Who to hire for solar panels that need cleaning

Short answer

A solar installer or a specialist cleaner with height-safety equipment. Be realistic about the benefit: in most Australian suburbs rain does most of the work and the gain from cleaning is modest. Where it genuinely pays is under trees, near the coast, on low-pitch arrays, and anywhere with bird activity or nearby industry or agriculture.

Plan itThere is time to get more than one quote, which is where the money is.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Solar Installer.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Check production data first. If output has not dropped relative to previous years in the same season, cleaning will not recover anything.
  2. Look for the actual cause: bird droppings and lichen concentrate in patches and cost far more output than uniform dust, because a shaded cell can drag down a whole string.
  3. Check whether the installer's warranty has conditions about who may access the array.

What to ask when you book

  • What are you cleaning with? High pressure and harsh chemicals damage panel coatings and seals.
  • Do you have height safety equipment and insurance for roof work?
  • Will you photograph the array and report anything you find — cracked panels, lifted flashing, corroded isolators?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Roof pitch, height and access.
  • Number of panels.
  • Whether bird proofing is being installed at the same time, which is a common and worthwhile pairing.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

Cleaning itself is not licensed work, but working at height is regulated work health and safety territory, and anyone electrically isolating or disturbing the array needs the electrical licence.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for solar panels that need cleaning
A solar installer or a specialist cleaner with height-safety equipment. Be realistic about the benefit: in most Australian suburbs rain does most of the work and the gain from cleaning is modest. Where it genuinely pays is under trees, near the coast, on low-pitch arrays, and anywhere with bird activity or nearby industry or agriculture.
Does cleaning solar panels actually increase output?
Measurably, in the situations where soiling is concentrated rather than uniform — bird droppings, lichen, and heavy dust in agricultural or coastal areas. Where rain regularly washes the array, the recoverable gain is usually small enough that the cleaning cost takes years to earn back. Look at your production history before you buy the service.

Find a Solar Installer near you

1,516 solar installers in this directory, ranked on published evidence rather than on advertising.

Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.