Rooftop solar in an apartment — what's actually possible.

The question we get most from flat owners

Most of what's written about rooftop solar in Bengaluru assumes you own an independent house with a roof you control outright. If you live in an apartment, the honest answer is: you can still go solar, but the path depends entirely on whether you're asking as an individual flat owner or as part of the association — and those two paths lead to very different outcomes.

Path 1: Individual owner, top-floor flat

If you own a top-floor unit with exclusive terrace rights written into your sale deed or society bylaws, you can install a system sized to your own sanctioned BESCOM load, exactly like an independent house. BESCOM's net metering process doesn't distinguish between a house and a flat — it looks at your individual electricity connection and meter. The catch is usable roof area: a typical 3BHK flat's terrace share rarely supports more than a 2–3 kW system once you account for water tanks, lift machine rooms, and setback requirements.

Path 2: Shared terrace, common roof

This is the more common situation, and it requires association approval first — no installer should touch your roof without it. In practice this means:

• A resolution passed in a general body meeting approving the installation and the specific area to be used.
• A written no-objection from the association, since the terrace is common property under most apartment ownership acts in Karnataka.
• A decision on ownership structure — either the system is installed for common-area consumption (lifts, lobby lighting, pumps) and billed to the association's own BESCOM connection, or individual owners pool in and the savings are apportioned by an agreed formula.

Common-area solar is, in our experience, the more realistic win for most apartments. A mid-sized complex with a 10–15 kW system covering lift and common lighting load routinely cuts the association's BESCOM bill by 60–70%, and the maintenance cost per flat is small enough that it's an easy line item to pass at a general body meeting.

What BESCOM actually requires

For either path, BESCOM's net metering application asks for the same documents: your BESCOM bill/connection number, a signed application, and — critically for apartments — proof that you have the right to use the roof area (either your sale deed for exclusive terrace rights, or the society NOC for common areas). Sanctioned load still caps your system size, so check your connection's sanctioned kW before committing to a system size.

When it doesn't make financial sense

Be direct with yourself about two situations where apartment solar usually isn't worth pursuing: if your terrace share is heavily shaded by adjacent taller buildings for most of the day, or if your building's association turnover happens frequently enough that a multi-year net metering commitment (25 years, once signed) is likely to get contested by a future committee. We'd rather tell you this upfront than sell you a system that fights your building's politics for the next decade.