Solar Rooftop India: Subsidy, Price and the Dec Deadline

A solar rooftop system in India costs ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 per kW installed before subsidy, attracts central assistance of up to ₹78,000 under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, and needs DISCOM feasibility approval before installation rather than after. The item almost no consumer page is covering: MNRE's Office Memorandum of 18 July 2026 exempts net-metering projects from ALMM List-II only where they are commissioned on or before 31 December 2026. The test is the commissioning date, not the order date, and DISCOM inspection queues run 20 to 45 days. If you are reading this in the last quarter of 2026, that timing is the most consequential thing on this page.

At a glance

Subsidy slabs verified against the official CFA structure document. Prices, uptake figures and the ALMM position are time-sensitive. Verify at publish.

What the subsidy actually pays, and where it stops

The slab structure is the single most misunderstood part of the scheme, because it is not proportional.

A 10 kW system receives exactly the same rupee subsidy as a 3 kW system. There is a hard cliff at 3 kW and every kilowatt beyond it is paid at full retail.

That single table should shape your sizing decision more than any generation calculation. If your consumption genuinely needs 5 kW, install 5 kW. If you are choosing 4 kW over 3 kW to leave headroom for an appliance you have not bought yet, you are paying full price for that headroom and would do better to expand later.

Be careful with any page quoting subsidy above ₹78,000. One widely-shared installer page claims ₹1,09,000 to ₹1,18,000 of central assistance for a 5 kW system. That contradicts the scheme's own CFA document. Where a figure above ₹78,000 appears, it is either an unstated state top-up or a sales error, and state top-ups vary and change often enough that you should confirm yours with the state nodal agency rather than with an installer.

Rooftop solar system prices in India right now

Sources vary more than you would expect, so here is the spread stated honestly rather than a single number presented as fact.

Published ranges run from ₹40,000 per kW at the budget end to ₹1,10,000 at the premium end. The honest reading is that ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 per kW is where legitimate on-grid residential work sits. Below about ₹45,000 per kW something has been compromised, usually module tier, cable gauge or the protection equipment. Above ₹80,000 for plain on-grid you are paying a brand premium.

Cost splits roughly as modules 45% to 55%, inverter 10% to 18%, mounting structure 8% to 15%, with cabling, protection and labour making up the rest.

Hidden costs that fall outside many quotes: surge protection devices, proper earthing, the net-metering application fee, DISCOM approval and inspection charges, and in some states the bidirectional meter itself. Ask which of these are inside the number before comparing two quotes.

Rooftop solar price after subsidy: does the payback claim hold

Installer pages routinely claim two to three year payback. Independent analysis puts it at five to seven. Both can be arithmetically true, and the difference between them is worth understanding because it is entirely about your circumstances rather than the hardware.

The two-to-three-year figure requires a subsidised 3 kW system, a high slab tariff around ₹8 to ₹10 per unit, and near-total daytime self-consumption. The five-to-seven-year figure assumes 4 to 5.5 units per kW per day and an effective tariff nearer ₹6.

Three things stretch the payback and are almost never included in the claim.

Exports settle below retail. Self-consumption offsets electricity at your full tariff. Surplus exported and not consumed is settled at avoided cost, typically ₹2 to ₹4 per unit. A household empty from 9am to 7pm exports most of what it generates and therefore earns the lower rate on it.

Maintenance is a real annual cost. An annual maintenance contract for a 3 to 5 kW system runs ₹6,000 to ₹9,000. Cleaning matters more than owners expect: monthly cleaning holds 97% to 99% of rated output while quarterly cleaning drops it to 85% to 90%, and neglected systems in high-dust regions lose 20% to 30%.

The inverter will be replaced before the panels are. Panels carry 25-year performance warranties. Inverters carry five to ten years, with years four to seven the critical failure window. Budget at least one replacement across the system's life.

Add maintenance and one inverter replacement and realistic payback moves out by roughly eight to fourteen months. Four to six years is the defensible number for on-grid post-subsidy in most states.

The deadline: rooftop solar panels and ALMM List-II

This is the section to read twice if you are buying in late 2026.

ALMM is the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's Approved List of Models and Manufacturers. List-I covers modules and has been mandatory for subsidised and net-metered rooftop work throughout. List-II covers solar cells and came into force on 1 June 2026, requiring domestically approved cells rather than merely approved modules.

