The Sydney suburb of Kurnell will host the first new housing development outside Europe to use a solar-sharing plan to cut electricity bills to zero.
According to Domain, a group of twelve $1.5 million homes in the Botany Bay side suburb will connect via their solar and home battery systems. They will then trade solar generated electricity among themselves using the solar-sharing plan.
The plan, known as sonnenFlat, was created by battery manufacturer sonnen. With sonnenFlat, sonnen becomes the electricity retailer as well as the battery supplier.
Each home will have a 5 kW solar panel installation with an 8 kWh sonnen battery.
Zero electricity bills for 20 years
Zero electricity bills are guaranteed for 20 years, households paying just $30 per month for power management.
The virtual power plant should save owners at least $620,000 in power bills over that time. This is an annual saving of $2,500 per household.
The homes are due to be completed in September and most are already sold.
Solar-sharing technology highly sought by home buyers
According to real estate agent Jonathon De Brennan, buyers love smart technology and energy efficient homes. De Brennan specialises in the sale of ‘smart homes’.
He believes the technology has added at least 5 per cent to the price of each house. He says people are “excited” by electricity savings and eco-friendly properties.
Because the developer adopted the solar-sharing sonnenFlat technology, a $250,000 fee was avoided. This is normally required to upgrade grid and infrastructure to build new homes.
The milestone development in the Sutherland Shire is expected to slash power drawn from the grid by up to 90 per cent per home.
How solar-sharing works in practice
The individual battery in each home will connect to form a ‘super battery’ which can power all homes in the development all the time.
If one home is generating more solar power than they use, another home in need of energy can borrow this excess. Electricity is subsequently shared among the homes as and when needed.
In times of exceptionally high demand, homes can automatically draw power from the grid.
