ORLANDO, Fla. – Renters at an Orlando apartment complex are among the first in the nation to start using solar energy to reduce their individual electric bills.
Allume Energy, in collaboration with RENU Communities and Innovative Solar, are spearheading a solar project that aims to bring solar panels and cost savings to the residents of Rosemont Apartments.
“These are a power distribution system, and what they allow is one solar array on top of the building to be split into multiple different meters,” Allume Energy’s Richard Godden said.
He calls it SolShare, and the apartment complex near Universal Orlando is one of the first spots in the country to try it out.
News 6 visited the complex when crews were installing the solar panels on seven buildings.
Now, renters at this complex are part of a rapidly growing energy sector.
Last year, 1.7 million homes were powered by solar energy in Florida – a 22% increase from the year before.
Add apartments to that picture, and that number could grow even more.
“They really want to understand what was in it for them,” Mike Nunez with Innovative Solar Energy said. “Where’s the savings going to be at – if it makes sense for them.”
His crew is in charge of installing the panels at Rosemont.
He said Floridians live in the Sunshine State, so why not use it?
“We allocate a set amount of power that we want every tenant to have. We have 10 apartments, so far, and we have allocated 4 kilowatts of energy to each apartment,” he said. “It’s enough energy to be able to have a tenant cover his electric consumption monthly. In certain months – most months – they should be at 100% offset. This is going to take that bill from usually $90 or $120 to just their connection fee.”
That fee could be as little as $30 each month.
Why aren’t all apartment complexes jumping on this?
It boils down to cost.
It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to install solar panels on an apartment complex.
The investors at Rosemont think it will be worth the money in savings for them, and it may draw more tenants who want to save money on their electric bill.
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