The Brazilian territory is irradiated with solar energy ranging from 1500 to 2300 kWh/m(2)/year, compared to 600 to 1850 kWh/m(2)/year in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Despite that, photovoltaic (PV) technology is only now starting to penetrate the Brazilian electricity mix. Until recently, the high costs of PV generation had prevented this technology from competing in Brazil. However, the consistent PV price reductions and the worldwide scale reached, has brought attention to the Brazilian planners and actions have been taken recently in Brazil to help PV start its progress. In this paper, two of the recent government actions are analyzed, namely the National Electrical Energy Agency ANEEL Resolution RN482/2012, and the announcement of support by the Brazilian Development Bank offering loans at low interest rates for solar PV projects. The effects of these actions for residential PV systems are positive where the conventional electricity tariff is high with respect to the average in the country, and less relevant elsewhere. We compare these tariffs with the calculated Levelized Cost of Energy of rooftop PV generation. The influence of these policies on the return on investment of residential rooftop PV generation is studied for different climatic zones in Brazil. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.