Sydney apartment block goes solar, plus 24 Tesla Powerwall batteries

A new-build apartment complex in Schofields, in Greater Western Sydney, will offer its tenants access to cheaper solar power via a 201kW rooftop PV system and 24 Tesla Powerwall battery systems, or 324kWh of storage.

The solar and battery-powered Bottlebrush residential development was officially launched on Thursday after being completed through a partnership between property developer ALAND and power solution provider Energy Trade.

It is one of the latest projects in Australia working to bring apartment owners and renters into the picture on rooftop solar savings, from which they have traditionally been excluded.

Energy Trade said the building’s PV system would generate solar power – 70MWh a year – to be used directly on-site and stored in the batteries, which are thought to make up the largest Powerwall installation in a residential building in Australia.

The company said the configuration of the installation meant that the Powerwalls would discharge at peak usage times to reduce the amount of energy being drawn from the electricity grid.

The batteries’ combined total of 324kWh of storage capacity would be sufficient to meet the entire power load of the Bottlebrush complex, at average usage, for over five hours, Energy Trade said.

All told, and once the building is fully occupied, the solar and battery system is expected to meet around 45% of the site’s overall power load with electricity generated and stored onsite.

“It makes me so proud to see this site ‘live’,” said Energy Trade sales director Darren Read in a statement on Thursday.

“Knowing not only the positive impact this will have on the environment but also the community who live here is so exciting.

“This is just the beginning – we live in the perfect environment to benefit from solar and batteries and with this flagship development Energy Trade is truly leading the way.”

The Bottlebrush complex is one of a number of projects that Energy Trade and ALAND have partnered together on, in a joint effort to deliver what ALAND founder Andrew Hrsto calls the 
”latest technology” in affordable building construction.

“The development has been thoughtfully designed and built to allow apartment owners to benefit from being part of a more sustainable future with the installation of a bespoke energy solution,” said Hrsto.