In the early 2000s we did an inspection of the racking before the panels were installed. I found copious corrections. The things that were wrong would usually result in a maintenance issue. Sometimes it was a start over situation.
Ten years in, the solar industry was able to hoodwink the legislature into mandating that we can only perform one inspection. Of course that was the final inspection and there is no way to see most of the installation. It was at that point that inspectors quit bothering to inspect the array and simply approved what was hidden from view. The result was that there are now few inspectors that are proficient in solar. After all, why get excited about that which you can't inspect.
Granted, there is a seemingly 'plug and play' aspect and that lulled the legislators into complacency however, there is an ever changing landscape serving the solar industry. New racking methods, new players and a new installer at every turn create an environment that bears watching rather than throwing up the hands and treating solar like any appliance on sale at Home Depot.
The Standard Plan approach works great for swimming pools because we inspect at each milestone. If we removed the interim inspections and performed a cursory plan check at the final inspection the house of cards would fall. It is the same with solar. We plan check after it is completed with no interim inspections. The analogy of the swimming pool is apropos in that once it is done you do not see the defects.
In the long run, I suppose I am tilting at windmills. As the systems fail they will be beyond fifty percent efficient so what does it matter? The random fires and electrocutions will be scarce enough to not cause panic.
I guess that I an disappointed that the uproar that I engendered while on the UL2703 Standard Making Panel was for naught.
