By Vvon Engineering Team | Published | Updated
The constraint is usually the paperwork rather than the hardware. Why a net metering agreement stays with the connection, what the plant is honestly worth second hand, how to plan a relocation, and what to do with modules nobody will buy.
Solar EPC & street lighting RFQ checklist (TXT)
The question arrives in two forms and they need different answers. One is a factory closing that wants to recover value from a plant with fifteen or twenty years of life left in it. The other is a company moving premises and assuming the rooftop plant simply moves with them. Neither is impossible. Both are more constrained than owners expect, and the constraint is almost always the paperwork rather than the hardware.
A net-metering approval concerns a specific consumer and service connection. Before moving an array, ask the utility at the destination what new application, inspection, metering and agreement it requires. Assess the new site separately; the old approval does not establish the capacity or connection conditions at the new premises.
If the plant remains while the occupier changes, obtain the utility's written account and agreement process. Clause 3.4 K also describes a specific option after permanent closure of an industrial/commercial OPEX establishment: with prior utility approval, supply may go to another consumer on the same feeder or to the utility, subject to its conditions. This is not general permission to pool any two meters.
Before either route, read your own contract. If the plant was built under an ESCO, lease or power purchase arrangement, the equipment is not yours to move or to sell, and there will be a termination or relocation clause with a number attached. That clause governs everything else on this page.
Less than owners expect, and the value is not where they think it is.
The number that decides the whole exercise is dismantling cost. Taking a rooftop array down safely, with edge protection, crating modules properly and moving them down a factory stair, is slow and skilled work. On a small plant it can consume most of the resale proceeds, and a buyer who offers to remove it themselves will price that risk in.
Before disposal, identify a suitable authorised waste handler and confirm the requirements with the Department of Environment. Do not assume that a scrap-metal buyer provides compliant handling for the complete module. Obtain a documented route for damaged modules and retain transfer records.
The practical options, in order of preference: ask the module manufacturer whether they operate a take-back scheme covering this region, since the larger makers increasingly do; sell working modules into the small second-hand market for low-value applications rather than scrapping them; store them properly, dry and vertical and off the ground, if a buyer is realistically likely; and if they must be scrapped, use a licensed handler and keep the documentation. Broken modules in particular are not general waste. Keep them out of the rain and out of a skip.
Consult the relevant edition and the documents for the exact equipment and site: SREDA: Net Metering Guidelines and current application documents; JinkoSolar: model datasheets, certificates, installation manuals and warranties; NREL: photovoltaic and energy storage operation and maintenance. Net Metering Guidelines 2025, English.
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