Canberra renter Alex Lamb is lobbying her body corporate to install solar panels on her apartment block and believes it should be an ACT-wide trend.
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"It's an exciting city which is constantly being developed towards a vision ... I'd like to see Canberra as a model for the rest of Australia," Ms Lamb said.
"My motivation is the environment. I want to do my bit to reduce pollution."
She said it would also lead to lower electricity prices and would increase the value on the property, an incentive for landlords and buyers.
The landlord of an apartment in Ms Lamb's block, Claudia Clooney, has been helping Ms Lamb lobby the body corporate.
"Solar should just be another improvement. It shouldn't be seen as a huge hurdle. It"d be nice to have clean energy. It's also cost effective, it makes sense," Ms Clooney said.
Tenants Union ACT executive Deb Pippen said there were few incentives for Canberra's landlords to add improvements like solar panels.
"The benefit would be for the person who lives in the property but then the landlord would say, 'Well ,what's the use in me putting it in?'," Ms Pippen said.
She said the federal government could change negative gearing to allow tax incentives for installing things like solar panels, or even fibre-optic internet connections.
"It is something that should be looked at," Ms Pippen said.
Ms Lamb suggested the ACT government mandate future developments install solar roofing or at least make it easier for panels to be installed.
The main concern at Ms Lamb's property was, because of the nature of the roof, solar panels would be hard to install and could damage the roof.
Analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2016 data by the Australian Photovoltaic Institute showed more than 100,000 people in the ACT couldn't install solar panels.
These people were renters like Ms Lamb or apartment owners like Ms Clooney.
"For me it's just the environmental benefits. The cost is cheaper for the tenants obviously," Ms Clooney said