MNRE then issued a transition window. Its Office Memorandum of 18 July 2026 provides that net-metering and open-access projects commissioned on or before 31 December 2026 are exempt from ALMM List-II and may continue using existing cell supply chains. From 1 January 2027, all such projects must source cells exclusively from List-II manufacturers. MNRE describes this as a one-time transition window and states explicitly that it does not alter the implementation of List-II and should not be treated as a blanket extension.

Why this matters to a household rather than a developer: Crisil estimated in June 2026 that domestic cell supply covers only around half of India's demand under List-II. Scarcer compliant cells mean higher module prices in 2027 than in 2026.

And the trap is procedural. Commissioning is the last step, not the first. The sequence runs registration, feasibility approval, installation, net-meter application, DISCOM inspection, then commissioning. Meter installation alone commonly takes 20 to 30 days and the full end-to-end runs 45 to 90 days. A household placing an order in November 2026 is genuinely at risk of commissioning in January 2027 and buying into the more expensive supply chain.

If you intend to install and the calendar is anywhere near the end of 2026, ask your vendor in writing for a commissioning date, not an installation date. Verify the current position before acting, since MNRE may issue a further memorandum.

Solar rooftop system: the application sequence that people get wrong

The order is mandated and deviating from it risks the claim.

Step 1. Register on the national portal. You need your DISCOM, your consumer number, which is the 10 to 12 digit number on your bill and not the meter number, and your mobile and email.

Step 2. Apply for feasibility approval and wait for it. The DISCOM reviews technical feasibility, taking anywhere from three days to four weeks. Two structural blockers surface here: system capacity exceeding your sanctioned load, which then needs a load enhancement application taking a further two to four weeks, and pending electricity arrears, which block feasibility outright.

Step 3. Choose a registered vendor and sign. The vendor must be registered on the national portal. Rates are not fixed by the scheme, so you negotiate price freely. Our guide to finding and verifying a solar dealer covers how to check registration and what to ask before paying an advance.

Step 4. Install. Only after feasibility approval. Installing first and applying later leaves no approval on record and is a common cause of rejected claims.

Step 5. Apply for net metering and pass inspection. The DISCOM installs the bidirectional meter and inspects.

Step 6. Commissioning certificate, then subsidy. The certificate triggers the direct benefit transfer to your account. The subsidy is disbursed to you after commissioning, not deducted from your invoice upfront. A vendor collecting the subsidy amount from you at the start is financing themselves with your money.

Why subsidy claims get rejected

The most complete published list runs to thirteen reasons. The ones that account for most failures:

Note how many of these are administrative rather than technical. The paperwork is where households lose months, not the engineering.

Net metering and what changes on 1 October 2026

Net metering runs your meter both ways. Exports offset imports at retail tariff over the billing cycle, and unadjusted annual surplus is bought out at avoided cost of roughly ₹2 to ₹4 per unit depending on state.

State rules vary considerably.

The material pending change: the Ministry of Power issued draft Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Amendment Rules on 12 March 2026, with implementation indicated from 1 October 2026. The draft introduces a net-metering charge on systems above 5 kW, scaled to imputed storage and network-loss costs, with systems at or below 5 kW exempt. It also proposes time-of-day tariffs with solar-hour rates at least 20% lower.

For a household, this points the same way as the subsidy cliff. Sizing at 3 to 5 kW keeps you inside both the subsidy band and the proposed charge exemption. This is draft-stage: confirm the final gazette notification before relying on any figure.

Honest pros and cons

What works. The subsidy is substantial and real, with over 50 lakh households installed and ₹28,024 crore disbursed by August 2026, against only 7.94 lakh installations in the entire preceding decade. Roughly 19 lakh households report zero electricity bills. Tariffs escalate 8% to 10% a year, so returns improve over time. Panels carry 25-year performance warranties and degrade only 0.5% to 0.7% a year.

What the commercial pages hide. The subsidy arrives after commissioning, so you finance the whole system first. Off-grid gets nothing, and battery-hybrid gets the same ₹78,000 as plain on-grid despite costing far more, which means people buying solar primarily for outage backup are buying the least-subsidised configuration. On-grid systems shut down during a power cut by design, through anti-islanding protection, so a plain on-grid system gives you no backup at all. Payback claims of two to three years assume high tariffs and full daytime self-consumption. Monsoon output falls 40% to 60% and North Indian winter fog can halve it. Maintenance and inverter replacement are real costs almost never counted. And the scheme is running at roughly half its one crore target at the two-and-a-half year mark of a three-year programme.

