India’s solar sector has witnessed growth, exceeding 50 GW installed capacity, driven by factors like abundant sunshine, falling panel costs, and government initiatives. However, the residential rooftop sector lags behind with a mere 2.65 GW installed capacity.

Experts estimate a staggering 637 GW rooftop solar potential across 250 million households, highlighting a significant untapped potential. Residential rooftop solar offers a unique solution, reducing dependence on conventional energy, mitigating environmental impact, and empowering individual energy independence.

Recognising this gap, the government has prioritised boosting residential rooftop installations by mandating power distribution companies to purchase renewable energy from rooftop solar projects, enhanced subsidies, and concessional loans.

Despite some growth, the current adoption rate falls short due to:

Behavioural barriers

Solar rooftop panels shift a user from being an electricity consumer to an electricity producer. This shift requires the users to have some basic understanding of how solar panels work. However, this is often lacking in prospective buyers. There is limited understanding of how net metering works (i.e. consumers produce for the grid and get electricity from the grid, not from their particular panel), which leads to concerns about not getting electricity if there’s no sunlight during certain seasons and hence risks potential blackouts.

Financially, high upfront costs of these panels act as a deterrent. RoIs calculations done over 6-7 years aren’t easily understood and are not found motivating by the consumers. Often, unrealistic expectations can get created, such as completely eliminating electricity bills, which creates further confusion.

Mismatches between government benchmarks and real-world pricing due to hidden costs like taxes and individual house needs exacerbate the issue. This price confusion leads consumers to back out when actual costs exceed their expectations.

Uncertainties surrounding long-term costs create anxiety. This includes unclear repair and replacement costs for potential breakdowns, challenges and potential expenses of professionally cleaning rooftop panels, and confusion around warranty coverage and the claim process. Additionally, concerns arise about what happens to their investment if they move or their roof’s sunlight exposure changes.

The solar application and installation process is lengthy, cumbersome, and confusing. It involves navigating the application, selecting a reliable vendor, understanding subsidy guidelines, and coordinating with vendors and DISCOMs simultaneously for installation.

Delays in assessments, net metering activation, and subsidy credit further complicate the process. The unorganised vendor landscape, with legal and illegal operators, hinders adoption by making it challenging to verify credentials and compare options.

The misconception that solar is solely for the wealthy and negative word-of-mouth experiences from past customers stemming from pre-regulation issues (high prices, delays, lack of customer service, lack of benefits like net metering) discourage potential adopters.

Systemic or supply-side barriers

The supply side faces issues like a disorganised vendor landscape, with most vendors devoid of proper training and relying on unreliable information sources like YouTube and WhatsApp. This, coupled with the presence of illegal sellers offering low prices and questionable quality, creates confusion and undermines trust for potential customers. Additionally, a lack of focus on customer retention often leads to compromised after-sales service. Further hindering adoption are non-transparent practices like discrepancies between government benchmarks and actual vendor quotes, complex credit and subsidy processes, and uncooperative electricity companies (DISCOMs) lacking dedicated personnel to handle solar inquiries. Inconsistent and outdated government circulars further complicate the navigation process. Financing presents additional challenges, with individuals without regular income facing difficulty obtaining loans and limited access to diverse financing schemes.

Behavioural Pathways

Having identified the behavioural and systemic barriers hindering rooftop solar adoption in Indian households, addressing these pain points is crucial to making the adoption of rooftop solar a smoother and more attractive option for Indian families. To achieve this, targeted behavioural strategies that resonate with the specific needs and preferences of households should be implemented. 

Reframing benefits: Traditionally, the solar industry has focused on only the environmental and economic benefits of solar panels. The industry should explore other benefits that may resonate with the target segment – status, future-forward image, performance. An example of this is Tesla’s success with EVs, which focused on performance, innovation, and a future-forward image

Simplifying the switch to solar power: Creating a user-friendly, multilingual platform or a dedicated app that provides step-by-step instructions for navigating the national application portal and provides transparent details on subsidies and vendors can ease the process. This platform can further provide user-generated or standardised star ratings to help consumers identify high quality vendors.

Improving price communication at the point of sales: Equipping sales teams with real-time digital calculators that personalise cost savings based on each customer’s location, energy usage, and system size can simplify understanding of return on investment (ROI). Sales pitch should include reframing the cost of solar energy as part of the total house cost, emphasising the long-term benefit of reduced electricity bills, and addressing common concerns like payback periods and hidden costs. 

Solar as the new norm! Creating new norms where solar is seen as the “done thing” will also aid adoption. There are several ways to create such norms including through the use of mass media. Further, local resident welfare associations (RWAs) can leverage existing communication channels like WhatsApp groups and conduct society-level events  to facilitate experience sharing and create a sense of positive peer pressure. This can be coupled with local business partnerships offering installation discounts to help close the purchase loop. 

Targeting potential solar buyers at the right time: Partnerships with real estate platforms to reach new homeowners, collaboration with contractors during home renovations, and leveraging social media ads to connect with those facing rising electricity bills will ensure that we provide triggers at the right time. Similarly, for existing and potential EV owners, promoting solar as the ideal clean fuel source fosters a self-sustaining green ecosystem, maximising environmental impact and energy independence.

Using such behavioural pathways, in conjunction with the right policies and incentives, will aid adoption of rooftop panels at a household level, and pave the way for a cleaner future.

With inputs from: Muskan Jain: Research Associate, Centre for Social and Behaviour Change