Finally, batteries and solar for renters and apartment dwellers are here

Renters and apartment dwellers may finally have an opportunity to join the energy transition, as two very new startups pitch a rental-friendly battery and a “cloud”. 

One is offering a mini 3.5 kilowatt hour (kWh) stackable battery that renters, and even apartment dwellers, can take with them from home to home, and the other is offering what is effectively a global solar-battery that customers can take from bill to bill.

Solarcloud is offering “fractionalised” ownership of the watts generated by rooftop solar it installed and owns on buildings in Australia, India, parts of Asia and Europe. 

Smartizer is still getting its mini battery certified but it plans to launch in “January or February” next year with a 500-1000 battery pilot alongside AI partner Macquarie University, says founder Davood Dehestani. 

It’ll cost around $2,000 per 3.5 kWh unit – cheaper than average at $570/kWh because it comes with a built in “shoe box” sized inverter. It can also come with an add-on electric vehicle charger.

Dehestani says that by charging on zero-cost or cheap power in the middle of the day and discharging during peak when electricity is priced around 40c/kWh, renters or apartment dwellers can save about $600 a year on their power bills, or a three-year payback period for the battery. 

“There’s no other product like this,” he says. “The battery has been designed in Australia, and can be plugged into the socket. In Europe you can plug it into the wall. In Australia, you have to pay maybe $1,000 for installation so it can plug into the mains.”

Dehestani’s idea is for homes to have a built in socket and shelf that renters can use to plug in their own battery, and then take it with them to their next home if they have to move out. 

And while he’s very keen on Australia, the European market is also a priority for the company. 

The EV charger – which will come with vehicle to grid capability – will come towards the end of next year after it’s gone through the Australian certification process, Dehestani says.

The only problem right now is that the 5 kWh minimum for the federal battery rebate means the smallest module size can’t attract the 30 per cent rebate. 

Dehestani says they’re lobbying the Clean Energy Council to see if Smartizer can get an exemption, given the benefits for renters. 

Solar in the cloud

Solarcloud’s offer is very different, launching in late October after a six year marathon to convince regulators that selling rooftop solar from around the world to Australians might actually work. 

“Traditionally, people invest in solar because they want to reduce their energy bill. What we’ve done is go, okay, you still invest in solar and it still pays your energy bill, but it’s just not on your roof,” Solarcloud CEO John Kennedy told Renew Economy.

“It acts as a virtual battery. Why does it do that? Because it’s not offsetting your daytime usage, like solar on your roof. This just pays your bill. So it doesn’t care when you use it. Use it all at night. Use it to pay network charges. It doesn’t care. It’s just crediting your bill.”

The pitch is this: Solarcloud pays for a solar installation on the roof of a commercial or industrial building in Australia, India and Europe. 

It sells the power back to the building owner or user under a power purchase agreement, an increasingly popular way to fill unloved commercial and industrial rooftops with solar.

So far, so normal. 

The other side is to then sell 100 watt blocks from the overall portfolio to Australians for $149 a block. 

The financial return generated during a quarter for each block owned is then credited to whichever electricity or gas bill the watt owner chooses. 

Just don’t call it a share, or a dividend, and the return definitely cannot be “guaranteed” because watt buyers are classed as investors under their financial service license, Kennedy says.

‘We’ve fractionalized an investment [in those solar panel arrays],” he said.

“[But] technically, you can’t guarantee the sun will come up in the morning.”

For customers, what no guarantees means is they can’t expect a set return per 100 watt block when it’s paid out each quarter, and a somewhat confusing process to understand how the returns are generated and how that figure on a bill relates back to the watts bought.

Furthermore virtual, or “cloud” solar as Kennedy calls it, isn’t a cheap upfront cost when measured against a physical rooftop solar installation, although it does come with no extra maintenance or insurance costs over time.

The average rooftop solar installation in 2024 was 9.9 kW, according to the Clean Energy Regulator in December that year.

Solarcloud’s equivalent would cost $14,751, compared to a national average of $9,170 in October, according to monthly data from Solar Choice. 

But for people who don’t have a roof they can put solar on, or who can’t afford solar or a battery, it too offers an entry point to the energy transition that to date, has been missing.

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