In October 2023, the NSW government opened up $10m of co-funding for EV charging infrastructure in strata buildings. February 23rd 2025 is looking good for a $30m announcement by Minister, Penny Sharpe, which includes solar rebates for systems which feed solar power into individual apartments to reduce cost-of-living pressures.... 28 Pembroke St Ashfield, with 9 lots and an Allume Energy Solar Sharing System is the site for the ministerial announcement of Solar Banks for NSW. If you have 50 minutes to spare, we recommend that you watch our recent interview with Cameron Knox of Allume Energy on the Solar Banks funding programs for stratas in Victoria, ACT and NSW. The video is here. Otherwise, read on.... "The Australian Government is partnering with the New South Wales Government to provide $30 million for 2 solar banks programs. The programs will support:
We expect that duplexes which are technically strata buildings will not be able to participate in the Solar Banks rebates. We covered why in this article "The missing middle of solar on strata" which is here. It's too easy for duplexes to install solar themselves with little to no red-tape. Also, common area solar systems which power house services such as lifts, lighting, ventilation systems etc will not be eligible for Solar Banks funding. The target of the program is to reduce the cost of living in up to 10,000 residential lots in NSW, which have traditionally been locked out of solar. That means you have two choices as a strata scheme. If you are a townhouse complex with 3 or more lots, then you can get a quote to install individual solar systems for each townhouse as a bulk install by the same installer. It doesn't have to be every townhouse in the complex participating. In the Victorian Solar Banks scheme you had to have a minimum of 5 townhouses agree to install solar together, to be eligible for Solar Banks grant funding. The second choice is to use Allume Energy's "Solshare" system. Each Allume Energy Solshare can connect to up to 15 single phase individual lot meters to a shared solar system (or 14 individual lot meters and a single phase common area meter or 12 individual lot meters and a three phase common area meter). If you have more lots, then you need to buy more Solshares. In NSW, there are deployments of up to 4 x Solshares for a single apartment block feeding solar into a total of 60 units. If your strata building is a medium rise or a high rise with more than 60 apartments, we think it is very unlikely that you will be successful in developing a solar sharing solution which would be viable from a financial perspective and eligible for Solar Banks funding. If you want to see examples of NSW strata buildings using Allume Energy Solshare, you can review this blog here. Connecting solar to NSW apartment blocks is a bit more involved than Victorian apartment blocks. That is because Victoria did a statewide smart meter upgrade and all the apartment blocks are already upgraded to smart meters. In NSW, it has been apartment owner requested smart meter upgrades to this point in time. It is expected that NSW Solar Banks funding will cover upgrades to meter panels, that might be required, as a precursor project to installing solar which feeds into the individual apartments. In the ACT, a solar finance company called Brighte (backed by billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes) is providing administration of the Solar Banks program and also arranging a 50% loan to strata schemes which are eligible for the 50% rebate. This allows Owners Corporations to avail themselves of a $0 dollar down solar solution for their apartment block. It is expected that other strata financiers (e.g. Macquarie Bank, Lannock etc) will provide a similar type of lending facility to NSW stratas, except these are likely to be at unsecured lending rates i.e. very high interest rates. NSW has an advantage over Victoria in that in 2021, the NSW government passed the Sustainability Infrastructure Amendment to the NSW Strata Schemes Management act. This reduced the voting threshold for installing solar from a 75% threshold special resolution to a 50% threshold, via a sustainability infrastructure resolution. Watch a video on this here. Now, back to the EV charging infrastructure grants in NSW. When the NSW government portal opened up in October 2023, the program was oversubscribed within 6 weeks and they shut the portal to new registrations. Expect the solar applications to close in an even shorter time. In NSW the number of strata buildings which have already received a solar feasibility study inclusive of solar sharing, but haven't yet installed solar sharing, is greater than the number of stratas which will be given grant funding in the first round of NSW Solar Banks. In Victoria, one strata management company bulk uploaded over 150+ applications for their own strata buildings into the Solar Banks portal. That one strata management company went on to secure more than $2.5m of government funding for 892 individual lots across their portfolio. Expect strata management companies to do the same thing on day one in NSW. Also, in the Victorian program over 80% of the successfully funded strata applicants presented solutions involving the unique, Australian made Allume Energy "Solshare" system. We understand that if there were additional connection points to the Allume Solshare in the Victorian program, it was possible to connect up a common area meter to the Solshare, as long as the Solshare was primarily connected to individual lot electricity meters. There is another segment to the NSW Solar Banks funding, which wasn't in the Victorian or ACT schemes. That is renters and low-income owners will be able to get assistance buying solar panels in an "offsite" solar farm. This type of arrangement has come to be known as a "Solar Garden". The most famous of these is Haystacks. Watch a video on Offsite Solar and Strata apartment buildings here. Wattblock ran a number of EV charging infrastructure tenders to help strata schemes evaluate and select installers for the NSW government EV charging infrastructure grants programs. Examples of these include Wharf Terraces (Woolloomooloo), 10 co-located strata schemes in Waterloo Divercity/Rise, Presidio (Erskineville), Locarno by Mirvac (Forest Lodge) and The Gantry which was 6 co-located strata schemes in Camperdown. Wattblock has been running solar tenders for shared solar systems using Allume Energy's Solshare over the past 9 years. We are well positioned to assist simple to complex strata schemes "go-to-market" and find the best solar installer on a fee-for-advice basis. We don't receive any kickbacks or commissions from any solar installers, solar equipment providers or energy retailers and we don't provide any kickbacks to any strata managers. We don't receive any annuity income on solar finance opportunities from any strata lenders. However, if you want to find your own solar installer for the NSW Solar Banks program, you can try out Electrify Strata Installer Directory which is here. Type "Allume" into the Google search toolbar at the top of the map to find strata experienced solar installers who are accredited to install Allume Energy Solshare. Our list of Top 40 solar installers for strata is here. Additional resources which may assist you on your NSW Solar Banks for strata journey are: A map of NSW apartment buildings with Solar Sharing installed is here. Solar Readiness for Strata online training course here. 40 videos on solar for strata here. Find all government rebates and incentives available to NSW strata schemes here. This includes a separate battery rebate as part of the NSW government's Peak Demand Reduction Scheme at 5A) 20 videos of strata committee members talking about electrifying their strata buildings here. Examples of Wattblock customers in NSW which have installed Allume Energy Solshare here. Connect with over 100 strata electrification "champions" on the Electrify Strata Whatsapp community here To check on when the new grant is launched, you can search on this NSW grants and funding page here. Brent Clark Contributor, Strata Energy News Comments are closed.
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