If you live in a flat rather than an independent house, the roof is common property and you generally cannot install individually. The route is through your RWA or society, and there is a specific provision in the PM Surya Ghar scheme for exactly this.
Group housing societies and resident welfare associations can claim around Rs 18,000 per kW for common facilities, covering capacities up to fairly large systems, including provision for EV charging infrastructure. This is a different structure from the individual residential subsidy and it applies to the society's common load rather than to individual flats.
What common load actually means. Lifts, water pumps, corridor and staircase lighting, common area fans, the security cabin, the clubhouse, and increasingly EV charging points. In most NCR societies this is a substantial and predictable electricity bill paid from maintenance charges. Offsetting it with solar reduces what every resident pays monthly, which is why this proposal tends to pass more easily at an AGM than people expect.
Why this is often the easier win. Persuading a builder to allocate individual terrace rights is difficult and frequently impossible. Persuading a committee that a system paying back in a few years will reduce maintenance charges is a straightforward financial argument, and one that benefits every resident rather than only those on the top floor.
How to get it moving. Start by pulling the society's common area electricity bills for the last twelve months. That number, divided by your tariff, tells you the annual consumption a system would need to offset, and it is the single most persuasive slide in any presentation to the committee. Then get a site survey from two or three portal-registered installers who have done society-scale work, since this is meaningfully different from residential installation.
Practical considerations specific to societies. Roof access and structural loading need proper assessment, particularly on older buildings. Cable routing from roof to the common meter can be substantial on a tall block. Who owns and maintains the system afterwards should be documented before installation, not afterwards. And if your society has multiple towers, whether to do one system or several affects both cost and complexity.
The metering question. The system connects to the society's common connection, and net metering applies as it would for any other consumer, up to the sanctioned load of that connection. In Haryana this falls under HERC rules through UHBVN or DHBVN; in UP through UPNEDA and the local DISCOM.
For Gurugram societies in particular. Many private townships receive electricity through a management company rather than directly from the DISCOM. This changes the net metering route and sometimes the eligibility position. Establish this before commissioning any survey work, because it determines whether the standard process applies at all.
A realistic expectation on timeline. Society solar takes longer than residential, not because the technology differs but because committee approval, tendering and coordination add months. Budget six months from first proposal to commissioning rather than the two to four typical for a house.
What individual flat owners can still do. If your society will not move, and your building has no allocated terrace rights, rooftop solar is genuinely not available to you. Solar water heating sometimes is, depending on your balcony or terrace access. And the other green upgrades on this site, particularly efficient appliances and cool roofing at society level, remain open.
If you are on your society committee and want to explore this, our solar calculator will give you a first estimate from the common area bill. Take that number to the next meeting.
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Last updated 27 July 2026 · Reviewed by the RenSetu team