NSW Solar for Apartment Residents Grant: Up to $150,000 for Shared Rooftop Solar, Closing 4 December 2026

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• The Solar for Apartment Residents (SoAR) grant pays up to 50% of eligible costs for a shared rooftop solar system on an apartment building or other multi-unit dwelling in NSW, up to $150,000 per project.
• Applications close at 5:00 pm on 4 December 2026. Every funded system must be installed, running and fully reported by 30 April 2027.
• The applicant is the owners corporation, or a strata managing agent, building manager, consultant or nominated resident that the owners corporation has authorised.
• The solar has to supply the apartments, not just the common areas. Savings must be shared proportionately with all residents, including renters, and the cost shared proportionately with all owners.
• The owners corporation must pass a sustainability infrastructure resolution before the full application, and the system's payback period must be 10 years or less.
• Between July 2025 and June 2026, 116 projects were approved for a total of $5,314,772, an average of about $45,800 each.

What the program is for

Rooftop solar on houses is common. On apartment buildings it is rare, because the roof is common property, the owners have to agree, and it is hard to get the power into individual units. SoAR is the NSW Government's attempt to fix that for strata. It is run by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), and the department says it wants to reach households "previously locked out of installing solar".

The program targets owners corporations, not individual owners. One owner who wants panels for their own lot cannot apply.

How much you can get

The grant covers up to half of eligible product and installation costs. The owners corporation pays the rest. So $150,000 is the most any building gets, and you reach that cap on a project with $300,000 of eligible costs.

The owners corporation's share has to come from somewhere: the capital works fund, a special levy or both. Sort that out before the meeting, not after the grant is approved.

What the grant covers

The department lists these costs as eligible:

• solar panels, inverters and mounting
• solar sharing technology
• labour for the installation
• essential safety equipment
• roof waterproofing, but only where the solar installation makes it necessary

Most of the money must go on the solar system itself. Enabling works such as a meter board upgrade, wiring upgrades or roof waterproofing can be funded, but they cannot exceed 10% of the total project cost. The department can refuse anything above that.

What it does not cover

A system is not eligible if it:

• only supplies the common areas
• connects to apartments that already have a solar system installed in the last 10 years
• is maintenance or replacement of an existing system

The grant also won't pay for:

• waterproofing the whole roof
• rewiring the whole building
• batteries (the department points to the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program instead)
• EV charging, which has separate NSW incentives

The first exclusion matters most. Many existing strata solar systems only run the lifts, lighting and car park fans, which lowers the admin fund bill but does nothing for residents' own power bills. SoAR will not fund that kind of system.

Who can apply and who can't

Can apply: a NSW residential owners corporation, or one of these if the owners corporation authorises it:

• a strata managing agent
• a building manager
• a consultant
• a nominated resident

Strata managers can lodge several applications, but each one has to cover a single property.

Can't apply: individual property owners, government agencies, private businesses, educational institutions, local councils, not-for-profits, social housing tenants and community housing providers.

How the application works

There are two stages, both lodged through the department's SmartyGrants portal.

Stage 1: expression of interest

A short eligibility check. You fill in the Stage 1 form and confirm the building and applicant meet the eligibility criteria. Applications that fail any criterion go no further.

Stage 2: full application

If you pass Stage 1, you lodge the full application with:

1. Two quotes from installers accredited by both Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA) and the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC), with the preferred quote marked.
2. A payback or return-on-investment assessment for the system, worked out at the strata level.
3. A letter or document signed by two different members of the owners corporation confirming that:
   • a sustainability infrastructure resolution, in the form the NSW Government requires, has been passed
   • the energy savings will be shared proportionately with all residents
   • the purchase and installation cost will be shared proportionately with all owners

How it is assessed

Two things are pass or fail: the payback period must be within 10 years, and the owners corporation must have passed the resolution and agreed to share costs and benefits with everyone.

The application is then scored against four criteria:

• how well the project delivers the program's goals, including how the benefits are shared
• value for money compared with similar projects
• whether the proposed method of doing the work is sound
• whether the applicant has the capacity to deliver it

Each criterion needs at least 5 out of 10. The assessment is non-competitive, so you are not up against other buildings for a fixed pot. The department expects a full assessment to take around 10 weeks from when it receives the expression of interest. Successful projects then sign a funding deed.

