Solar ceiling smashed as Melbourne apartment block shares PV and batteries
A ground-breaking solar and battery microgrid system has been installed on an apartment block in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, smashing the “solar ceiling” for its tenants, and potentially millions of others who have been “locked out” of cheaper, cleaner energy.
The 70kW of solar and 54kWh of battery storage – installed by the now RACV-owned Gippsland Solar – was delivered in partnership with new-comer retailer Ovida, shared solar start-up Allume Energy, Housing Choices Australia, the Australian Energy Foundation and RMIT.
It uses the Solshare energy distribution technology pioneered by Allume, which connects the 52 apartments and allows for the rooftop generated and battery stored solar power to be shared between them.
Allume said on LinkedIn on Thursday that it was excited to launch its first installation under the Community Energy Hubs Project, in an event attended by Victorian energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio.
The state government last year committed $1 million in grant funding to the Community Energy Hubs project, which ultimately aims to install shared solar and battery storage systems in three multi-tenanted buildings.
“52 low-income households now have access to clean, affordable electricity in this world-first integration of shared solar and batteries,” Allume said on LinkedIn.
“The SolShare ensures solar and battery power is sent to whichever apartment is using energy at that time, to maximise use of solar, and minimise consumption from the grid.”
D’Ambrosio said the Labor Andrews government looked forward to seeing the results of more projects in its $15 million Microgrid Demonstration Initiative.
“We’ve made it out mission to help more Victorian households access solar technology – helping to bring down their energy bills, reduce emissions and pump more power back into the grid,” she said on Wednesday.
“Projects like this go the extra mile to ensure low income households and renters can enjoy the benefits of solar.”
Allume switched on its first commercial shared solar system in May of 2018, at a mixed residential and retail building in the Melbourne Bayside suburb of Highett.
As One Step reported at the time, that 7.2kW Solshare enabled system is now delivering cheap PV power to five apartments, a baker, a hair salon, and an occupational therapist.
The Solshare technology – essentially contained within a small box – is designed to work within the building’s existing metering infrastructure, or “behind the meter,” to allow solar to be distributed and billed to individual apartments.
Allume worked with Ovida on that project, too, as financial backers with benefits – Ovida also happen to have obtained a electricity retail exemption from the Australian Energy Regulator for all states and territories except Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Their involvement allowed the rooftop PV system to be installed at no upfront cost through a 10-year “roof licence” with the landlord or the owners corporation.
Allume then charges the tenants for the solar electricity on a “pay for the power, and not the panels” basis, through a power purchase agreement, at a locked-in rate of 30 per cent less than the retail electricity price.
Since then, the Melbourne-based company has gone from strength to strength, including a partnership with property developer Mirvac, to use Allume’s Solshare technology in its new multi-tenanted buildings, starting at its Folia apartment building in Doncaster, Victoria.
As we have reported on One Step, the push to extend the benefits of rooftop solar to those without the means – or the roof – to install it themselves is quickly giving rise to a new breed of start-ups – SunTenants, Allume, Enova, and Power Ledger, to name a few.
Governments are also stepping into the breach, with a particular focus on extending access to solar and other energy saving technologies to rentals and lower income households.
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Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
Good to see that apartment blocks can now enjoy the solar ride.
Please investigate is it possible to have small sized wind mills 4 to 5 metres tall (made of carbon fibre) alongside solar panels producing power at night also. This will increase the capacity of the system and make it 24/7, Let me know the feasibility.
Hi Siddartha,
The microgrid has 54kWh of battery storage which is more than capable of meeting much of the night-time demand. The batteries are recharged during the day with excess solar.
In most wind regimes, the capacity increase would be highly marginal, and not come anywhere close to paying for itself for many years. The problem is that the building disrupts and slows down the wind, as do the trees and shrubs. If you go up 100 meters or more you get lots more speed, and what’s more important, energy in the wind goes up with the cube of velocity, so you get vastly more energy at 100 meters, assuming you are on the flats, and not on the brow of a hill, where the wind will be squeezed upward from valley floor, against the air above it, getting compressed and accelerated (at least somewhat) closer to the ground. You are better off buying electricity from a program that uses or purchases it from a wind farm, which will get much higher production, and lower levelized cost of electricity, than small wind turbines placed on a building.
but there is a heck of a lot of sunshine in Oz, solar with Tesla batteries, Bob’s your uncle and Scomo is doing a pub test somewhere.?
In Glasgow they installed small vertically oriented turbines un a ducting arrangement in the design of the building making use of its natural impact on the flow of air around the building. This worked. Ad ons don’t it has to be integrated into the building design
Will the renter still be able to choose a retail power provider? I believe that full retail contestability should be preserved.
Adding wind generation is an admirable goal.
However…
The standard bladed wind turbines have a real hard time functioning anywhere that the air flow is disturbed by structures under and around them. 5m high won’t be enough to avoid this issue.
There are a type of turbine that kind of resembles a vertical ‘barrel’ with flutes or cups to catch and use the wind to drive the turbine. They are much more tolerate with disturbed airflow at low heights. As an extra plus they don’t have anything like the sound profile of a traditional turbine. They also don’t require anything like the height of standard wind turbines.
Regardless of those above points any turbine sticking up into the air will cast shadows. With most currently installed pv panels a singĺe shadow just 50mm wide can disrupt the pv outputs significantly. Essentially ‘isolating’ all the pv cells out into the pv array beyond the shadow. The affected pv cells will be unable to pass power past the shadow and into the inverter. Result an instant downgrade of system capacity.
I would carefully consider just where those shadows would interfere with the solar array before going past the planning stage for your project.
It’s a shame that they couldn’t fit a bigger array on the roof (I assume) as it is a bit too small.