Solar in Kerala
Tiled roofs at several angles, salt in the air, and a monsoon that decides your annual generation. Kerala rewards a system designed for Kerala.
What’s different about installing here
Roofs are complicated. A large share of Kerala homes have sloping tiled roofs across several planes, often with a stairwell block and a water tank in the middle. That’s the case where micro-inverters frequently earn their premium, because panels end up facing three directions and shading moves through the day.
Salt air is unforgiving. Anywhere within reach of the coast, painted mild steel structure is a false economy. We specify hot-dip galvanised, and we detail the fixings and flashing on the assumption that the structure has to survive decades of humidity.
The monsoon sets the annual figure. Generation drops substantially through the monsoon months, and any payback calculation that ignores that is wrong. We size on annual output. Heavy rain also means gutter, valley and penetration detailing matters more here than almost anywhere else, which is why we do our own roofing rather than leave it to a mounting subcontractor.
Rain does some of the cleaning. On a well-tilted roof the monsoon washes the panels, so cleaning frequency is often lower than in drier states. Flat-mounted panels don’t get that benefit.
KSEB, KSERC and ANERT
Net metering in Kerala runs under the framework set by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission, and KSEB implements it. KSEB handles the feasibility application, technical approval, inspection and the bidirectional meter. ANERT is the state nodal agency for renewable energy.
On subsidy, the central PM Surya Ghar assistance is what applies to homes. The earlier Soura programme no longer runs as a consumer subsidy channel. We’ll confirm the current position before quoting, because this is the fastest-changing part of the picture. TODO: re-verify with ANERT before publishing
Full detail on our subsidy and net metering page.
Working with Gulf-based owners
A large proportion of our Kerala enquiries come from families whose earning member works in the Gulf. We survey by video call, send proposals you can read on a phone, and photograph every stage into a WhatsApp group.
See our page for NRIs in the GCC for how that works, including how the subsidy applies when the owner isn’t resident.
Districts we cover: TODO: confirm the full district list. Ask if you’re not sure.
Send us a KSEB bill
One recent bill tells us your consumption pattern and your tariff slab, which is most of what we need for a first estimate.