Most Australians now understand the basic promise of rooftop solar: lower power bills, cleaner electricity and, for some households, the option to charge an electric vehicle at home for far less than the cost of petrol.

But that promise was built around a particular kind of housing – the detached house with a privately controlled roof, a private meter board and a driveway or garage where the owner can install whatever equipment they need.

If you live in an apartment, unit or townhouse, the story is often very different.

That’s becoming a national problem.

Rebates alone aren’t enough

Apartments made up 16% of Australian dwellings in the 2021 census and rooftop solar supplied 14.2% of Australia’s electricity in the second half of 2025, according to the latest Clean Energy Council report.

Yet apartment-specific solar programs are only now starting to appear. In New South Wales, the government says fewer than 2% of apartment buildings currently have solar.

Victoria and NSW have both started to respond. Victoria’s current Solar for Apartments round offers rebates of up to A$2,800 per apartment.

NSW’s Solar for Apartment Residents program offers grants of up to $150,000 for eligible shared systems.

That is overdue progress. It suggests apartment residents are finally being treated as part of the mainstream energy transition, not an afterthought.

But rebates alone will not solve the problem.

The barrier is the building, not the panels

Australian research on apartment solar and strata solar and battery projects shows the main barriers are........

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