A building formerly owned by Radcliffe College and soon to be heated by solar power will shortly house Cambridge elderly as a result of state funding approved Thursday by Governor Edward J. King.

The 45 Linnaean St. building will conserve at least 60 per cent of its normal energy consumption, though the structure is ill-suited for solar conversion, Rolly Rouse, manager of multi-family solar programs for the state, said yesterday.

"It was chosen to show you can do something with a building that's not the cat's meow," he said.

Conserving energy in the structure will be as easy as "ladling cream off the top of milk" due to increased insulation and a passive solar radiator, Rouse said.

Residents will pay no more than 25 per cent of their incomes for rent, Rouse said.

Radcliffee backed out of a deal with a private condominium developer last summer in order to sell the building to the city for $480,000, Frederick P. Putnam '69, director of planning and development for the Cambridge Housing Authority, said yesterday.

He added that when renovations are completed in January, at last 24 elderly will live in the building, the Linnaean St. neighborhood's first public housing development.

The conversion stems from a $133,000 state grant Cambridge received this week, part of a $6.1 million statewide subsidy.

Cambridge will use $110,000 to weatherize three separate public housing units.

Twenty-six other communities received state money for energy saving measures in accordance with a $24.5 million bond issue approved by the Legislature in 1979.

Cambridge and Fall River were the only cities slated to receive funds for both passive solar systems and weatherization improvements