Solar panels are an extremely lucrative way for homes to save money on their electricity bills and reduce their environmental impact. While they are becoming an increasingly common sight on houses in Ireland, solar panels can also benefit people living in apartments.

Getting solar panels installed in an apartment complex faces some unique challenges compared to a house or business, but the benefits of solar power can be well worth it.

Apartment buildings can install solar panels, just as any other type of residence or commercial building. The only questions that need to be asked about this are where they will be installed and how the power will be used.

The main factors that will affect how solar panels can be installed and used for an apartment building are:

With a house, when solar panels are installed, all of their output is used to meet the power demands of that single residence. The same is true when a business installs solar panels.

However, any apartment building contains multiple residences, each with different electricity usage and metering. There are also common areas with their own electricity usage.

If solar panels are being installed on an apartment building, there are different ways the electricity they generate can be used.

The difficulty in installing solar panels when you live in an apartment rather than a house is that you are only the owner of your unit, rather than the building.

Apartment owners do not own the freehold for the building, and do not have the same access to the roof that a person with a house does.

If you want to install rooftop solar panels on an apartment building as the owner of a single unit, it will require the permission of the Owners Management Company.

This is the entity responsible for the building’s common areas and maintenance, which apartment owners pay fees towards.

An OMC may be reluctant to grant an apartment owner permission to place solar panels on part of the shared roof for a variety of reasons. Issues that the OMC or other apartment owners may be concerned about in this scenario include:

Working with the OMC and the owners of other units in the building would be the best way to go about this. There are also other possible ways that an apartment owner could go about benefiting from solar power.

People who are tenants in an apartment rather than the owners face all the same hurdles that apartment owners do, along with additional ones.

On top of not having control of the rooftop, tenants may have to seek the permission of their landlord before making any alterations to the apartment. What you can and cannot do will depend on the exact terms of your lease agreement.

Options for getting solar panels installed as a tenant include:

Getting rooftop solar panels is much simpler the smaller the size of the apartment complex. If this consists of just one or two units with a single landlord, then it can be a simple matter for the landlord to install solar panels and divide the power between units.

Things become much more complex in large scale apartment complexes where your landlord is just one of many.

Whether landlords can simply install solar panels on an apartment building will depend on their level of ownership.

If the landlord is also the owner of the entire building, then it can be simpler for them to install rooftop solar panels.

However, for landlords who only own a single or multiple units within a complex, they are in the same position as owner-occupiers, needing the approval of the management company.

Apartment buildings can have solar panels mounted on multiple types of surfaces to take advantage of the shape and design of the building.

Apartment buildings can have as many solar panels installed on their rooftops as the OMC likes without the need for planning permission. This can include pitched roof mounting systems, similar to most homes, and flat-roof mounting systems.

Rooftop solar for apartment buildings may include a mix of both methods, as they are more likely to have an irregular roof shape than a single dwelling.

A number of solar panels may also be installed on the balconies of individual apartments. Simple DIY plug-in solar panels are not currently legal in Ireland, but that situation may change.

It is also possible to connect balcony solar panels to a power station with a battery and outlets, or to have them wired into your electrical system, as with rooftop solar panels.

Wall-mounted solar panels are secured to vertical wall faces rather than to the roof of a building. This can be a solution for taller buildings with little clear roof space, as long as there is a wall that is south facing and not obstructed by shade.

One other way that solar power could be used for an apartment building is through a community solar project. This is basically a small solar farm located away from the buildings it supplies.

Multiple participants can invest in the community solar project, and they receive credits against their electricity bills from the power it produces. The value of the electricity credit received depends on the share each participant has in the solar farm.

Whether or not planning permission is needed for solar panels serving an apartment building will depend on the size of the array and where it is installed.

Apartment buildings are typically allowed to install as many rooftop solar panels as they like without needing planning permission.

The only time this doesn’t apply is if it is in a Solar Safeguarding Zone (SSZ) near an airport, airstrip, or helipad. There, up to 300sqm of solar panels can be installed before planning permission is needed.

In the case of wall-mounted and ground-mounted solar panels, up to 75sqm can be installed on an apartment building before they are required to seek planning permission.