Millions of flat-dwelling Australians are missing out on rooftop solar. Can new incentives bridge the installation gap?

The brief

Australia is a world leader in household solar, but the benefits of rooftop renewables are unevenly distributed – and many of the 2.5 million people living in apartments or units are missing out. About 39% of Australians living in detached or semi-detached houses have solar, compared with 6% of those in apartments or units, research by Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) finds. A gap also exists in the take-up of batteries, installed in 7% of houses but only in 3% of apartments or units. Ashley Bradshaw, ECA’s executive manager for advocacy and analysis, says “the research is pretty clear that most of the solar we have on homes today is on…