Apartment solar scheme tipped to polarise investors and owner-occupiers

According to one of Canberra’s largest strata management companies, there “hasn’t been a huge rush of interest” for the recently announced Solar for Apartments program.

Civium Facilities Management director Alex Boundy doesn’t expect the majority of owners corporations to take up the offer of up to $100,000 in grant funding, plus access to a zero-interest loan, to install rooftop solar in apartment complexes in the ACT.

He said, in the current financial climate, body corporates were tightening their belts and most had “higher priorities” when considering capital expenditure.

“We manage more than 800 buildings across the ACT and there hasn’t been an influx of interest since the program was announced on 24 November,” Mr Boundy said.

“What we’re hearing is the cost of living is increasing, insurance costs have gone up 30 per cent and, at the moment, leaking balconies are the big issue in Canberra’s older apartment buildings.

“While solar panels are a good, green initiative, it’s not at the top of the ‘must do’ list for most complexes.”

Co-funded up to $3.6 million under the Solar Banks Initiative of the Australian Government and the ACT Government’s Sustainable Household Scheme, the program aims to allow more Canberrans to enjoy cheaper, cleaner energy from solar and further support the ACT’s transition to a low-emissions future.

Mr Boundy said while apartment owner-occupiers might support the green initiative, the owners of investment properties “just want to lower their costs”.

“Generally, this level of expense would be tabled at an AGM and require approval from the majority of present owners. You would have very different responses from people with investment stock versus owner-occupiers – I expect it will be a polarising issue,” he added.

However, Mr Boundy said body corporates that were already investigating solar installation would “definitely welcome” the government funding.

“We have multiple schemes that are proactively investigating green initiatives, particularly solar, and this grant could be the final thing they need to push them over the line to having panels installed,” he said

Chief Minister Andrew Barr admitted that unit owners renting out their properties may be hesitant to help pay for solar on apartment buildings as they weren’t using the electricity in the building. But he said the program would help offset shared costs.

“Obviously, every apartment complex has shared energy costs. They have common areas, they’re often running lifts and those sorts of things, so the benefit for everyone in the complex is through reduced energy bills,” he said.

“This is important because it’s going to open access to solar for renters in Canberra on a scale that we haven’t seen before.”

Select Electrical and Solar Solutions CEO Josh Hollis said, in the past, cost had been the biggest hurdle for body corporates and agreed that “schemes like this will go a long way to making solar viable”.

“I think any opportunity that drives discussion and action around having solar installed is a great idea,” he said.

“The scheme will significantly reduce system costs and bring people together in a way where everyone benefits – which is sometimes pretty hard to achieve for apartments.”

Josh is currently working closely with seven body corporates that he said were “really excited about having solar installed”.

He said large, unoccupied and unobstructed roofs were perfect for solar and while apartment buildings presented their unique challenges, they “tick all the right boxes when it comes to being a good space to install solar”.

“Solar costs are typically a lot cheaper in the construction phase and, with so many apartments going up around Canberra over the past years, something like this would have been great a few years ago,” Josh added.

“That being said, hindsight is a wonderful thing and there are still plenty more buildings to come, so I think it’s important to focus on where we are now – which is a pretty good position to be in.”

About $3.6 million has been allocated to the scheme and only owners corporations can apply for funding.