We do not see the residential rooftop solar inverter manufacturers picking up anytime soon for solar PV. At the moment, solar inverter is competitive only with commercial prices of grid electricity. The residential rooftop solar inverter system's space at the moment is driven largely by the capital subsidy offered by the manufacturers (see http://www.inverter.co ). Such installations are not expanding at the scale that one might expect in a energy hungry market like India precisely because of the financing challenges that you are mentioning. Overall, current business models are unable to adequately address the challenges if financing, solar inverter operation and maintenance, sales and distribution of rooftop solar inverter systems. A net metering policy could potentially turn-around this space, but there is no sign of that being introduced in the near future.Consumers want reliable and quality power, and are investing personal * on solar inverters, star, cfl, and any solar, while the regulator continues to play with prices. Even farmers, getting free power (add unreliably), want to pay to get power inverter during normal working hours. In Dec, customers in AP are furious to see their bills double, as FSA charges are added from past dues. This despite reducing the billed units, by 20-30%.
