Solar Power Is Finally Becoming Accessible To Everyone

Residential solar is a beautiful image. A big house, with a green yard, and solar panels on the roof. The problem is a significant percentage of the population doesn’t live that way. In Europe, 46% of people live in apartments, and in many countries, it’s significantly higher. It also remains to be seen if the people that care most about the environment, and their footprint, are the ones that purchased large homes with a roof that is the best fit for residential solar in its current form. Current solutions also typically have an upfront investment, and the resulting payback period means people need to be comfortable losing funds if they move. All these factors make residential solar an opportunity that is only available to certain socio-economic groups, and this holds back adoption and progress on climate change. This is now changing.

Allume Energy (“Allume”), out of Australia, is one of the leaders that is tackling this problem with new technology and structures. Their SolShare technology connects multiple residential units within a single building to a rooftop solar PV system. Before this technology, if you wanted access to solar power and lived in an apartment your options were limited. Sometimes you had no options. In other instances a utility allowed you to pay more for cleaner energy but a variety of factors, outlined below, made that very expensive. The lack of ownership in this approach, and audit trail, also naturally delayed adoption as people paid more but were never entirely certain what change they achieved.

The big benefit, after widespread access, is the reduced cost. “Accessing behind-the-meter solar energy is cheaper than grid electricity,” said Allume CEO and Co-Founder Cameron Knox. “This is because you avoid the electricity distribution fees which are incurred when the utility sells you energy.” An easy way to picture these cost savings is that it is easier to use energy generated on your roof than the energy that was generated in a power plant several hundred miles away.

The approach has also allowed for better commercials compared to the large upfront investment people typically have to meet: it’s structured to have no upfront cost. “You pay a Solar Connection Fee, which Allume ensures is less than the utility savings the solar system generates”, said Cameron. “This means you save money from day one, and hence if you move out you are not out of pocket.”

The proliferation of this technology opens up other benefits for communities. The electrical grid, which will rapidly find itself under stress due to EV adoption, will see its load reduced as apartment buildings are receiving some local power from their system. Systems of this size are also a better fit for battery technology in its current form, as an increasing proportion of SolShare systems have a shared battery bank. This shared battery bank can then charge and discharge at key times.

SolShare is currently installed in Australia, New Zealand, England, Wales, and the US. Whether Allume continues to be the leader remains to be seen but the value proposition is a positive step change from both a consumer standpoint and for those that care about the environment. Putting choice into the hands of people has always been a recipe for faster adoption and adoption is critical in solving big problems.