The NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) is responsible for the NSW social housing portfolio (the largest of its type in Australia) including the delivery of new, fit-for-purpose housing for vulnerable community members. LAHC supports many vulnerable people and families across NSW with the largest social housing portfolio in Australia. Social housing clients today are some of the most vulnerable in our community, including the elderly, people with a disability or severe and chronic health illness, carers with long term caring responsibilities and those experiencing drug and alcohol and domestic and family violence.

Most social housing clients are single people, older, past working age and increasingly need smaller, more accessible and senior suitable homes. The Miller project supports resilient communities and meets the needs of senior social housing clients through enhanced thermal comfort and wellbeing, low energy bills, and high levels of accessibility.

The original site for the Miller project contained three fibro dwellings built in the 1960s. The site selected for redevelopment in 2017. When the Miller project was in its early stages, LAHC was also considering a piloting approaches to better integrate solar energy into new housing projects. The brief was updated to pilot an innovative approach to deliver free hot water to residents through a communal solar system and shared energy efficient heat pumps.

LAHC worked in partnership with the Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) on this project. DPIE’s Climate Change and Sustainability Division engaged energy consultant Enesol to prepare a Feasibility Study and Options Paper for Innovative Solar Sharing for LAHC. This report recognised the need to explore cost effective solutions to allow social housing residents and LAHC to benefit from shared solar energy, and examined the technical, regulatory and business models for 16 solar share options.

Photography courtesy of LAHC.