Melbourne-headquartered cleantech company Allume, has connected 10,000 apartments to rooftop solar energy in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and USA.
The company’s enabling technology, SolShare, currently connects 6,000 apartments of the 10,000 in Australia where its data shows resident bills are 34% cheaper on average per apartment, or by approximately $381 per year.
Allume Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Cameron Knox said it’s a matter of pride knowing homegrown technology is providing people – who were previously locked out – with direct access to cheaper, cleaner solar power right from their own rooftops.
“Connecting 10,000 households to SolShare proves that the transition to renewables can, and should, be accessible to all,” Knox said.
Government subsidy programs have fuelled momentum for solar for apartments, including Victoria’s Solar for Apartments Rebates and the New South Wales (NSW) Solar for Apartment Residents (SoAR) Grant – which make the economic case a no-brainer for owners committees.
Pairable with any solar system, SolShare is a leading power division control system
(PDCS) providing functionality to supply the AC energy outputted from a solar inverter to multiple grid-connected units behind-the-meter.
SolShare has a maximum recommended input capacity of 22 kW, and can be connected to 15 units, while the behind-the-meter solution requires no change to smart meter infrastructure, a company data sheet explains.
“As the solution is modular, it enables multiple SolShares to be installed on buildings of more than 15 apartments.”
“The SolShare unit is placed between the inverter and the main switchboard, receiving one three-phase AC input from the inverter and outputting up to 15 single-phase or 5 three-phase AC outputs, or a combination of both.”
“Outputs are wired on the load side of each unit’s meter, at the building’s common main switchboard.”
Veronica, an Allume customer and resident of a 13-unit building in Camperdown said electricity bill savings are substantial compared prior to installing solar.
“It was about $120 (USD 85) to $130 a month, and now it’s down to about $70 or $80 a month. So I’m saving I think about $50 a month since installing solar… [there’s no] alternative to allocating solar out to each apartment apart from using Allume and the SolShare device,” she said.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.