ImpactAlpha, August 30 — Australia-headquartered Allume Energy is aiming to expand low-cost clean energy access to low-income renters in the southeastern US. “We’re working on alleviating energy in a part of the country that has some of the highest energy burdens,” Allume’s Aliya Bagewadi told ImpactAlpha. “It’s a strange situation, whereby electricity is very inexpensive in the southeast, but because you have buildings that are not very energy-efficient, people living in these buildings have very high energy bills.”
Allume has raised $1.5 million from Elemental Excelerator and Schmidt Family Foundation to install SolShare, its behind-the-meter device that draws solar energy generated by rooftop solar PV systems and distributes it to tenants on a monthly basis, starting with affordable multifamily housing in Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.
Clean and cheap
A pilot project in Orlando has demonstrated average annual savings on electricity bills of $1,166 per apartment in its first year of operation. “We could all use an extra $1,000 a year in our pocketbooks rather than spending it on electricity bills,” said Elemental Excelerator’s Dawn Lippert.
The debt and equity funding round will support Allume’s second project in Orlando. The company’s global portfolio has approximately 2,000 apartments in Australia, the UK and US., half of which qualify as social or affordable housing.
