If you have been in this trade for more than a couple of years, you will remember quoting your Approved Solar Retailer status like it was a badge of honour. It was. It told a customer you had signed up to a code of conduct, agreed to a real complaints process, and were not one of the fly-by-night mobs giving the whole industry a bad name.
Then the name changed, and half the industry didn’t get the memo.
So let me clear it up in plain English. The Approved Solar Retailer (ASR) Program no longer exists under that name. It became the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, or NETCC, on 1 February 2023 (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). If your business was an Approved Solar Retailer, you are now a New Energy Tech Approved Seller. Same idea, bigger scope, different register. If you are still telling customers you are an “Approved Solar Retailer”, you are quoting a program that has been retired, and a sharp customer or a competitor can pick that apart.
What actually changed on 1 February 2023
The short version: the badge got broader.
The old ASR Program was built around rooftop solar PV. That made sense a decade ago, when solar was the whole conversation. It does not make sense now, when the same customer who buys panels is also asking about a battery, an EV charger in the garage, and whether they can join a virtual power plant.
The New Energy Tech Consumer Code was designed to cover that wider basket of “new energy tech” products, not just solar PV (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). The Clean Energy Council, which most of us already know as the accreditation body, confirms the same transition on its retailer program pages (Clean Energy Council, 2023).
The code itself is not some voluntary marketing scheme either. It is an industry code authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is what gives it teeth around advertising, sales conduct, contracts and complaints handling (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2020).
Why the rebrand happened
I have watched this industry go from 165W panels to over 600W, and from RECs to STCs, so I have a bit of time for the argument that names should keep up with reality.
Think about what a “solar retailer” actually sells today. A quote that used to be twelve panels and an inverter is now, more often than not, panels plus a battery, sometimes an EV charger, and increasingly a pitch to join a VPP so the customer can earn from exporting stored energy. The word “solar” stopped describing the sale a while ago.
The rebrand to the New Energy Tech Consumer Code follows the money and the products. It widens the consumer protections that used to sit around solar PV so they cover the storage, EV and VPP side of the sale as well (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). For a customer, the promise is consistent: whoever they buy their new energy kit from, an approved seller has signed up to the same standards on how they advertise, quote, contract and handle problems.
For us on the business side, it means the code of conduct you are being held to now reaches further than the panels. If your reps are selling batteries and VPP sign-ups, the conduct rules ride along with those products too.
The practical scope expansion: storage, EV and VPP
This is the part the thin institutional pages skate over, so here is what it means on the ground.
Under the broader code, the same expectations around honest advertising, clear pricing, proper contracts and a working complaints process apply across the new energy tech range, not just the rooftop solar line item (Clean Energy Council, 2023). If a rep oversells what a battery will do for a customer’s bill, or fudges the numbers on VPP earnings, that is now squarely inside the conduct you are accountable for as an approved seller.
Battery storage, EV chargers and VPP products all carry their own claims that are easy to get wrong: backup behaviour during a blackout, realistic payback, what a VPP will actually pay per year. The code’s advertising and pre-contract rules were written to stop exactly the kind of loose promises that generate complaints twelve months later. If you sell it, you own the claim.
The other thing worth saying plainly: none of this touches your installer accreditation. Being a New Energy Tech Approved Seller is about the retail and sales side of the business. The technical accreditation that lets someone sign off on the install is a separate system, and that one has moved too, from the Clean Energy Council to Solar Accreditation Australia (Solar Accreditation Australia, 2024). Two different things, two different registers, and people mix them up constantly.
How to verify a seller’s current NETCC accreditation
Here is the step-by-step I would give any business owner or customer who wants to check standing before a contract gets signed.
- Go to the New Energy Tech Consumer Code source, not a cached PDF or a screenshot of an old ASR list (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). The old Approved Solar Retailer list is retired, so a business appearing on some archived version of it proves nothing about today.
- Cross-check against the Clean Energy Council’s current retailer program pages, which most people in the market already trust and recognise (Clean Energy Council, 2023).
- Confirm the business name matches exactly. Solar businesses trade under multiple entities, and the approved seller is the specific legal entity, not necessarily the brand on the ute or the website.
- If you are a customer, ask the seller directly for their New Energy Tech Approved Seller status in writing before you sign, and check it yourself rather than taking the salesperson’s word.
