Renewable tech start-up Evergen has teamed up with St George Community Housing on a pilot project that promises to cut social and affordable housing energy bills by up to 80 per cent.
The pilot will see Evergen’s renewable energy technology – which includes solar, storage and remote management – installed on 10 low-income households in Sydney.
The pilot is being co-funded by the NSW Office of Environment, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and SGCH to test innovative energy solutions for social and affordable housing tenants.
Solar PV systems will be installed on the households’ rooftops while batteries will be installed in a common, purpose-built shed. Each household will then be provided with Evergen’s home energy management system, whicl will be tailored to each user’s specific needs to maximise savings.
SGCH Group chief executive Scott Langford said low income households spent, as a share of household income, three times more than high income earners.
“It is these people who would benefit the most from energy saving measures in their homes, but who can not afford the large up front costs of items like solar panels.”
He said the results of the project would provide valuable information on the benefits of solar, storage and management systems to low-income households.
Evergen chief executive Dr Glenn Platt said he saw the technology as “vital” to the community housing sector.
“The Evergen system has the capability for SGCH tenants to save significant amounts off their household energy costs,” he said. As well as reducing energy costs, we hope that by providing the tenants with more information about how they consume energy via the Evergen app, we can empower them to better manage how they use energy.”
Mr Scott said SGCH were committed to sustainable housing design so vulnerable tenants could be protected from rising energy costs.
It recently teamed up with the CEFC to create housing to a seven-star NatHERS rating.