energies Article Shared Solar and Battery Storage Configuration Effectiveness for Reducing the Grid Reliance of Apartment Complexes Moiz Masood Syed 1,*, Gregory M. Morrison 1 and James Darbyshire 2 1 School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia;
[email protected] 2 Balance Utility Solutions, Tarlton Crescent, Perth Airport, WA 6105, Australia;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +61-416-500-270 Received: 15 August 2020; Accepted: 14 September 2020; Published: 15 September 2020 Abstract: More than 2 million houses in Australia have installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems; however, apartment buildings have adopted a low percentage of solar PV and battery storage installations. Given that grid usage reduction through PV and battery storage is a primary objective in most residential buildings, apartments have not yet fully benefited from installations of such systems. This research presents shared microgrid configurations for three apartment buildings with PV and battery storage and evaluates the reduction in grid electricity usage by analyzing self-sufficiency. The results reveal that the three studied sites at White Gum Valley achieved an overall self-sufficiency of more than 60%. Owing to the infancy of the shared solar and battery storage market for apartment complexes and lack of available data, this study fills the research gap by presenting preliminary quantitative findings from implementation in apartment buildings. Keywords: solar PV; shared energy microgrid; battery storage; self-sufficiency; apartment complexes; empirical analysis; energy autonomy; shared PV storage 1. Introduction A combination of increasing costs of electricity bills along with the declining price of solar panels, concerns over global climate change, and favorable renewable uptake policies have led to a rapid increase in the solar installation capacity across Australia.