New proposal on support level for households installing rooftop solar panels

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just released the third draft of the Prime Minister's Decision on support policies for households to install self-produced and self-consumed rooftop solar power and electricity storage systems. It is expected to be applied until the end of 2030.

In this draft, the Ministry classifies more clearly the groups of subjects including households installing without storage systems and with storage systems. This is to promote the development of power sources, contribute to reducing the risk of power shortages, reduce costs for the power system and bring efficiency to the people.

Specifically, this agency proposed that households be supported with investment in self-produced and self-consumed rooftop solar power of 1-1.5 million VND if they do not install an electricity storage system; in case they install an electricity storage system, they will be supported with an additional 1-1.5 million VND (subject to minimum conditions on installed capacity).

Previously, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed that households be supported with investment capital with a maximum rate of VND500,000 for 1kWp of total rated capacity of photovoltaic panels installed in the system. The support level does not exceed VND2.5 million/household.

In addition, in this draft, the Ministry proposes that households be supported with commercial loan interest rates to invest in rooftop solar power. Households will be applied with short-term loan interest rates. The maximum interest rate support period is 3 years from the date of disbursement of the loan according to the contract with the bank.

Loan support for solar power system investment is 4 million VND/1kWp applicable for capacity up to 5kWp and investment in storage system is at least 2 million VND/kWh applicable for capacity up to 10kWh.

For household solar power systems that need to sell surplus electricity output, the household owner must negotiate with the surplus electricity buyer to receive support for investment in installing a two-way electricity metering system suitable for the grid connection capacity of the surplus electricity buyer according to regulations.

Households wishing to receive support must have a rated capacity of 1kWp or more of photovoltaic panels, and the electricity storage system must be 2kWh or more.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with about 28 million households nationwide, to achieve the target of 50% of households installing rooftop solar power for self-production and self-consumption according to the adjusted Power Plan 8, the direct support amount could be up to about 42,000 billion VND in the period 2026-2030.

Thus, each year the total state budget will have to spend about 8,400 billion VND in support, equivalent to about 250 billion VND/year for each province).

However, the management agency said that this support amount is the maximum, and the reality depends on the local budget conditions and the installation needs of the household. This regulation applies to all households to ensure fairness.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that currently, if there is 100% investment capital, the rooftop solar power system can recover capital in about 4-5 years, while the lifespan of the equipment can be 10-12 years, which is very effective and attractive for investment. Therefore, financial support is not too necessary compared to support for investment loans with preferential interest rates to encourage households to invest in installing rooftop solar power.

In terms of efficiency, if each household installs an average of about 3 kWp, the annual electricity production can reach more than 50 billion kWh, equivalent to 16% of the country's electricity demand in 2024.

For the national power system, these distributed power sources will help reduce investment and operation costs of the transmission grid; reduce the cost of purchasing electricity from higher-cost power sources; reduce net emissions for the country...

For households, the cost of purchasing electricity from the power system will be reduced, especially for households that consume a lot of electricity and are in the high electricity price range. However, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that with a large total investment capital (an average of about 50 million VND/household), many households still need support to borrow capital to invest.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/de-xuat-moi-ve-muc-tien-ho-tro-ho-dan-lap-dien-mat-troi-mai-nha-20250820233531803.htm