Despite potential advantages of load aggregation and scale discounts, few of Australia's 2.3 million apartment residents are amongst the country's 1.8 million solar prosumers. However, embedded networks can be used to distribute rooftop photovoltaic generation to households if split incentives and regulatory barriers are overcome.

The project aimed to explore the feasibility of using solar thermal collectors to drive single, double, and triple effect absorption chillers.

Applying behaviour change methods to reduce home energy consumption has resulted in varying outcomes and also conservation effects that were short-lived.

Over 1.7 Australian households have taken the opportunity to generate some of their own power and reduce both their electricity bills and carbon emissions by installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems on their homes. However, regulatory, technical, financial and organisational challenges have largely prevented Australia's growing number of urban apartment dwellers from accessing these benefits.

This is the second and final report for the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living research project RP3038, Lower income barriers to low carbon living. The first report, Summary of focus group and survey findings, detailed the findings from our focus group discussions with lower income households across four Australian jurisdictions.