The solar sponge

The challenge

A Melbourne based startup has developed technology which enables solar photovoltaic (PV) power to be shared among multi-unit residences, enabling significant savings on power bills. Maximising savings and environmental outcomes, however, also requires reasonable matching of electricity demand/consumption patterns with the production of the solar PV system – because batteries are still a reasonably expensive addition to the system.

The team’s task was to innovate a “product system/service” and associated business model which could shift the energy usage of a group of apartments to be better aligned with the solar generation curve, providing a managed “sponge” to soak up the solar generation during the day, instead of using expensive and polluting electricity at night.