Funds for Rooftop Solar in India

A steep fall in solar projects costs means that solar energy on rooftops has started to become cheaper than grid /off grid alternative power in many segments and regions of India. The traditional electricity in India is expensive and unreliable. Rooftop Solar is becoming more economical and lucrative in India. Solar power from rooftop can be generated at Rs. 7/ kWh (11c), which means that it is substantially cheaper than commercial and industrial tariffs in a lot of places. Compared to this, commercial and industrial customers often have to pay Rs 10/kWh for their grid power.

The government of India set up a target to achieve 100 GW by 2022, with 40 GW being the rooftop installation target. In a recent news, the government may increase the rooftop fund allocation to Rs.5,000 crore from Rs.600 crore very soon. The government has also urged all ministries, states and all educational institutions across the country to install rooftop solar on the space available to them. 1 kWp of rooftop solar can be installed on 10 square meter of area. Even if a portion of the space that is available with the government institutions can be converted into rooftop solar, solar power worth gigawatts can be generated.

Financial assistance in the form of 15% of the benchmark cost will also be provided by the government to residential, institutional, government and social sector buildings. The government is also considering installation of solar panels on rooftops of buildings mandatory in Delhi. They are also thinking of implementing the same pan India. The policy aims at achieving 1GW of rooftop solar by 2020 and 2GW by 2025 for Delhi. Similar policy was passed for the Indian state of Haryana, but could see little success as India soon after halved rooftop subsidy by 50%.

I hope the decisions made now will make more sense and help promote solar rooftop installations in India. The government should also look at providing incentives in the form of stamp duty or property tax exemptions to achieve its target.