FAQ25 questions
Solar, answered straight.
The questions Indian homeowners, societies, businesses and farmers actually ask — answered directly, with the numbers and their caveats. Where a figure can change, we say who sets it and where to verify it.
Subsidy amounts & eligibility
What the schemes pay, who qualifies, and where the numbers come from.
- For residential rooftop solar under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the Central Financial Assistance is ₹30,000 per kW for the first 2 kW and ₹18,000 for the third kW — so ₹30,000 for a 1 kW system, ₹60,000 for 2 kW, and a maximum of ₹78,000 for 3 kW or larger. Some states add incentives on top (Delhi, for example, uses a generation-based incentive). Rates are set by MNRE and revised periodically — verify current figures at pmsuryaghar.gov.in.
- Indian households with a residential electricity connection and a roof they own or have documented consent to use. The system must be grid-connected and installed by a vendor empanelled with your DISCOM, using equipment that meets the scheme's standards and domestic-content requirements. One subsidy applies per household connection. Commercial establishments are not eligible — the CFA is residential-only.
- To you. The PM Surya Ghar CFA is transferred directly into the applicant's bank account after the system is installed, net-metered, inspected and commissioned. You pay the installer the contract price (financing is available), and the subsidy follows into your account — typically within weeks of commissioning. Any installer who asks you to sign the subsidy over to them is a red flag.
- Yes. PM Surya Ghar has a separate CFA track for Group Housing Societies and Resident Welfare Associations covering common-area installations — lifts, water pumps, common lighting — computed per kW with per-house caps. The society applies through the national portal against its common-connection details, with a committee resolution and consent documentation.
- Generally no capital subsidy — the PM Surya Ghar CFA is for residential consumers only. Businesses go solar on the strength of avoided tariff (commercial and industrial rates are India's highest), net-metering or net-billing arrangements under state regulations, and tax treatment such as accelerated depreciation. For most daytime-heavy businesses the payback works without any subsidy.
- Under PM-KUSUM, solar agricultural pumps are subsidised jointly by centre and state — the reference structure is roughly 30% central plus 30% state, with the farmer covering the remainder (often bank-financed) and more generous splits in some states. PM-KUSUM also covers solarising existing grid-connected pumps (Component C) and small solar plants on barren land whose power the DISCOM buys (Component A). Exact splits and application windows are state-specific — confirm with your state nodal agency.
Process & timelines
From application to a generating system with subsidy in the bank.
- Register on the national portal, pmsuryaghar.gov.in, with your electricity consumer number, mobile and email; submit the application; wait for your DISCOM's feasibility approval; install through a DISCOM-empanelled vendor; apply for the net meter; pass the DISCOM inspection; and submit bank details for the subsidy transfer. The application is free — no agent or fee is required by any official step.
- Plan for roughly 2–4 months end to end for a residential system: application and feasibility approval (one to a few weeks), installation (2–3 days of actual work, scheduled within weeks), then net metering, inspection and commissioning (a few more weeks, varying by DISCOM workload). The subsidy is disbursed after commissioning. Clean, complete paperwork is the biggest single factor in landing at the fast end of that range.
- Most stuck applications are waiting on one specific thing: a name mismatch between the ID and the electricity connection, sanctioned load lower than the proposed system size, missing roof-consent documents, an unpassed inspection punch-list item, or bank-detail errors at disbursement. The fix is diagnosis — find which stage the file is at and what that stage is waiting for — then supply exactly that. This is one of the most common situations we take over.
- Not if you want the subsidy. PM Surya Ghar requires installation by a vendor empanelled with your DISCOM, using compliant equipment — a self-installed or non-empanelled installation is ineligible for the CFA and won't clear the DISCOM's commissioning process. Beyond the rule, grid-connected solar involves real electrical-safety obligations (earthing, protections, anti-islanding) that justify professional installation.
Costs, savings & sizing
What it costs, what it saves, and how big a system should be.
- As a working range in 2026, a typical residential grid-connected system costs roughly ₹55,000–75,000 per kW installed, varying by city, component tier and roof complexity — so a 3 kW system lands around ₹1.7–2.2 lakh before subsidy. The PM Surya Ghar CFA of ₹78,000 at 3 kW covers a substantial share. Prices move and vary; that is why comparing multiple like-for-like quotes matters more than any published number, including this one.
- A useful India-wide average is about 4 units (kWh) per kW per day taken across the year — so a 3 kW system produces roughly 350–400 units a month on average. High-irradiance regions (Gujarat, Rajasthan) do better; monsoon months and cloudier regions do worse. A honest proposal shows month-by-month expected generation for your city, not a flat annual average.
