How to expand access to affordable energy for people in apartments

Victorian MPs recently asked Allume’s CEO how to make solar more accessible to people in apartments. Here’s what he told them. 

“I think the combination of good technology and good policy can really be a beacon not just for the rest of Australia but the rest of the world,” said Cameron Knox, CEO of Allume Energy, in his opening statement at the Environment and Planning Committee’s Inquiry into Renewable and Affordable Energy for Apartments.

Knox was appearing before the Inquiry at a crucial juncture in energy policy. Victoria is targeting 65% of its energy to be delivered through renewables by 2030, and 95% by 2035. As of 2024/25, the actual percentage was 42.4% – a number that leaves a substantial gap to be filled in the next five years. A combination of good technology and good policy will indeed be needed in order to fill that gap.

Looking for opportunities beyond large-scale renewables projects, in December 2025 the Victorian Parliament kicked off the Inquiry to investigate the reasons why apartment residents, who make up around 12% of Victoria’s 2.5 million households, have been left behind in the renewable energy transition.

In addition to helping Victoria to meet its renewable goals, “Expanding access to rooftop solar for renters and social housing will ease the pressure of high electricity prices for vulnerable Victorians,” said Committee Chair Juliana Addison.

~12%

of Victoria's 2.5 million households live in apartments.

~25%

lower income on avg. for apartment residents in VIC compared to those in standalone homes.

42.4%→65%

Victoria's 2025 renewable energy share against its 2030 target.

When he met with the Committee in March 2026, Knox outlined four opportunities for Victoria to make solar energy more available to people living in apartments.

Build upon the success of the Solar for Apartments program 

“The Solar for Apartments program in Victoria is a really pioneering program. It was the first of its kind globally that was dedicated to solar for apartments and was very catalytic,” said Knox of the program that provides rebates of up to $2,800 per apartment (up to $140,000 per building) to install a shared solar system on multi-unit dwellings.

The program has made an impact on people living in apartments and has been a positive for the solar industry in general. However, the short-term nature of the program means the long-term benefits to the market will be limited.

“The industry is … wary of what we call sugar hit rebates, where you just get a quick period of time to capitalise,” Knox said, and concluded that the short-term rebates will not likely lead to long-term investment by the solar industry in the apartment market segment. The solution is to extend the rebates program.

An extension will drive market confidence, which in turn will lead to investment and momentum that will continue the push for solar for apartments even after the eventual ramp-down of the program.

Zero-interest financing

The rebates provide a foundational piece of funding for shared solar projects; however, they still leave a gap in the budget that falls to landlords, residents or the strata to cover. The remaining costs include enabling works, batteries and potentially expensive meter panel upgrades, which can be prohibitively expensive in older buildings. These costs are reason enough for projects to stall.

The solution, according to Knox, is zero-interest financing, a logical addition to the rebates program. “The feedback we have got from the industry is [that] it would be really impactful,” Knox said.

Having a zero-interest financing option would help remove the barrier that often leads people to do nothing. This kind of financing is especially key to motivating strata investors, because having the solar project fully funded makes the decision to participate straightforward.

Incentivise landlords 

The next idea for increasing access to solar for apartments came from Allume’s expertise in the UK market: provide landlords with incentives in the form of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).

The benefits of shared rooftop solar often fall to tenants in the form of lower energy bills. For strata investors, this is often not enough incentive to vote yes on an initiative to install a rooftop solar system on their apartment building, which requires capital investment.

That’s where EPCs come in. An EPC is a document related to the energy efficiency status of a property that must be provided whenever a property or apartment is sold, let, or newly built in the UK. Each property is evaluated and assigned a rating from A (most energy-efficient) to G (least energy-efficient) based on factors like insulation levels and the cost of heating and lighting. Properties rated F or G can’t be rented legally.

The contrasting impact of EPCs is their positive influence on property values. Research by Oxford Economics has shown that buyers are willing to pay 3.4% more for A to B rated homes compared to one rated D, and that F/G rated homes are hit with a penalty, as they sell for 7.4% less than a D-rated property.

These two factors, the regulatory requirement to meet minimum EPC standards, and the positive benefit in the form of an increase in property value, create a powerful dual incentive for landlords to support the installation of a shared rooftop solar system.

The EPC framework has been a massive driver of apartment solar adoption in the UK, Knox said. Australia is currently considering a similar policy in the form of mandatory energy disclosures. “We would really support the fast-tracking of [the proposed mandatory energy disclosure] in Australia, because we have seen that to have a really dramatic impact.”

Reform strata

The installation of rooftop solar on an apartment requires the owners to vote on a resolution raised by the owners’ corporation, the strata’s governing body. The voting rules vary from state to state, including the percentage of ’yes’ votes required to approve a solar project. Obviously, the lower the percentage required, the more projects that will go ahead. This has proved to be the case in New South Wales, which has lower voting requirements than Victoria.

New South Wales’ Strata Schemes Management Act 2021 included a provision called the ‘sustainability infrastructure resolution’, which allowed sustainability-related projects, such as rooftop solar, to pass even if fewer than 50% of votes were cast against them.

“We have seen a 37% higher conversion and a faster conversion of projects in New South Wales compared to Victoria, and we put most of that down to their lower threshold for voting,” Knox said. “Adopting or even beating the New South Wales rules in strata would be really dramatic in its impact.”

 ¹As of 2021 census figures, according to ABS data.