Solar subsidy in Kerala: up to ₹78,000, paid to your account.

₹30,000. The scheme pays ₹30,000 per kW for the first two kilowatts, so 1 kW earns the full ₹30,000, assuming your application and installation meet the scheme conditions.

₹60,000, which is ₹30,000 per kW for both kilowatts. This is the last size where the subsidy still scales in a straight line.

₹78,000. The third kilowatt is paid at ₹18,000 rather than ₹30,000, so 3 kW works out to ₹30,000 plus ₹30,000 plus ₹18,000. This is the maximum residential CFA, and 3 kW is the most common home system in Kerala.

No. ₹78,000 is a ceiling, not a rate. A 5 kW system and a 10 kW system both receive ₹78,000, exactly the same as a 3 kW system. Larger systems can still be the right choice when your consumption justifies them, but the subsidy stops growing after 3 kW, so everything above that is paid at full cost.

A residential KSEB consumer with a live domestic connection, a usable shade-free roof, a grid-connected system with net metering, an installer registered on the national portal, ALMM-listed DCR panels, and a bank account in the applicant's name. The connection must also not have claimed the central subsidy before.

Yes, in two ways. A flat owner with their own domestic connection and rights to roof space can apply on the normal residential slabs. Separately, a Group Housing Society or Resident Welfare Association can claim ₹18,000 per kW for common facilities such as lifts, corridor lighting, pumps and EV charging, up to 500 kW, calculated at 3 kW per house and inclusive of any individual systems residents already have.

No. The CFA is for residential consumers. Commercial and industrial solar is still very much worth doing in Kerala, but it is funded through accelerated depreciation and the tax route rather than through this scheme. Anyone promising you ₹78,000 on a commercial connection has the scheme wrong.

The CFA is for grid-connected rooftop solar with net metering, because KSEB has to inspect and commission the system against the grid for the claim to complete. A pure off-grid system does not qualify. A hybrid system with batteries can qualify where it is genuinely grid-connected and net metered, but confirm the configuration with your installer and KSEB before you order anything.

Register at pmsuryaghar.gov.in with your KSEB consumer number and mobile, submit the application, wait for KSEB's feasibility approval, install through a portal-registered vendor, have KSEB inspect and fit the net meter, then submit your bank details. The CFA is transferred to you directly once the commissioning certificate is uploaded.

Your KSEB consumer number and a recent bill, Aadhaar with a linked mobile, and bank account details with a cancelled cheque or passbook copy. PAN is asked for during bank verification. If the bill is not in your name you will need proof of your right to the roof, and sometimes a name-correction affidavit. Portal requirements do change, so check the current instructions before you submit.

Yes. The scheme runs through your DISCOM, which in Kerala is KSEB, and the whole application is keyed to your consumer number. KSEB does the feasibility approval, the inspection, the net meter and the commissioning. Without a live KSEB domestic connection there is no application to make.

Yes, and you should. The only hard condition is that the vendor is registered on the PM Surya Ghar national portal. Beyond that, choose on survey quality, the exact panel and inverter models quoted, and whether the company will still answer the phone in year six.

No, and this is the most expensive mistake in the scheme. The application and KSEB's feasibility approval must come before installation. A system built first can be refused, and there is no appeal that gives you the money back. If an installer suggests starting now and sorting the paperwork later, stop there.

A bidirectional meter records both what you draw from KSEB and what your roof exports back. You are billed on the net difference, so daytime generation offsets night-time consumption instead of being wasted. It is also a scheme requirement: the subsidy is for grid-connected solar, and net metering is how that connection is measured.

KSERC notified the Renewable Energy and Related Matters Regulations, 2025. They came into force on 6 November 2025 and the new billing arrangements applied from 1 January 2026. The final regulations allow domestic net metering up to 20 kW, which is far more generous than the 3 kW cap proposed in the draft that was widely reported in 2025. Grid support charges apply only above 10 kW. Because the draft and the final rules differ, check the current position with KSEB before you fix your system size.

No, and this causes a lot of confusion. Soura was KSEB's own earlier rooftop programme, and ANERT ran a separate state scheme called Surya Thejus. Those older schemes used a percentage-based subsidy, typically quoted as 40 percent up to 3 kW. That structure is not the current one. Today the residential subsidy is the central PM Surya Ghar CFA of ₹30,000, ₹60,000 or ₹78,000. If a page quotes you 40 percent of a benchmark price, you are reading old information.

The clock starts when KSEB uploads the commissioning certificate, not when you apply and not when the panels go up. From that point the official benchmark is release within 30 days by Direct Benefit Transfer. In practice it varies by state and by queue. We would rather tell you it is typically a few weeks to a few months than promise a date the scheme does not promise us.

It should not. You pay the full project cost to the installer, and the government pays the CFA to you. A quote that shows a lower price because the company will collect your subsidy is a quote you should walk away from. Compare quotes on the full price, then treat the ₹78,000 as money that comes back to you afterwards.

Most rejections are fixable and come from mismatched names, a bill not in the applicant's name, capacity above what your sanctioned load supports, or documents that do not match the connection. The portal shows the reason and you can correct and resubmit. The rejections that are not fixable are the ones where the system was installed before approval, or where the panels are not ALMM-listed.

We survey the roof, size the system against your actual bill, file and track the portal application with you, supply ALMM-listed DCR modules, install, and follow the KSEB inspection, net meter and commissioning through to the certificate upload that releases your money. The login and the bank account stay yours throughout, and you can verify every stage on the portal yourself.