Residential rooftop solar has long been at the backburner in terms of deployment when compared to the other more attractive commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop solar. India has 11 GW of installed rooftop solar capacity installed as of February 2024, which is majorly made up of installations at premises of C&I as well as institutional consumers, and the residential segment has a very small share in this capacity.
Lack of awareness amongst residential consumers, the preconceived notions about high capital costs, low residential tariffs, and the fear of getting stuck in bureaucratic problems has hampered scale-up of residential solar till now. While the government has launched enabling policy interventions in the past including subsidies under the Rooftop Solar Programme Phase II as well as a national portal for rooftop solar applications, the deployment has been limited to bigger cities.
The good news is that the government’s latest landmark scheme can help change this trend and reenergize the residential rooftop solar space in the country. The PM-Surya Ghar scheme with a total outlay of Rs 750 billion will provide a central financial assistance to residential rooftop systems of 60 per cent of system cost up to capacities of 2 kW and 40 per cent of additional system cost for systems between 2 to 3 kW capacity. The scheme includes provisions for collateral-free low-interest loan products and aims to help households get 300 units of electricity free every month.
The scheme has been hugely popular with over 10 million registrations in just one month since the launch of the scheme in February 2024 and is expected to help in addition of 30 GW of at least rooftop solar capacity.
Net, net, residential solar has finally come here to stay and will significantly help bring the country closer to its 2030 solar power goals.
