Revolutionising how solar can be shared: Allume Energy

Why Melbourne?

Allume was born out of the University of Melbourne’s, Melbourne Accelerator Program, founded by graduates of the university. With Australia having the highest rooftop solar penetration of any country globally, and Melbourne being our most populous city; it was the perfect place to develop and commercialise a cutting-edge solar technology designed for the urban environment. Since day one Allume has adopted a local manufacturing approach, ensure close proximity to the production line to ensure quality, whilst benefitting from Melbourne’s world leading engineers in this space. 

Challenge

Most of the 2.5 million Australians living in apartments – more than 10% of the population – don’t have access to the benefits of cheap solar power, despite the increasing cost of mains power and overall cost of living. When including townhouses, 30% of the population reside in strata titled environments, where shared roof ownership and metering restrictions has traditionally made solar difficult. 

Rooftop solar on multi-dwelling strata developments is fundamentally prohibitive due to the complexity and cost of installation and sharing the savings with residents. Conventional solutions also require upfront investment that puts solar out of reach for many socio-economic groups.  

Similar hurdles exist for apartment dwellers around the world. This is despite multi-dwelling buildings being able to make much better use of solar power than freestanding properties, and despite the predominance of apartment-style of living in so many countries. For example, more than 46% of Europeans and almost 90% of urban Chinese living in apartments. Few have access to rooftop solar. In Australia, the percentage of strata developments with rooftop solar is less than 1%. 

Apartment living is on the rise in Australia, which makes this wasted opportunity increasingly hard to ignore. More than 80% of City of Melbourne residents already live in apartments and by 2032, people living on their own will become Australia’s second-largest cohort. (National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation 2023)

Additionally, Victorian Government plans to redevelop all 44 public high-rise towers by 2051, is expected to triple the number of residents who can live in public housing. 

Overcoming the technical, logistical and cost challenges of putting solar on strata developments is an urgent issue, especially for the millions of apartment dwellers around the world who deserve to benefit from access to clean energy. 

Solution

Brainchild of Melbourne energy company, Allume Energy, SolShare is world-first smart hardware that physically splits the energy from a single rooftop solar system and divides between multiple dwellings in a manner that maximises resident savings.  

SolShare is compatible with apartment buildings as small as five units, to as large as 100+. This broad range puts it in the sweet spot for most strata developments in Australia and around the world. For apartment residents, SolShare can cut their electricity consumption from the grid by 40% on average. 

Here’s how it works. As the electricity is piped down from the building’s solar system, it enters the SolShare device, which splits the energy according to the demand in the building at the time, allowing for those solar generated electrons to physically reach each apartment.  

A clever sharing algorithm then decides where and when to send the energy in the building so everyone gets the right amount. This might be an equal share or vary according to apartment size. It also sends some to common areas. The software ensures solar energy consumption is maximised and as little as possible is fed back into the grid.  

Compared to the usual upfront investment for solar, SolShare allows the cost to be shared across the whole strata, this means less componentry and less ongoing maintenance costs when compared to individual solar system approaches per apartment. When an apartment connects, they are provided access and ownership of their solar in the same way to that of a standalone home getting solar on their rooftop, except only in a more efficient manner.  

The SolShare can share energy from a shared battery bank just like it does a shared solar array. This shared battery bank can then charge and discharge at key times, offsetting evening load when the sun has set. Although most SolShare systems are initially taken up as solar only, SolShare systems allow the future retrofit of battery banks where the strata desires. 

Result

After four years in development, Allume Energy released SolShare in 2019 after successfully trialling the product in a community housing development in Preston. Made in Melbourne, the technology is now installed in seven countries including Australia, the US and the UK. 

Various government incentive schemes around the world are helping Allume rapidly scale SolShare deployments. Uptake is most vigorous in the UK, where the government and retailers have allocated the equivalent of $15.5 billion to reduce energy poverty and decarbonise public housing. US government subsidies are also likely to help SolShare secure some of the growing ‘multifamily affordable housing’ market.  

Closer to home, the Victorian Government’s $16 million Solar for Apartments scheme prompted 276 inquiries for SolShare in the first few months since its announcement, and a similar scheme in the ACT is also expected to boost solar take-up on apartments.  

Allume Energy’s investors include Google founder, Eric Schmidt, Mirvac, Taronga Group, Elemental Accelerator (in the US), and the Qantas super fund.