Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF), a Federation representing the interests of hundreds of apartment complexes and lakhs of apartment residents across Bangalore, has launched a city-wide rooftop solar initiative in apartment complexes. While Karnataka has made rapid progress in the adoption of solar energy, the adoption of rooftop solar in residential complexes has been very limited.

BAF is pioneering this initiative with a vision of getting 1,000 apartment complexes to implement rooftop solar over the next 2 years.

Underscoring the importance of residential rooftop solar, Kazi Zaman, Representative of BAF who is leading the initiative, said, “Solar panel prices have been steadily coming down over the last few years. It has now come down to a level where it has become an extremely compelling commercial proposition for apartments, with potential returns on investment in the range of 15 – 20%. Given that rooftop solar creates a significant positive impact on the environment, it is time for apartments to adopt rooftop solar on a mass scale.”

Talking of his practical experience, Nikhil Grover, Cluster Council Member of BAF South and who spearheaded the implementation of rooftop solar in his apartment complex Brigade Petunia recently, said, “We have successfully completed the implementation of 96 KWp of rooftop solar in our apartment about 2 months back. We collected an additional corpus from all our residents to invest in this project and I am very happy to say that the results have been extremely good. The cost savings are very significant and we are extremely proud of the positive contribution that we are making to the environment.”

Muralidhar Rao, Vice President of BAF, talking about the support being provided by Government of Karnataka and BESCOM, said, “We are receiving tremendous support from the Government and BESCOM in facilitating mass adoption of rooftop solar in apartments. The approval process has been made simpler with the removal of CEIG approval for projects which are less than 1 MWp. The Chief Minister recently launched the BESCOM online portal for rooftop solar, which simplifies the process for approval while significantly reducing the scope for harassment and corruption. We are very thankful to the Government and BESCOM for their support.”

1. Sadasivam, Cluster Council President of BAF Bellandur Cluster, concluded, ”The apartment community is excited about the prospects of rooftop solar and we are reaching out to the large community of thousands of apartments in Bengaluru to implement rooftop solar. This will be a significant contribution from the apartment community to the environment and sustainability of Bengaluru.”

BAF is organizing an event called BAMBOOS (Bengaluru Apartments Making Bengaluru Operationally Outstanding & Sustainable) on 3^rd November, in which the Chief Minister, Mr. H. D. Kumaraswamy has agreed to formally launch the city-wide apartment rooftop solar initiative.