Govt boosts incentives to take roof-top solar capacity to 40 GW by 2022

In Phase-II of the programme, central financial assistance for the residential sector has been restructured by making available 40 per cent CFA for RTS systems up to 3 kW capacity and 20 per cent for RTS system capacity beyond 3 kW and up to 10 kW.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval for the Phase-II of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme,  which will be implemented with total central financial support of Rs11,814 crore.

For Group Housing Societies/Residential Welfare Associations (GHS/RAW), CFA will be limited to 20 per cent for RTS plants for supply of power to common facilities. However, the capacity eligible for CFA for GHS/RAW will be limited to 10 kW per house with maximum total capacity up to 500 kWp, inclusive of RTS put in individual houses in the GHS/RWA.

CFA under residential category will be provided for 4000 MW capacity and the same will be provided on the basis of benchmark cost or tender cost, which is lower.

Central financial support will not be available for other category, ie, institutional, educational, social, government, commercial, industrial, etc.

Under Phase-II programme, focus will be on increased involvement of Discoms.  Performance based incentives will be provided to Discoms based on RTS capacity achieved in a financial year (ie, 1 April to 31 March every year till the duration of the scheme) over and above the base capacity, ie, cumulative capacity achieved at the end of previous financial year. 

Discoms and their local offices will be the nodal points for implementation of the programme.  Since, Discoms are required to incur additional expenditure for implementation of scheme in terms of additional man-power, creating infrastructure, capacity building, awareness, etc, it is appropriate to compensate them by providing performance linked incentives. These incentives will be provided to enable Discoms to create an enabling ecosystem for expeditious implementation of RTS programme in their area.

The incentives to the Discoms, will, however, be available only for initial capacity addition of 18,000 MW under the scheme.

The programmes will have substantial environmental impact in terms of savings of CO2 emission. Considering average energy generation of 1.5 million units per MW, it is expected that addition of 38 GW solar rooftop plants under Phase-II by year 2022 will result in CO2 emission reduction of about 45.6 tonnes per year.

The programme has direct employment potential. Besides increasing self-employment the approval is likely to generate employment opportunity equivalent to 9.39 lakh job years for skilled and unskilled workers for addition of 38GW capacity under Phase-II of the scheme by the year 2022.