like building a battery rack or fixing the panel brackets, almost all of a solar job is electrical work.
This is the one people get wrong: the licence that lets you DO the work and the one that lets you CONTRACT for it are different. Working for a boss you only need the first. Going out on your own you need both.
- What you need before you apply
- The full electrician's licence, then the contractor's licence. Separately, to create the small-scale technology certificates customers expect as a discount, you need accreditation from Solar Accreditation Australia as an installer, a designer or both.
- What it costs
- Effective 1 July 2026, excluding GST. Electrician's licence: $218 for 1 year, $714 for 5. Electrical contractor's licence: $795 for 1 year, $2,101 for 3. SAA accreditation is charged separately.
- How long it takes
- Building and Energy publishes conflicting figures, between 6 and 10 weeks. Assume the longer one.
- What you can do without it
- No dollar threshold and no small job exemption. Almost every part of a solar install is electrical work.
- Insurance the regulator requires
- The contractor's licence requires a current public liability policy as a condition, and SAA will not accept an accreditation application without a certificate of currency either.
Read this before you rely on it
- Solar Accreditation Australia replaced the Clean Energy Council as the accreditation body on 29 February 2024. Plenty of pages online, including some government ones, still tell you to go to the CEC. They are out of date.
- Accreditation is not a licence. You can legally install solar without it as a licensed contractor, but the job cannot create rebate certificates, which in practice kills the sale.
Where this came from
Read off Electrical Licensing Board through Building and Energy, plus Solar Accreditation Australia for the rebate on 8 August 2026. Fees and processing times usually change on 1 July, so check before you budget.
- https://www.wa.gov.au/government/multi-step-guides/electrical-contractor-licensing/apply-electrical-contractors-licence
- https://cer.gov.au/schemes/renewable-energy-target/renewable-energy-target-participants-and-industry/rooftop-solar
- https://www.wa.gov.au/government/multi-step-guides/lgirs-licensing-and-registration-fees-and-charges/building-and-energy-fees
Once you are up and running, we also have a page on what ONARA Ops does for solar installers.
When you are ready to take the first job
Once the licence is sorted, you need to look like you have been doing this for years: a website people can book from, and quotes and invoices with your logo that go out the same day you finish. That part is us.
We are not accountants, lawyers or insurance brokers, and none of this is advice. It is what the regulators and the ATO publish, gathered in one place with links to the source, so you know what to go and ask about. Rules and fees change, so check with the authority before you act on anything here. Government fees shown are for the 2026-27 year and are indexed every 1 July.