The deadline problem

Count back from 30 April 2027. If a building lodges its expression of interest in late November and the assessment takes the expected 10 weeks, the decision lands in early February. That leaves about 12 weeks to sign the deed, order equipment, install, connect, commission and report. Roof access, scaffolding, a meter board upgrade or a slow network connection can eat most of that.

The sustainability infrastructure resolution also has to be passed at a general meeting before Stage 2. If your next AGM is months away, you will need a general meeting called specifically for this.

A building that starts today has a realistic chance. A building that starts in late November is gambling on everything going right.

The sustainability infrastructure resolution

In NSW, solar panels count as sustainability infrastructure under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. A sustainability infrastructure resolution passes unless more than half the votes cast are against it, which is a lower bar than the special resolution normally needed to change common property.

The motion needs proper detail, so plan to give owners:

• what is being installed and where on the roof
• the quotes and the expected cost, and who pays what
• the grant amount you expect and what happens if the grant is refused
• how the electricity will reach each apartment and how savings will be split
• who will own, maintain and insure the system, and for how long

SoAR asks for the resolution "in the form required by the NSW Government", so check the guidelines and the prescribed requirements before you draft. A resolution that doesn't match the required form could sink the application at Stage 2.

Getting the power to the apartments

This is the technical question that decides whether a building can use SoAR at all. Each apartment usually has its own meter and its own retailer, so rooftop power can't just be wired into every unit. The program funds "solar sharing technology" for this reason. The common approaches are:

• Behind-the-meter sharing devices that split the rooftop output between the units' existing meters. Residents keep their own retailer.
• An embedded network, where the building buys power at a parent meter and on-sells it to residents. It can work, but it brings its own pricing and lock-in problems.

Ask each installer to explain exactly how the power gets to each unit, how the split is calculated, and what residents see on their bill. If one quote relies on an embedded network, read our guide before owners vote on it.

What committees can do this month

1. Read the SoAR Grant Guidelines and confirm your building is eligible. Check whether any apartments already have solar installed in the last 10 years.
2. Ask two SAA and NETCC accredited installers for a site visit and quote. Ask them to cover roof condition, structural load, the switchboard and how they will share the power.
3. Get a payback calculation at the strata level. If it comes out longer than 10 years, the application fails, so test it before you spend money on a meeting.
4. Decide who will lodge. If the strata manager or a resident will apply, minute the authorisation.
5. Call a general meeting with a properly drafted sustainability infrastructure resolution, a funding motion for the owners corporation's share and the sharing arrangement.
6. Lodge the Stage 1 expression of interest early. It doesn't need the resolution, so it can run alongside the meeting.
7. Have roof access, scaffolding and any network connection application ready, so installation can start as soon as the funding deed is signed.

What UnitBuddy tracks

UnitBuddy keeps the grant application, quotes, meeting notice, resolution and funding deed in one place, against the building. Committees can set the SoAR milestones as dated tasks, from the Stage 1 lodgement through to the 30 April 2027 completion date, so nothing slips while the strata manager and installer are busy. After installation, the system's warranty, maintenance and insurance records sit in the same building file, ready for the next committee.

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SoAR is a good deal for buildings that can move quickly: half the cost of a shared system, and lower power bills for owners and renters alike. The catch is the timetable. With applications closing on 4 December 2026 and installations due by 30 April 2027, the committees most likely to get the money are the ones that get quotes and call a meeting now.

Sources and further reading

• Solar for Apartment Residents (SoAR) Grant Program, NSW Government
• SoAR grant recipients, NSW Government
• SoAR application portal, DCCEEW (SmartyGrants)
• Cheaper Home Batteries Program, Clean Energy Regulator
• Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), NSW Legislation
• Program enquiries: solar.banksnsw@dcceew.nsw.gov.au

Keep the scheme file in one place the committee and the manager can both open. Features, pricing, or book a tour.