Mike Roberts
Email: m.roberts@unsw.edu.au
Institution/Organisation: UNSW
Position: Research Associate
Biographical Information: Mike is a Research Associate in the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets and the School for Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW, and a Solar Analyst at the Australian PV Institute. His research includes technical and economic data analysis and policy approaches for distributed renewables and the energy transition. Particular interests include rooftop photovoltaics, demand management, energy storage, mini-grids and embedded networks, solar potential assessment and community renewable energy. Mike's doctoral thesis explored opportunities and barriers for deployment of distributed PV on multi-occupancy residential buildings.
Authored/ Co-authored Research
Title: Photovoltaics on Apartment Buildings
Funders: Energy Consumers Australia
Author/Co-authors: Mike Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill, Jessie Copper, Navid Haghdadi
Keywords: Building improvements, Environment, Sustainability, Utilities / networks,
Summary:
Although Australia has over 2 million solar households, the 10% of Australians who live in apartments are still missing out on cheap, clean energy. This final report from CEEM’s three-year research project includes an assessment of the scale and nature of the solar opportunity and analysis of the costs and benefits of different technical configurations and financial arrangements. It also identifies some of the challenges preventing apartment residents from installing solar PV and suggest some policy reforms that could help overcome the key regulatory barriers.
Title: Opportunities and barriers for photovoltaics on multi-unit residential buildings: reviewing the Australian experience
Published: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 104, 2019, Pages 95-110, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.12.013
Funders: Energy Consumers Australia, CRC for Low Carbon Living
Author/Co-authors: Mike Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill
Keywords: Building improvements, Environment, Sustainability, Utilities / networks,
Summary:
This paper reviews opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment on apartment buildings. We undertook a review of the academic literature and of specific Australian regulatory arrangements, as well as conducting interviews with relevant stakeholders. Barriers identified include the huge variety amongst apartment building stock, demographic factors and knowledge issues. However, the Australian regulatory context – including governance of apartment buildings, regulation of the energy market, and electricity tariff policies – also impacts on the options available.
Title: Impact of shared battery energy storage systems on photovoltaic self-consumption and electricity bills in apartment buildings
Published: Applied Energy 245, 78-95, DOI 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.001
Funders: Energy Consumers Australia, CRC for Low Carbon Living
Author/Co-authors: Mike Roberts, Anna Bruce, Iain MacGill
Keywords: Building improvements, Environment, Sustainability, Utilities / networks,
Summary:
Apartment buildings offer an opportunity to apply central battery storage and shared solar generation to aggregated apartment and common loads through an embedded network or microgrid. We present a study of energy and financial flows in five Australian apartment buildings with photovoltaics and battery storage using real apartment interval-metered load profiles and simulated solar generation profiles, modelled using an open source tool developed for the purpose.