Decision framework

Strong fit. You own the roof, have 300 sq ft or more of shadow-free space, consume 250 units a month or more, are on a tariff above ₹6 per unit, and have significant daytime consumption. Size at 3 kW to capture the full subsidy, or larger if your consumption genuinely justifies paying retail for the excess.

Marginal fit. Your consumption is under 150 units a month, which makes even a 1 kW system slow to repay. Your roof is shaded for part of the day. You are in a rented property, where the roof owner's consent and the connection holder's identity both complicate the application.

Not a fit. You want backup during power cuts and nothing else, in which case a plain on-grid system will not help you and a hybrid costs far more for the same subsidy. You cannot fund the full system upfront and wait for reimbursement. You are in a flat with no allocated roof rights, though a group housing society can apply collectively at ₹18,000 per kW for common facilities.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a solar rooftop system cost in India?

On-grid residential systems cost ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 per kW installed before subsidy, so a 3 kW system is ₹1.5 to ₹2.25 lakh, falling to roughly ₹72,000 to ₹1.47 lakh after the ₹78,000 central subsidy. Hybrid systems with batteries cost ₹80,000 to ₹1,00,000 per kW and off-grid ₹90,000 to ₹1,25,000 per kW.

What is the rooftop solar price per kW after subsidy?

For the first 2 kW the subsidy is ₹30,000 per kWp, bringing an effective net cost of roughly ₹20,000 to ₹45,000 per kW. For the third kW it is ₹18,000. Beyond 3 kW there is no additional subsidy, so the fourth kilowatt onward costs the full ₹50,000 to ₹75,000.

Do rooftop solar panels need to be ALMM listed?

Yes. Modules must be on ALMM List-I and must satisfy the domestic content requirement, meaning domestically manufactured modules made from domestically manufactured cells. ALMM List-II, covering cells, came into force on 1 June 2026, with net-metering projects commissioned on or before 31 December 2026 exempt under MNRE's memorandum of 18 July 2026.

How much roof area does a rooftop solar system need?

Roughly 100 sq ft per kW of shadow-free roof, so a 3 kW system needs about 300 sq ft. The bare panel footprint with modern 540W modules is closer to 60 to 80 sq ft per kW; the 100 sq ft figure is the practical installable area once walkways, tilt spacing and shadow clearance are included.

How many units does a solar rooftop system generate?

The planning figure is 4 units per kW per day, so a 3 kW system produces around 360 units a month and 4,400 to 4,650 units a year. Output ranges 3.8 to 5.2 units per kW per day by region, dropping 40% to 60% during the monsoon and further in North Indian winter fog.

Is off-grid solar eligible for the PM Surya Ghar subsidy?

No. The MNRE guidelines state that off-grid connected installations are not eligible for central financial assistance. Grid connection is mandatory. Battery-hybrid systems can qualify provided they stay grid connected with reverse power relay protection and State Electricity Regulatory Commission approval, but the battery itself attracts no additional subsidy.

Do I need DISCOM approval before installing solar?

Yes, and this is where most claims fail. Feasibility approval must come before installation, not after. Installing first leaves no approval on record. Feasibility also surfaces the two most common blockers, which are system capacity exceeding your sanctioned load and pending electricity arrears.

How long does the whole solar rooftop process take?

Typically 45 to 90 days end to end. Feasibility review takes three days to four weeks, installation one to three days, meter installation 20 to 30 days, and subsidy processing 30 to 45 days after commissioning. Load enhancement, if needed, adds a further two to four weeks.

Does a solar rooftop system work during a power cut?

A plain on-grid system does not. Grid-tied inverters shut down when the grid fails, through anti-islanding protection required for lineworker safety. Only hybrid systems with a battery provide backup during an outage, and they cost roughly 60% more for the same central subsidy.

Can I install a solar rooftop system myself to save money?

Not if you want the subsidy. Central financial assistance requires installation by a vendor registered on the national portal, because only a registered vendor can submit a valid commissioning report. Self-installation disqualifies the claim.