Now that the heat surrounding this post seems to have subsided, it is perhaps time that we returned to Julie McLean’s original point, namely that strata committees need to start planning for full electrification of their buildings.
This issue is not going to go away. Unit owners, residents and prospective buyers are increasingly expecting that apartment buildings will become more like the millions of homes that already enjoy the financial benefits of solar panels, the hundreds of thousands of homes that have installed batteries to maximise the benefits of their solar panels and the increasing number of dwellings that are leaving gas behind. Some strata committees are already moving in this direction and many more would like to know where they can begin.
The body corporate committee of our apartment building in Brisbane recognised the changing climate of opinion (if you will excuse the pun) and early in 2020, started looking at how they might introduce solar energy into the scheme. The outcome was the purchase and installation of a solar energy system to support the building’s electricity requirements for its common needs – lift, lighting, basement carpark gate, pumps and the like. The system has been operating since September 2020.
The committee has recently produced a case study on how it went about this project and what the financial outcomes have been. In short, the power bills for common services have been cut by over 60% and the payback time for the capital cost of the system is just over 3 years. Because the body corporate owns the solar energy system, we are able to change our electricity retailer when their prices get out of kilter with other retail offerings in the market; we are not locked in to a specific supplier as you probably will be with an embedded system. We are also free to source our mains electricity from those retailers with greener credentials than the major players if our owners wish to go down that path.
The committee is now turning its attention to planning for a more integrated system that will encompass a move away from gas to heat our centrally provided hot water, the installation of a suitable battery to maximise the generating capacity of the solar panels we have, the gradual introduction of electric vehicle charging and hopefully, the extension of solar power to individual apartments. We are quietly confident that over time, these changes will be reflected in higher market valuations of properties in the scheme as well as generating ongoing savings for owners and occupants.
A copy of our case study can be obtained by simply sending me a message with your contact details and we will be happy to send you a copy.