MNRE has finally come out with the new policy and guidelines on solar rooftop and installations in the country.

The policy has details for both residential sector ( 4000MW) of solar rooftop in this category and for utility companies ( 18000MW for grid connected plants and incentives) and is divided into two components. Component A and Component B of this Phase II program specifically deal with the CFA components and subsidy allotment.

You can read about the details on the new policy here

Key Changes in the Policy

A lot of process and steps that were earlier with the state nodal agencies, are now being provide to the state utility companies / private discoms as well. It remains to be seen how efficiently  the subsidy process and CFA is disbursed – will it be better than before ? More efficient than the earlier case with state nodal agencies  – a question that is unanwered

Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs)

There are norms for RWAs setting up solar rooftop plant as well – where there is a maximum cap that has been provided for 500 KWp of load ( for common purposes) and about 10 KWp of load for individual houses.

Notably, there is no subsidy for industrial rooftops or institutional segment.  The premise being that they are already procuring expensive power and installing solar plants on rooftops will only help them save energy costs significantly. Residences are dealt with separately.

There is an increased subsidy element of up-to 40% ( for smaller plants). This is a major change compared to earlier policy and was expected. For larger plants, the policy allows higher subsidy initially, but for higher capacity lowers subsidy. For RWAs, the subsidy is fixed at 20%.

Empanelment

This policy also defines that the utility shall empanel service providers and installers for the state, via a call for empanelment. Only such empanelled installers shall be allowed to set up rooftop plants in the state. There is a price band also thats been specified, under which the installers shall need to match the L1 price ( or be higher by a certain percentage, defined).

For installers, who wish to partner with networkGreen and work with us, please do fill in the contact form at the Contact Us page here. We shall be glad to partner and work with such bidders. We can work on expanding the residential rooftop in the services that we provide in the rooftop solar category.