Abstract In spite of the remarkable growth and price reductions of the photovoltaic (PV) market during the past decade, the PV market still needs financial supports and incentives in order to achieve its national target from the long-term perspective. However, due to the financial burden on the government budget, most of the countries are reducing their financial supports and incentives as time goes by. In order to sustain the growth of the PV market, it is crucial to determine the optimal solar incentive design by minimizing the government budget while maximizing the resident's benefit. Towards this end, this study aims to propose a framework for optimizing the solar incentive from the perspective of residents and policy makers. The proposed framework consists of five steps: (i) establishment of database; (ii) generation of incentive scenarios; (iii) calculation of the electricity generation; (iii) Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis; and (v) Multi-objective optimization using Pareto optimal solutions. The proposed framework could help both residents and policy makers in several ways by developing a multi-objective optimization model in the future study: (i) minimize the government budget; (ii) maximize the resident's benefit; (iii) determine an optimal solar incentive design which can satisfy both residents and policy makers. Application of the proposed framework could be extended to any other country or sector in the global environment.