If you could hang solar panels off your apartment balcony, would you? This is the question we asked our readers this morning.
Susan, whose North Sydney apartment has a large terrace area, said she’d be “most interested”.
David, a Naremburn local, said his family back in the UK is currently planning to install the technology, and that given the opportunity he’d also plug in panels on his apartment balcony.
How we got here: “Balcony solar panels” went on sale for the first time in the UK last week, a technology that has spread across Europe but is currently illegal in Australia.
Pippa, a Mosman apartment dweller, told the Lorikeet that after living for years in the Netherlands she missed the benefits of solar and could not believe “how expensive utilities are here in Australia”.
Many more locals said they’d be keen on the technology, particularly those living in flats. Across the North Shore, apartment living is on the rise: in North Sydney, it now surpasses 75 percent.
So why is the technology currently illegal? And can that change?
What happened: Balcony solar technology has already taken off across Germany and Spain, where apartment dwellers can buy a system (generally costing around $1000 AUD), hang it off their balcony, and plug it into the wall with no electrician needed.
While the smaller system won’t be able to power an entire household itself, it can certainly reduce electricity bills, and can potentially pay itself off in three years.
But in Australia — a country leading the world in solar power elsewhere — the technology remains illegal.
Why? While there are multiple factors restricting use in Australia, experts say none are insurmountable, and some groups are pushing for the government to do more to eliminate them.
Glen Morris, a solar engineer with 35 years in the industry, told the Lorikeet there are four main barriers blocking a similar roll out in Australia.
Currently in Australia, if you want to use something that puts power into the wall — rather than taking it out — you need a certified electrician to come connect it for you. Morris says this effectively kills the cost-benefit argument of the tech, claiming the fee would likely cost as much as the system.
Approval also needs to be sought from the Distribution Network Service Provider — the people who own the poles and wires — to connect a system.
Then, in an apartment block, where these systems thrive, permission would need to be granted from the body corporate (and for renters, their landlord) which can be a complicated and bureaucratic process.
Finally, there are currently no safety regulations around the technology.
According to Morris, getting balcony solar in Australia comes down to the government cutting red tape and setting out clear regulations.
Dr Nicola Willand, an Associate Professor in property and construction, said the larger affordability crisis of housing would have an impact on uptake for renters.
She told the Lorikeet that in a housing market like the North Shore, where affordable properties are rare, many tenants won’t contact their landlord for basic fixes, let alone asking about the installation of solar panels.
She said if we wanted to help renters access solar, we would need to see broad changes to landlord tenant law — as occurred in Germany — to put more power in the hands of tenants.
This could mean landlords and body corporates would need reasonable grounds to stop a tenant from installing a PV system.
Government rebates have so far been successful in boosting residential solar uptake, but the benefits of solar haven’t been shared across all Australians.
While more than a third of NSW homes have a rooftop system, for apartments that drops to around three percent. The next step for the government is bridging that gap.
Thumbnail: Yuma Solar via Unsplash