Doncaster’s solar disparity: the city’s flats missing out on up to £4.9 million in energy savings every year
Analysis of Census data shows there are around 8,534 flats in Doncaster. With research suggesting just 3% of flats are fitted with solar
Families and tenants living in flats across Doncaster are collectively missing out on up to £4.9 million a year in energy savings, according to new analysis by solar technology company Allume Energy.
The figures land as households face increasingly volatile energy bills, with the 13% Ofgem price cap rise from July adding around £200 a year to bills.
While people in houses have long been able to cut their bills with rooftop solar, those living in flats, among them many of Doncaster’s lower-income and social-housing residents, have largely been left out of the savings.
Analysis of Census data shows there are around 8,534 flats in Doncaster. With research suggesting just 3% of flats are fitted with solar, the overwhelming majority generate none of their own power.
Equipping these blocks with shared solar and battery storage could cut the electricity residents draw from the grid by around 60%, worth up to £600 per flat a year. Collectively, that could mean a combined saving of up to £4.9 million across Doncaster every year, or up to £24.7 million over five years, depending on the specific property and usage.
Allume has called out this widening gap as a ‘solar disparity’. Nationally, around one in five homes (5.4 million) are flats, yet barely any are benefiting from the UK’s ‘solar boom’, even though their residents are among those most exposed to fuel poverty.
The main barrier is that solar was traditionally designed for fitting on houses. The UK’s ‘one roof, one meter’ model means a shared rooftop system normally needs separate cabling and metering for every flat, making it costly and complex.
Allume’s SolShare solution, the world’s only technology that takes power from a single rooftop array and splits it fairly across individual flats’ meters, removes that barrier.
Jack Taylor, Allume Energy’s General Manager for Europe, said: “Doncaster has around 8,534 flats, exactly the kind of homes where sharing a single rooftop array could make the biggest difference to bills.
“Those living in flats across Doncaster have been left out of the UK’s solar boom simply because of the type of building they live in. SolShare changes that. Our approach in the UK is focused on supporting social housing landlords and property developers.”
For more information on Allume Energy, please visit www.allumeenergy.com/uk