Government offers subsidy to promote rooftop solar across India

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, R K Singh, Minister of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), declared that the MNRE is implementing Rooftop Solar Program Phase II to promote rooftop solar (RTS) across the country, including in rural areas, with a target of 4000 MW of RTS capacity installed in the residential sector by 2022, with a subsidy. Individual households with RTS plants up to 3 kW capacity will receive a 40% subsidy of the benchmark cost, while plants more than 3 kW but less than 10 kW capacity will receive a 20% subsidy. The subsidy for Group Housing Societies (GHS) or Residential Welfare Associations (RWA) is limited to 20% of the benchmark cost for RTS plants with capacities up to 500 kW used for power supply to basic facilities. The launch of phase II of the rooftop solar programme under Central Financial Assistance (CFA) for the residential sector, as well as slab-based incentives for Power Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) is to attain additional capacity over and beyond the installed capacity of the previous year. The government has taken the following steps to promote grid-connected RTS throughout the country: Assistance to states in the development of an online portal and the aggregation of demand for RTS projects. Preparation of a model Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), PPA, and Capex Agreement to expedite the implementation of RTS projects in the government sector. SPIN, an online platform, was created to speed up project approval, report submission, and monitoring of RTS project implementation. Concessional loans from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are facilitated through the State Bank of India(SBI) and Punjab National Bank(PNB), respectively, for disbursement of loans to industrial and commercial sectors where the Ministry does not provide CFA or incentive. Image Source Also read: SECI invites bids for O&M of 1 MW rooftop solar projects