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EVENTS

BOOM! Power Peloton - Tuesday, 8 August 2023

Electrifying
Residential Properties Pt.3

How do we electrify and decarbonise Australia’s existing apartments, given the complexity of ownership and management? 

This session focused on overcoming barriers in strata and privately-owned properties, drawing on insights from Wattblock’s work with over 250 buildings and RACE for 2030’s large-scale upgrade initiatives. While models like Nightingale show what’s possible for new builds, the next big challenge is scaling these solutions across existing homes, where ownership structures, management norms, and financing hurdles remain key obstacles.

 

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SPEAKER 1

Hear more on how Wattblock has worked across over 250 apartment buildings as part of the Future-proofing apartments program – helping them to electrify.

Brent Clark

 

Brent Clark

Founder, Wattblock

Brent Clark is the Founder of strata energy consultancy, Wattblock.

Wattblock has assisted apartment buildings housing over 80,000 residents with solar, batteries, heat pumps, and EV Charging over the past 9 years.

Brent has worked with 11 local councils, 7 universities, and 2 state governments on future-proofing strata buildings. He has degrees in science, law, applied finance, and an MBA and is an accredited NABERS for apartment buildings assessor.

SPEAKER 2

The challenges to upgrading existing privately-owned apartments to net zero & the response from RACE for 2030 and others.

Target: to upgrade homes to be as efficient and low carbon as possible
To be discussed: Challenges posed by ownership types & property management norms

Jenniy Gregory

Jenniy Gregory

Program Leader, RACE for Homes

Jenniy Gregory is the Program Leader at RACE for Homes. She joined the 10-year Commonwealth-funded Cooperative Research Centre, RACE for 2030, in October 2022, coming from AGL after over 7 years as Manager of Energy Efficiency Programs.

RACE for Homes has the remit to facilitate the upgrading of over 1 million Australian homes by 2030, thereby reducing their emissions and energy bills as well as facilitating their transition to a new energy future through flexible demand options and other initiatives.

The current priority project, Energy Upgrades for Australian Homes, has 5 work packages targeted at unpacking various barriers to large-scale rollout, with work package 6 including pilots in various climatic zones and with varying ownership and construction types, in order to test interventions.

During her time at AGL, Jenniy honed her knowledge of energy efficiency schemes, both in Australia and overseas, particularly looking at how they can be leveraged to provide value for upgrading homes and businesses. This expanded her existing knowledge of the renewable energy and energy efficiency arenas, gained from working for a diverse range of organisations in Australia and overseas.

She is the primary author of Financing Renewable Energy Systems, a Guide for Development Workers, funded by the Stockholm Environment Institute.

SPEAKER 3

The importance of electrifying the built environment is critical. Our work in establishing Nightingale Housing – a 100% electric housing model powered by 100% renewables – seemed hard at first, but since we cracked the code it’s been a boulevard of green lights.

However, the next challenge is how we replicate the Nightingale model for existing housing/buildings?

Jeremy McLeod

Jeremy McLeod

Founding Director of Breathe

Jeremy McLeod is the founding Director of Breathe, a studio perceived by their peers as one of Australia’s leading sustainable architectural practices, recognised with over 20 Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) awards.

Jeremy is the Co-Founder of Nightingale Housing and the Head of Partnerships at Goodbye Gas.

He is the recipient of the 2018 Victorian Chapter, the President’s Prize and received the 2016 Leadership in Sustainability Prize at the Australian Institute of Architects.

Jeremy continues to make significant contributions to the future of sustainable, carbon-neutral and affordable housing in Australia, tirelessly pushing for industry and government to do better for a country in a housing and climate crisis.

He is relentless in his advocacy for a net zero emissions future and believes that architects, through collaboration, can drive real positive change.