- Keep in mind the code’s obligations sit on top of your rights under Australian Consumer Law and the underlying code of conduct itself, which is worth reading if you want to know what “approved” is actually promising you (Clean Energy Council, 2020).
If you want the deeper version of what those conduct rules mean for a sales team day to day, I have written that up separately in what the CEC Code of Conduct actually means for solar sales reps.
What this means for installers and sales teams
Two things break if you are sloppy here.
First, your own marketing. Every “Approved Solar Retailer” line on your website, your quotes, your email signatures and your reps’ pitch decks is now referencing a dead program name. It reads as out of date at best, and misleading at worst. Update it to New Energy Tech Approved Seller and move on.
Second, your accreditation checking. If you run subbies, sales agents or a network of resellers under your approval, you cannot rely on the old ASR list to confirm anyone’s standing. Accreditation now needs to be checked against the current NETCC source and the Clean Energy Council’s retailer pages, not a list that stopped updating in early 2023 (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). If a rep’s or partner’s status has lapsed and you keep selling on the strength of it, that is your problem when a complaint lands.
This is exactly the kind of thing that quietly falls over as a business gets busy. Someone checks accreditation once at onboarding, files a screenshot, and nobody looks at it again for two years. Then the code changes name, the register moves, an entity lapses, and you find out during a dispute.
That live-record problem is a big part of why I am building CurrentFlow. The idea is to keep each rep’s and partner’s accreditation and compliance status in one place, tied to the jobs and contracts they touch, so verifying someone’s NETCC standing is not a manual lookup every single time a contract gets signed. As the code keeps widening into storage, EV and VPP, CurrentFlow is designed to keep that audit trail current alongside your consent records and call recordings, rather than leaving it in a folder nobody opens.
None of that changes the basic discipline, though. Check the source, match the entity, keep the record current. The name on the badge changed. The reason it matters did not.
References
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2020). Clean Energy Council: Solar Retailer Code of Conduct (authorisation register). https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/authorisations-and-notifications-registers/authorisations-register/clean-energy-council-solar-retailer-code-of-conduct
Clean Energy Council. (2020). Solar Retailer Code of Conduct (November 2020). https://assets.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/documents/approved-solar-retailers/solar-retailer-code-of-conduct-november-2020.pdf
Clean Energy Council. (2023). Approved Solar Retailer Program. https://cleanenergycouncil.org.au/industry-programs/retailers/approved-solar-retailer-program
Clean Energy Council. (2023). Retailers. https://cleanenergycouncil.org.au/industry-programs/retailers
New Energy Tech Consumer Code. (2023). The Approved Solar Retailer Program is now the NETCC. https://www.newenergytech.org.au/approved-solar-retailers
Solar Accreditation Australia. (2024). Check installer accreditation status. https://saaustralia.com.au/accreditation-status-check/
FAQ
What replaced the Approved Solar Retailer Program?
The Approved Solar Retailer (ASR) Program was replaced by the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC) on 1 February 2023. Businesses that were Approved Solar Retailers are now called New Energy Tech Approved Sellers, and the code covers a broader range of new energy tech products, not just rooftop solar PV (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023).
Is a New Energy Tech Approved Seller the same as a CEC Approved Solar Retailer?
It is the direct successor. The consumer-facing code of conduct that used to sit under the Approved Solar Retailer Program now runs under the NETCC, and the Clean Energy Council confirms the transition on its retailer program pages (Clean Energy Council, 2023). The standards around advertising, contracts and complaints carried across; the scope widened.
Does the NETCC cover batteries, EV chargers and VPPs?
Yes. The reason for the rebrand was to extend the code beyond solar PV to the wider new energy tech range, including battery storage, EV chargers and virtual power plant products (New Energy Tech Consumer Code, 2023). The same conduct expectations apply to how those products are advertised and sold.
How do I check if a solar seller is currently accredited?
Check the seller against the current New Energy Tech Consumer Code source and cross-reference the Clean Energy Council’s retailer pages, matching the exact legal entity name rather than the trading brand (Clean Energy Council, 2023). Do not rely on an old Approved Solar Retailer list, as it stopped being the live register in early 2023.
Is installer accreditation the same as being a NETCC Approved Seller?
No. Being a New Energy Tech Approved Seller relates to the retail and sales side of the business. The technical accreditation that lets someone install and sign off on systems is separate and has moved from the Clean Energy Council to Solar Accreditation Australia (Solar Accreditation Australia, 2024). Check both if you want the full picture on a business.