Abstract In developing countries like India, very limited observatory stations are available to collect daily global solar radiation (GSR). This paper focuses to develop a common model for daily GSR estimation and standalone hybrid power system (HPS) design in view of six different climate locations in India. A new strategy is applied for finding the daily GSR model in Madurai location in Tamil Nadu, India. It is based on new parameter, which is named as 'approximate-bright sunshine duration' from the real-time measurement. The remaining six locations are estimated from the new model developed. In addition, to improve the accuracy of estimation, the developed linear one input variable model is further modified as two input variable model, based on the latitudes of six different climatic locations. The performances of developed one-input and two input models are analyzed using statistical indicators. The result shows that the developed two input variable model has provided excellent estimations for Madurai and also other six Indian climatic locations of latitudes ranging from 9°N to 13°N. This work also projects a detailed analysis of HPS design based on three meteorological data inputs to cover the residential energy demand. The NASA data, predicted ANFIS data (estimated data) and the measurement data are used in the analysis for the HPS feasibility and size optimization. The analysis shows that the hybrid configurations are same for all the locations, whereas PV and converter sizes are varied in the range of 47–52 kW and 23–27 kW, respectively.