[invalid-access]

Shameless plug: If you want to participate in India's progress towards bigger rooftop-solar, please consider joining http://www.oorjan.com. We believe we are doing something unique in leveraging banking and financial relationships to productize solar deployments. And looking for great devs right now - esp frontend :-)

[saravanannkl]

Is solar viable for small installations without any subsidies ? I was recently looking at a 30KW proposal for a small enterprise in Tamil Nadu. The quoted price is Rs. 36 lakhs. At the rate of Rs 6.75 per unit, it doesn't even cover the interest costs. Does this match with your capex costs or is this way off ?

[parimm]

Solar is viable, you will be looking at a 6-7year payback on the system with interest, 36Lakhs is very high for a 30kW system. The prices should be in the range of 25-27L for an on grid system with a simple structure. Where in Tamil Nadu is this? Ping me if you are looking for more details(mail Id in profile), I work for a company that does solar installations.

[saravanannkl]

Thanks for the reply. I could not find your mail id in your profile. You can send me an email to {My HN username}{at}gmail and I can send you more details

[invalid-access]

What we've found is it's immediately viable for commercial properties that make profits e.g. malls, workshops, small factories, petrol pumps, etc. The accelerated depreciation benefits mean you'll make your money back in little more than a year. If you own any such rooftop, this ought to be a no-brainer for you.

Even if you're not making profits (and so have no tax, and accelerated depreciation doesn't help you), commercial electricity rates in India are high, and you can expect break-even in about 3 years.

For residential consumers, break-even is 5-7 years, depending on which state you're in.

For your specific example, would need to know details to offer comments. At first glance, the quoted price seems way too high. Consider not installing batteries unless you absolutely must for your use-case.

[sandGorgon]

pretty cool. I dont know if you applied for YC this time, but I encourage you to do this for the next batch. Contact me if you need any gyaan.

[invalid-access]

Thanks - might just take you up on it!