Illinois has allocated $30 million in incentives aimed at promoting solar installations on multi-family buildings. Despite this, there have been no applications for these projects, as per Jan Gudell, associate director at Elevate, the organization managing the program. Multi-family residents, particularly in environmental justice and lower-income areas, face significant challenges in installing rooftop solar systems. A few novel solutions are being explored to address these hurdles and make solar energy accessible to more people.
Past reports emphasized the difficulties in implementing solar in multi-family buildings across the United States. A 2022 study highlighted that only about 3% of solar installations in the country were on multi-family buildings, most of which were owner-occupied condos. In 2018, research indicated that the majority of potential new solar capacity for low- and moderate-income customers was on renter-occupied multi-family rooftops. Recently, the state of California implemented a law to invest up to $1 billion by 2031 to address the lack of solar on these buildings.
There are logistical and structural barriers to installing solar in multi-family units. Solar developers point out that in rental properties, owners often see the process as complex and costly. For instance, installing separate solar systems for each residential unit requires individual inverters and wiring, which adds to the expense and complexity.
New Solutions
Aliya Bagewadi, US director of strategic partnerships for Allume Energy, suggests that their SolShare technology can mitigate some of these issues. SolShare allows energy to be distributed to individual units using a single inverter and system. This simplifies installation and reduces costs. Bagewadi emphasizes the importance of ensuring that low-income, long-term renters benefit from these savings.
“It’s inherently an energy equity issue,” said Bagewadi. “We know [multi-family building residents] are much more likely to be lower-income, longer-term renters. We want to make sure those savings flow to people who can really benefit the most.”
Allume Energy has already successfully implemented SolShare technology in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, and is now expanding into the U.S. states like Florida, Mississippi, and Illinois due to favorable solar incentives. In these states, the technology allows for energy distribution to different units on demand or based on preset amounts, which can be adjusted with short notice.
Potential for Growth
The Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion commitment to the federal equity-focused Solar for All program could further unlock opportunities for multi-family solar installations. This program is separate from Illinois’s state initiative but shares similar goals of increasing solar accessibility for lower-income residents.
“Adoption of a technology that allows for a single system to be split into shares, for use by multiple electrical account holders, could help in that it would simplify the design, permitting and installation process,” said Gudell.
Elevate and other experts are optimistic about the potential for multi-family buildings in Illinois to benefit from solar incentives. The key challenges remain the split incentive problem and the complexity of managing multiple electrical accounts in a single building. Innovations such as SolShare offer promising solutions, but broader policy and technological advancements are necessary to fully realize the potential of solar energy in multi-family settings.
