India invests $1.6b in solar rooftop programme

It wants to hit 40GW of grid-connected rooftop solar by 2022.

The Indian government has approved the second stage of its nationwide programme to hit 40GW of grid-connected rooftop solar by 2022 and announced investments of INR118bn (approximately US$1.6b) throughout 2019. The funds will help support the future development of residential solar systems and incentivise 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. These 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.

This article was originally published by Enerdata.