With the help of a grant from Solar Victoria’s Solar for Apartments program, Ed and his neighbours were able to install a solar system on their apartment block in Brunswick.
“We had 53 solar panels installed in December 2024,” says Ed, who led the project. “It cost about $55,000, and the grant covered $42,000.”
He explains that their three-storey building is ideal for a shared solar system, because it has plenty of roof space to fit lots of panels.
“There are only 15 units and most residents are owner-occupiers,” he says. “That made it easy to speak to everyone and get them to sign up.”
Solar sharing technology for apartments
With the support of his Owners’ Corporation, Ed got preliminary approval for a grant. He then approached Allume Energy, whose SolShare technology enables a single rooftop solar system to be connected to multiple apartments.
“The SolShare is important because it allows the electricity that’s generated to be split up according to the units’ usage,” says Ed. “It means all households get to share the solar evenly.”
Saving power and money
With the grant secured, the system cost Ed and his neighbours less than $1,000 each. They were able to pay that using their OC’s maintenance fund.
“Everyone was pretty happy with that,” says Ed. “Having solar definitely raises the value of our units, as well as reducing our power bills.”
The system has already generated 18 megawatt-hours of clean electricity in its first six months, and saved over 18 tons of carbon emissions. This is equivalent to planting about a thousand trees.
Ed encourages other apartment residents to look into the Solar Victoria program.
“You can get up to $2,800 per unit, and it just takes a bit of work by someone keen to drive the project. I’m very pleased that I went to the effort of doing it. Go for it if you can!”
