Indian households do not yet seem to be sold on the idea of solar rooftop installations.
The latest data shows that India added 1,538 MW of solar rooftop installations in 12 months to 30 September, taking the overall rooftop solar capacity of India to about 3.4 gigawatts (GW).
Households accounted just for about 9% of the total rooftop solar capacity recorded this year as compared with commercial and industrial installation consumer segment that dominated with 70% share.
Growth in the residential market lags due to a combination of reasons: high upfront cost, lack of financing options from banks, and most importantly, lack of standard products and customer awareness
The OPEX model, where third-party developers own and develop projects on customer sites, added 559 MW capacity in the past 12 months through September and is growing faster than rest of the market with a share of 35%.
On the other hand, CAPEX market, where entire rooftop is owned by rooftop owners, is even getting more fragmented. Top 10 players in CAPEX market had a share of just 18% this year as compared with 21% last year.
“The high upfront capital expenditure compared to commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers, a lack of financing options and cheaper grid electricity for residential consumers with low consumption currently make rooftop PV (photovoltaic) less attractive for residential consumers than their C&I counterparts,” said a report of Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
Reference- Financial Express, Bloomberg Report