The Indian government has approved the second stage of its nationwide programme to hit 40 GW of grid-connected rooftop solar by 2022 and announced investments of INR118bn (approximately US$1.6bn) throughout 2019. The funds will help support the future development of residential solar systems and incitivise domestic power distribution companies.
The second phase of the programme offers a 40% subsidy support for residential solar systems of up to 3 kW and 20% subsidy for rooftop PV systems ranging between 3 and 10 kW. Rooftop projects that belong to a Group Housing Society or Residential Welfare Association (GHS/RAW) will be capped at 10 kW per house and up to 500 kW for each GHS/RAW; they will benefit from a 20% support. The subsidy support will be awarded to 4 GW of residential capacity and will be provided to individual systems on the basis of benchmark cost or tender cost, whichever is lower.
Distribution companies will be offered performance-based incentives relating to how much rooftop capacity has been installed in a given area. They must have added more than 10% of rooftop capacity in a given year to become eligible for the incentive. This incentives will be limited to the first 18 GW of installations.
India's nationwide rooftop solar capacity is currently less than 10% of the 2022 target. Despite significant installations during the previous year and encouraging growth forecasts, this objective will be hard to reach.
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