Solar technologies have long been a pillar of sustainable energy, accounting for almost 10% of Australia's total electrical energy production in 2019. One of the incentives driving this adoption is the Small-scale Energy Certificate (STC) program offered by the Australian government, which offers discounts for the purchase of small-scale solar energy equipment such as solar panels and inverters.
A compliance industry has emerged from the introduction of these incentives in order to verify the eligibility of residential solar installations for STCs. This is because only a certain set of solar equipment are approved for STCs. When an application for STCs is incorrect either due to fraud or accident, the compliance industry is fined by the government. Therefore, this process is critical and involves reviewing a large amount of photographic evidence, which is time-consuming and prone to errors. But what if this didn't have to be the case?