A $25 million initiative to install shared rooftop solar systems for apartment buildings across New South Wales is now open for applications today after being officially launched by a high powered group featuring the prime minister and federal and state energy ministers.
The money is part of a broader package aimed at enabling people who live in apartment blocks, social housing, and others who are at present less able to benefit from at-home renewable energy to enjoy the same rewards, including reduced power bills.
Delivered jointly by the Federal and New South Wales State governments, the initiative was first announced in January last year, and its opening was announced in a press conference today at a nine-unit block in Ashfield, in Sydney’s inner west, one of the few unit blocks in NSW that sports solar panels.
According to a press release, the managers of the unit spent $50,000 installing the system, which has saved each household around $990 on their power bills per year.
Under the new scheme they would have received $25,000 in financial support.
Speaking to reporters at the event, prime minister Anthony Albanese said the investment would provide co-funding to owners, corporations and strata management companies to make the switch to solar.
Grants of up to $150,000 per project are available, and applications will close on 1 December this year. Owner’s corporations or strata managers of apartments or other multi-unit dwellings with 3 to 55 units that haven’t had a solar PV system installed in the last 10 years are eligible to apply.
“It’s estimated that this could save residents up to $600 a year on their power bills – so good for residents, cost of living, good for reducing our emissions, good for the environment,” said prime minister Albanese, as reported by the Guardian. “A win-win situation.”
Minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen added that though a third of Australian households sported solar systems, just 3.5 per cent of apartments benefitted from rooftop solar.
“The Albanese and Minns governments want to help people … make that transition quicker and easier in the future from today onwards,” said Bowen.
Bowen also took the opportunity to spruik his government’s renewables record while foreshadowing the uncertainty to come, as a Federal Election looms.
“We now have 46% of our electricity across the country being produced by renewables,” Bowen said. “It was 33% when we came in office. That is good progress.
“We are more than halfway to 82%, but all this is on the ballot paper in the not-too-distant future.”
The $25 million initiative is part of a broader $206 million fund, co-funded by the NSW and Federal governments, that will go towards upgrading energy systems in social housing and electrifying apartment buildings, including $30 million on what the scheme calls solar banks – otherwise known as solar gardens.
Solar gardens are designed to provide the benefits of home renewable energy to people typically less able to access it.
A solar garden is generally a solar array that is divided into ‘plots’, which people living off-site, often in buildings where rooftop solar cannot be installed, can purchase or lease.
The electricity generated from their plot is then sold to the grid, and participants receive credits on their electricity bills. The NSW state government reckons over 10,000 households will use the Solar Banks program, saving up to $600 annually on their electricity bills.
Kristy Walters, Director of the Community Power Agency, said at the time of that initial $206 million announcement, “community energy projects, such as solar gardens, play a critical role in the transition to renewable energy, not only in terms of megawatt capacity but also in creating social inclusivity, fostering social licence, and stimulating meaningful regional economic development”.
Rewiring Australia CEO Francis Vierboom welcomed the announcement.
“Apartment residents have long faced barriers to accessing solar but this policy will help change that,” Vierboom said.
Vierboom said that was particularly crucial, given around 20 per cent of NSW households lived in apartments.
“It is vital they too can benefit from lower bills and clean energy provided by solar,” Vierboom said.
But while he welcomed the funding, Rewiring Australia is calling for more dramatic measures, including requiring all new builds to be fitted with all-electrical appliances.
Climate Councillor and economist Nicki Hutley said Climate Council welcomed the move, which she said was crucial for ensuring no Australians were left behind in the energy transition purely because they lived in the wrong type of dwelling.
“Australians are seeking reprieve from high energy bills and rising costs of living,” Hutley said. “This initiative can level the playing field for apartment dwellers, ensuring they are able to access low-cost and abundant solar just like those who own houses.
“If we go further and ensure all new buildings have rooftop solar, more renters and apartment residents will gain access to solar over time and that benefits us all—by lowering bills and cutting dangerous climate pollution from coal and gas altogether.”
Installing rooftop solar on apartment buildings was a key opportunity identified in Climate Council’s Seize the Sun report.
Across the border in Victoria, Solar Victoria offers rebates of up to $2,800 per household for residents living in apartments, units, and townhouses – or up to $140,000 per property for buildings of up to 50 apartments – to install rooftop solar, though applications for funding round 2 of that program closed today.
Meanwhile in the ACT, owners corporations can apply for up to $100,000 in grant funds and a zero-interest loan to instal rooftop solar systems on apartment buildings.
And the Northern Territory has its own apartment solar rebate, offering grants covering up to 50 per cent of installation costs for shared solar systems, with a maximum amount of $7,500 per dwelling.
