Here Comes the Sun: Residential Consumers’ Experience with Rooftop Solar PV in Five Indian Cities

The paper identifies three primary barriers to the adoption of residential rooftop solar PV in India: a lack of objective, accessible information; a lack of customized financing options; and poor coordination between government agencies and utilities. It emphasizes that meeting India's 40 GW rooftop solar target by 2022 requires a consumer-centric approach that complements top-down policies with bottom-up initiatives.

• Residential consumers lack credible, objective information regarding solar PV products, installation processes, and approvals, leading to an over-reliance on vendors. There is a disconnect between the digital dissemination methods used by nodal agencies and the consumer preference for references from friends, family, and neighbors.
• Current financing for rooftop PV is inadequate because it treats the systems as standard consumer durable goods. Issues include skewed tariff structures that reduce incentives and loan collateral requirements that are disproportionate to the system's cost.
• Institutional friction and conflicting priorities between government bodies hinder installation. Examples include electricity utilities in Chennai opposing rooftop solar to protect grid-based supply and municipal architectural restrictions in Chandigarh blocking installations.
• India's progress toward its 2022 target of 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity was significantly behind schedule, with only 1,222 MW installed as of July 2018, representing less than 5 percent of the goal.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Here Comes the Sun: Residential Consumers’ Experience with Rooftop Solar PV in Five Indian Cities. https://www.wri.org/research/here-comes-sun-residential-consumers-experience-rooftop-solar-pv-five-indian-cities

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Here Comes the Sun: Residential Consumers’ Experience with Rooftop Solar PV in Five Indian Cities. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/here-comes-sun-residential-consumers-experience-rooftop-solar-pv-five-indian-cities.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Here Comes the Sun: Residential Consumers’ Experience with Rooftop Solar PV in Five Indian Cities |url=https://www.wri.org/research/here-comes-sun-residential-consumers-experience-rooftop-solar-pv-five-indian-cities |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendhere, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Here Comes the Sun: Residential Consumers’ Experience with Rooftop Solar PV in Five Indian Cities}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/here-comes-sun-residential-consumers-experience-rooftop-solar-pv-five-indian-cities}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }