Residential Solar Rooftop Installations in India pick up the pace with Government Support and Low Prices

The Indian rooftop solar market remains a small market in comparison to the overall solar market which is mainly driven by large scale utility solar installations. The rooftop solar market is around 10% of the overall solar market which is a very small percentage compared to other countries such as Germany and Australia where rooftop can form a percentage much higher than 50%. The problems for homeowners in getting the required approvals to install rooftop solar systems, the problems in accessing finance, etc. makes it difficult to install rooftop solar systems. There is also the problem of weak structures and multiple ownership issues that makes getting traction in the rooftop solar segment a hard task.

To push rooftop solar systems especially for the residential segment, the Indian government has tweaked its policy and now gives subsidy only to this segment. The industrial and commercial segments are not given the capital subsidy of 20%-40% which is now being given to the residential rooftop system owners. The reason is that for commercial and industrial rooftop owners, the economics is already compelling enough and does not require much of a government push. Also, the rooftop solar capacity in the country is being dominated by the industrial rooftop owners who have been availing this alternative aggressively as it leads to high savings for them.

Delhi which is the capital of India is seeing a surge in rooftop solar installations by both residential individual house owners as well as group housing societies. Not only is the economics good for these homeowners but also the distribution utilities in Delhi are helping the homeowners in getting these installations. Generally, the utilities create a lot of red tapes as they don’t want to lose revenues and their customers. But as the size of the systems in residential homes is small and they also get an incentive from the government for adding rooftop capacities, the distribution utilities are not that hostile to rooftop solar systems being put up by the residential segment. Even other states are seeing good growth in this rooftop solar segment pushed by the government as well as large savings in electricity bills.