Australia is about to be home to the first housing development outside Europe to be built sharing solar power between all 12 homes on a single estate.

The landmark three and four-bedroom houses in Sydney’s Kurnell, which will be completed by mid-September, will all be connected via home power storage batteries and will each have electricity bills of precisely zero.

“This is the first of many developments throughout Australia that we’ve been working with to have this kind of technology,” says Chris Williams, CEO and founder of Natural Solar, the company installing the solar and batteries in the estate.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re now looking at between 200 and 800 properties that will have this in the future here and, as the largest installer of solar and batteries in the country, we know these numbers will increase very quickly.”

Each of the 12 homes will have a 5kWp solar system and an 8kwh German SonnenBatterie installed. Adoption of the technology means the developer was able to avoid paying a $250,000 fee to upgrade the electricity grid and infrastructure to accommodate the new homes in the area.

Now the system, which connects neighbours to form a virtual power plant and creates a sizeable generator, is expected to save the new owners a minimum of $620,000 in power bills over the next two decades – or $2500 annually per household. With nothing to pay for their electricity supply, they just pay a $30 monthly management fee for the system.

Most of the homes on the estate, priced at about $1.5 million, have already been bought, with the developer refusing to be identified until construction has completely finished.

Real estate agent Jonathon De Brennan, who specialises in selling smart homes with the latest technology, believes the blockchain technology system will have added at least 5 per cent onto the price of each house.

“It always means there’s a lot more buyers interested, which lifts the price,” says De Brennan, the founder of his eponymous agency. “People will be excited by the saving in electricity costs and the idea of having an environmentally-friendly home is getting a lot more traction these days.

“It’s hard to put an exact figure on it, but we’re finding buyers love smart technology, whether it’s in terms of cost-savings or convenience with the type of technology that turns on lights and has surveillance which you can access on your smartphone even from another country.”

The first person in Australia to have Natural Solar install one of the same Sonnen batteries into his home, technology writer Steve Fenech, says he first contacted them on July 1 last year – the same day as energy prices rose by 20 per cent.

“To have the whole system installed cost me $18,800 and I pay a $40 monthly fee so I can share power with other owners of the same batteries, wherever they are in Australia,” says Fenech, 50, who lives in a two-storey house in south Sydney’s Pagewood with his three children.

“My energy bills before this were going through the roof, but I reckon I now save $2500 to $3000 a year on electricity. It’s so worth it.”

Mr Williams says it’s no longer just early adopters of new technology who are interested in the new systems. “We’re finding that consumers are now the mum and dad customers who can see the figures stack up and see this technology as offering great new opportunities for saving money,” he says.