Housing Society Solar Subsidy: ₹18,000 per kW Explained

A housing society’s solar subsidy works on different terms from a home’s, and RWAs looking into it often find the two sets of numbers mixed up.

The rate: ₹18,000 per kW

Under PM Surya Ghar, a group housing society or RWA can claim ₹18,000 per kW for a rooftop system that powers common facilities (lighting, lifts, pumps and EV charging points), up to 500 kW for the whole society. That is a flat rate per kW. The home scheme instead uses a tiered ₹30,000 / ₹60,000 / ₹78,000-cap structure for individual homes.

The 500 kW limit includes what residents already installed

This catches some societies out. The 500 kW ceiling includes any rooftop systems individual residents have already installed on their own flats in the same society. Before assuming the full 500 kW is available for common areas, count what residents have already claimed.

Common-area load suits solar well

Lifts, corridor and stairwell lighting, common-area pumps and security systems usually run through the day as well as at night, and none of that load gets a free-units allowance the way a flat’s own connection might. A society system that offsets this shared load often makes sense, whatever individual residents happen to use.

Who applies, and how it differs from an individual claim

The society or RWA applies for the common-area subsidy through its own process, separately from any resident applying for their flat under the home scheme. One application doesn’t use up the other’s allowance, although both count towards the combined 500 kW ceiling above.

Getting started

We can size a common-area system from your society’s shared electricity bills and give you the subsidy, net cost and payback before you take a proposal to your RWA committee. Our housing society solar page has the rest of the detail.