This article is about the Solar for Apartments program in Victoria, which provides rebates for installing rooftop solar panels to help apartment residents, including renters, cut energy bills by up to $500 a year.
Thousands of solar panels are going up on apartment buildings across Victoria – cutting energy bills and putting money back into the pockets of families, thanks to the Allan and Albanese Labor Governments.
Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio today visited an apartment building in Alphington to open round three of the Solar for Apartments program – saving the average apartment household up to $500 a year on their electricity bills. “We’re making it easier for Victorians living in apartments to enjoy the benefits of free energy from the sun and save up to $500 a year on their energy bills with solar”, said Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio.
There will be 5000 rebates available to apartment residents under this round of the $32 million Solar for Apartments program. The program offers rebates of up to $2,800 per household or up to $140,000 per building for up to 50 apartments to install solar panels on their rooftop.
Since the program’s launch in February last year more than 3,200 families living in apartments, units and townhouses have installed solar.
Around half of the current uptake has been on apartments that are rented, allowing renters to receive the benefits of cheap solar and lower energy bills.
This means apartment residents will be able to soak up their own energy generated by the sun to power their appliances and heat their homes.
Rebates are available to Victorians living in apartment buildings, strata townhouses and units under the control of an Owners Corporation and sharing a common property rooftop.
Uptake is spread across metropolitan Melbourne, with the highest number of applications approved within the Merri-bek, Port Phillip, Yarra and Darebin local government areas.
For more information and to check eligibility, visit solar.vic.gov.au/apartments.
Victoria State Government
P: Calls in Australia: 1300 366 356
This post appears in Strata News #762.
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This article has been republished with permission from the author and first appeared on the Victoria State Government website.
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We are in the final stages of completing our solar project commenced last year and taking advantage of the Solar grants available through Solar Victoria. We are a 32 Apartment Block and I won’t deny that it has been 12 months of advocating and project managing and darn hard work. It helps to have more than one person as support. There is a lot of information on the Solar Victoria for apartments site plus I also used the Solar Quotes website and Wattblock to broaden my knowledge. As we have used a shared system we also had reference to companies that are now specialising in apartments. I have literally today been given access to see what solar we are using – and despite the hard work it is very exciting.
I tried on behalf of an 8 unit double storey block and the solar companies were not interested as it was strata block. Too difficult to do business paperwork etc. Easier for companies to deal with houses or houses on large estates. Theory always sounds wonderful until one tries to put it into practise.