- Divide your average monthly consumption (units, from your bill) by roughly 120 to get an indicative kW figure — a home using 300 units a month is well-served around 2.5–3 kW. Then check two constraints: your sanctioned load (DISCOMs cap system size relative to it) and your usable shadow-free roof area (about 80–100 sq ft per kW). Size to consumption, not to the roof or to a salesperson's default.
- For households whose consumption fits the reference case, effectively yes: a 1–3 kW system generating around 300 units a month can offset the full consumption of a household using up to about that much, leaving only fixed charges. Households consuming more still save substantially but don't reach zero. 'Free' is an outcome of right-sizing against your actual usage, not a property of the scheme itself.
- For a subsidised residential system, typically 3–6 years depending on your tariff, consumption pattern, city and system cost; for commercial systems at higher tariffs, often 3–5 years without any subsidy. After payback, generation is essentially free for the remainder of the panels' 25-year performance life. Any proposal quoting a payback should show the assumptions — tariff, generation, degradation — that produce it.
- Usually not, for a grid-connected subsidised system. Net metering lets the grid act as your storage: surplus daytime generation is exported for credit and offset against your night-time consumption. Batteries add significant cost and are mainly worth it where power cuts are long and frequent. Note that the PM Surya Ghar CFA applies to grid-connected systems, not off-grid battery setups.
Net metering & the grid
How exported units become bill credits, and what the DISCOM checks.
- Net metering replaces your regular meter with a bidirectional meter that records both the units you import from the grid and the units your solar system exports to it. Your bill is computed on the net difference per your state's regulations — in effect, the grid stores your midday surplus for your evening use. It is what makes a grid-connected system pay even when nobody is home at noon.
- The essentials of grid safety and correctness: installed capacity matches the approval; earthing, surge protection and isolation are correctly installed; the inverter meets grid standards including anti-islanding (it must stop exporting during a grid outage to protect line workers); and the metering wiring is right. Failures are usually small workmanship items — fixable within days if someone chases the punch list.
- A standard grid-tied system shuts down during a grid outage — deliberately. The inverter's anti-islanding protection stops it exporting into a dead line where workers may be repairing the fault. If you need power through outages, that requires a hybrid inverter with battery storage, which is a different (and costlier) system design than the standard subsidised grid-tied setup.
Choosing an installer
What empanelment means, what to check, and how to compare quotes.
- An empanelled vendor is an installer registered with your DISCOM under the PM Surya Ghar framework — a mandatory condition for the subsidy. Empanelment verifies registration and basic capability, but it is a floor, not a quality guarantee: empanelled vendors range widely in workmanship and after-sales. Treat empanelment as the entry criterion, then vet installed base, component sourcing, warranty paper and service history.
- Make them comparable first: all quotes should specify the same capacity, module and inverter classes, mounting structure, protections and warranty definitions — otherwise you're comparing stories, not prices. Then compare per-Wp price, brand tiers, product-vs-performance warranty terms, commissioning scope and service commitments. An unexplained cheapest bid usually hides a substitution you can't see yet. Three vetted, like-for-like quotes is the standard we work to.
- Three distinct ones: a product warranty on the panels (commonly 10–12 years) against defects; a performance warranty on the panels (commonly 25 years, guaranteeing a stated share of rated output, e.g. ~85% at year 25); and an inverter warranty (commonly 5–10 years). Get all three in writing with serial numbers at commissioning — manufacturer warranties usually survive even if your installer's firm doesn't.
About our service
What Solar Subsidy India does, and what it costs you.
- We are a buyer-side advisory for going solar in India: we check your subsidy eligibility, size the system from your actual bills, bring you three like-for-like quotes from vetted empanelled installers, and manage the paperwork — portal application, net metering, DISCOM inspection — until the system is commissioned and the subsidy is in your bank account. We are not an installer and not a government agency; think of us the way you'd think of a good mortgage broker, but for solar.
- The first consultation — eligibility check, subsidy position, honest sizing view — is free and carries no obligation. We never charge a fee to submit a government application (the portal is free), and we take no commissions from installers on your project; that independence is the point of the service. Where an engagement goes beyond the free consultation, fees are agreed in writing before any work starts.
- No. Solar Subsidy India is a private advisory service — a division of AgPro Consulting Private Limited — with no affiliation to MNRE or any government body. The official portal for the residential scheme is pmsuryaghar.gov.in, and subsidy decisions rest entirely with MNRE and your DISCOM. We help you navigate the official process; we don't replace it, and no one can guarantee its outcomes.