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About the partner
Hillcrest is one of Scotland’s leading social housing providers, managing over 9,000 homes across Angus, Dundee, Edinburgh, Perthshire, Glasgow, Fife and Aberdeen.
Their mission: Help people live better lives with a vision to providing sustainable homes and creating positive futures.
Background of the project
Scotland faces unique retrofit challenges: a large proportion of older, hard-to-heat tenement and mill-style buildings that are expensive to upgrade using traditional methods.
Scott Court in Dundee, a converted heritage mill, was one such site.
Hillcrest had already installed solar PV on nearby houses, but the residents living in flats within Scott Court couldn’t benefit directly from solar power, leaving them excluded from energy efficiency improvements and bill savings.
The challenges
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Technical limitations: Conventional solar PV systems could only connect to landlord supplies, leaving flats unable to receive their own solar energy.
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Heritage restrictions: The mill’s listed status meant careful planning and design approvals were required before installing rooftop panels.
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Funding constraints: Delivering renewable upgrades in multi-dwelling buildings was costly without a viable funding model.
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Tenant impact: Hillcrest wanted a solution with minimal disruption to residents — no rewiring or in-flat installations.
What we did
Under the UK Government’s ECO4 scheme, Allume’s SolShare is recognised by Ofgem as an Innovation Measure, unlocking a 45% funding uplift. This enables fully-funded retrofit projects for housing associations with D-rated properties across the UK.
Using our SolShare technology, the world’s only technology that connects multiple flats to a single rooftop solar PV system, every flat at Scott Court now receives a direct supply of clean, renewable power.
The project was fully-funded, allowing Hillcrest to improve the building’s energy efficiency at zero cost.
Key outcomes:
- Increased the EPC ratings of all flats from D to high B.
- Delivered at zero cost to Hillcrest.
- Generated tangible bill savings for residents.
- No disruption to tenants – Installation is kept in common areas. No equipment required inside flats.
- Reduced carbon emissions.
- Recognised as Small Project of the Year at the Scottish Energy Efficiency Awards, celebrating innovation, perseverance and strong partnership between Allume, Saltire Facilities Management and Hillcrest.
“The installation of the SolShare solar PV system has helped bring modern energy efficiency to a historic, listed building.
Many of our tenants at Scott Court have already reported noticeable savings on their energy costs, with some saying they’re topping up their pre-payment meters far less frequently. This is a real and tangible step forward in our mission to tackle fuel poverty.
Scott Court is more than just a retrofit, it's a blueprint for the future of socially responsible, sustainable housing.”
David Conway, Head of Asset Management at Hillcrest
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