Australia’s Allume Energy has the world’s only technology that can share rooftop solar power with multiple units in a residential apartment building.

Australia’s Allume envisions a world where everyone has access to clean and affordable energy from the sun. It believes that everyone should have the power to reduce their electricity bills and carbon footprint, and that residents in multi-family housing have long been denied the opportunity to control their electricity consumption through rooftop solar. The company says its SolShare system solves that problem and provides low-cost, zero-emissions electricity to the people who live in those buildings, whether they own or rent.

Allume works with several partners in Australia, where many public housing units are reportedly unconditioned. They also often have little to no insulation, so the cost of running them can be a burden to low-income households if air conditioning is installed. Now, Allume is bringing its SolShare technology to the United States. In a press release dated March 15, it said it has successfully completed the commissioning of its SolShare clean energy technology at 805 Madison Street, an 8-unit multifamily building owned and operated by Belhaven Residential of Jackson, Mississippi. This latest project will help advance solar and metering technology in a market traditionally not served by renewable energy programs.

Solar Alternatives, a Louisiana-based solar contractor, installed a 22 kW rooftop solar array at 805 Madison Street. But instead of averaging solar energy between tenants, as most multifamily solar projects do, Allume’s SolShare technology measures solar output second by second and matches it to each apartment’s energy use. The project is supported by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, Central District Commissioner Brent Bailey and former Solar Innovation Fellow Alicia Brown, an integrated energy company that provides electricity to 461,000 utility customers in 45 Mississippi counties and assists with project funding.

“Belhaven Residential is focused on providing quality housing at an affordable price, and we have a comprehensive and long-term vision of how to meet the needs of our tenants,” said Jennifer Welch, founder of Belhaven Residential. “Implementing solar with the goal of providing cleaner energy at an affordable price is a win for our tenants and a win for our environment.” The installation of the SolShare system and rooftop solar will increase on-site clean energy consumption and reduce the energy burden for Belhaven Residential tenants, all of whom are eligible for Mississippi’s low- and moderate-income benefits under the State of Mississippi’s Distributed Generation Program.

“Residential consumers and building managers continue to pursue and embrace the benefits of a more sustainable energy mix, and I am pleased to see the results of our new rule and the partnerships that are developing in the community,” said Commissioner Brent Bailey. “The distributed generation rule provides a customer-centric program that reduces risk, reduces energy consumption and returns money to customers.”

SolShare is the only technology in the world that shares rooftop solar with multiple apartments in the same building.SolShare provides a solution for apartment building residents who want the environmental and economic benefits of rooftop solar and does not require changes to the existing electricity supply and metering infrastructure. Previous SolShare installations have proven to save up to 40% on electricity bills.

“Our team is excited to work with the Mississippi Public Service Commission and the Belhaven Residential team to lead Mississippi’s transition to clean, affordable energy,” said Aliya Bagewadi, director of strategic partnerships for Allume Energy USA. “By providing Jackson residents with additional evidence of SolShare technology, we are demonstrating a scalable model for more equitable access to the environmental and economic benefits of multifamily residential solar.”

Allume Solshare Reduces Utility Bills and Carbon Emissions

Technologies and programs that expand access to technologies like SolShare can reduce utility bills and decarbonize multifamily housing, which is especially important for low-income tenants. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, low-income residents in Mississippi currently bear the highest energy burden in the nation – 12 percent of their total income. Most households in the South have electric heating and cooling systems in their homes. Although Entergy Mississippi’s electricity prices are among the lowest in the nation, these factors and the region’s high temperatures have led to increased energy use, resulting in a higher energy burden.

Mississippi currently ranks 35th in the nation in solar energy adoption, and Allume and its partners believe installations like 805 Madison Street will serve as a scalable model to spread the benefits of clean technology and cost savings to more low-income residents in the Southeast.

“SolShare is the only hardware technology in the world that can split a solar array into multiple meters,” Mel Bergsneider, Allume’s executive account manager, told Canary Media. the first technology to be certified by Underwriters Laboratories as a “power distribution control system” – a category of technology created specifically to match SolShare’s capabilities.

This unit-by-unit accuracy is far from standard for multi-tenant solar projects, primarily because it is difficult to achieve. Connecting individual solar panels and inverters to individual apartments is both expensive and impractical. The alternative – connecting solar to the property’s master meter and producing it equally among tenants – is effectively “virtual net metering” in some permitted markets such as California or other methods that allow landlords and tenants to get credit for utilities from inaccurate electricity split up.

But that approach doesn’t work in many other markets, such as Mississippi, which has the lowest rooftop solar adoption rate in the country, Bergsneider said. Mississippi’s net metering regulations do not include a virtual net metering option and offer customers relatively low payments for the electricity output from rooftop solar systems to the grid. This increases the value of technologies that can match solar energy as closely as possible to on-site energy use to replace power purchased from the utility, Bergsneider said, adding that SolShare is designed for just this scenario. Solar self-use is the heart and soul of the SolShare system.

How Allume SolShare works

The hardware consists of a power control platform installed between the solar inverters on the property and the meters that serve individual apartment units or common areas. Sensors read sub-second readings from each meter to see how much power each meter is using. Its power distribution control system then distributes the solar energy available at the time accordingly.

Aliya Bagewadi, Allume’s director of U.S. strategic partnerships, told Canary Media that the SolShare system can do much more. “Our software enables building owners to look at the performance of their assets, see where the energy is delivered, what the [grid power] compensation is for my tenants and common areas, and switch where the energy is going,” she said.

Bagewadi says owners can use this flexibility to set up their preferred structure for distributing solar energy to tenants. That could include splitting solar usage based on apartment size or other factors, or letting tenants choose whether they want to contract under different terms that make sense for the property and the area’s solar economy. They can also transfer power from vacant units to units that are still occupied. Shared power systems can’t do this without turning off the meter.

Data has value, too

Data from the system is also valuable, Bergsneider says. “We’re working with large real estate companies that need to report on carbon footprint reductions, but they don’t actually know how much the rest of the building is using because they only control the common areas or can use the common area-district bill,” she says.

This type of data is increasingly important for property owners trying to improve the overall energy efficiency of their buildings. It is also important for those seeking to manage their carbon emissions profile to meet city performance benchmarks such as New York City Local Law 97, or to assess the performance of their portfolio in terms of environmental, social and governance goals, she noted.

At a time when demand for zero-emissions energy is rising around the world, SolShare may point the way forward for renewable energy and multifamily residential buildings.