About 100,000 households are now installing rooftop solar systems every week under the Centre’s flagship Prime Minister Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, Union Renewable Energy Minister Santosh Kumar Sarangi said on Wednesday, with the government expressing confidence that its target of covering 10 million homes by March 2027 remains on track.
Latest data up to July 13 released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) shows that the scheme has so far benefited 4.65 million households across the country. Gujarat leads the country with coverage of 1.06 million households, followed by Maharashtra (1.04 million) and Uttar Pradesh (676,000). Prime Minister Surya Ghar: The Muft Bijli Yojana, launched in February 2024, seeks to provide rooftop solar systems to 10 million residential households while reducing dependence on traditional energy sources. Households that install systems larger than 3 kilowatts receive a central subsidy of $78000.
“We are covering about one lakh (100,000) families every seven days now and expect to cross 50,000 (5 million) families next month. “The target of covering one crore (10 million) families by March 2027 is on track,” Sarangi told HT. The increase in numbers is also due to the strong push in states, where initial numbers were low. “This includes states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where numbers were initially low but “It’s accelerated now.”
Other leading states include Kerala (300,000), Rajasthan (267,000), Andhra Pradesh (227,000), Madhya Pradesh (154,000), Assam (153,000), Odisha (131,000) and Haryana (117,000). Among the Union Territories, Delhi has registered 14,736 rooftop solar connections under the scheme so far.
He also attributed the recent momentum partly to word-of-mouth publicity by beneficiaries and ongoing awareness campaigns across print, television and FM radio, adding as renewables grow, they are helping push towards India’s target of installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power by 2030. Sarangi said the government has already installed 288 GW of capacity so far.
Although the numbers are encouraging, subtle challenges, such as making the support process smoother, are also important, experts said. “The data speaks for itself. We are seeing consistent growth now and states where there is central and state support are doing well,” said Bennett Das, program director of the Renewable Energy Team at the Center for Science and Environment (CSE). While space constraints remain a problem, especially in urban areas, other challenges include the financial process, he said.
“The utility-led aggregation (ULA) model, which converts rooftop solar from a single vendor-led transaction to a utility-aggregated transaction, is one of the key growth drivers for faster progress in states like Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Financing also remains inconsistent at the ground level. While collateral-free loans are available at the national level under this scheme, awareness of the product varies widely from branch to branch, and banks are handling subsidy adjustments against loans at different rates,” said Das. Once subsidies are added and others do not, leaving borrowers confused about the actual repayment schedule,” he said, adding that after-sales services could also be improved further.
On July 6, clean energy also supplied exactly 50.02% of India’s total electricity demand of 221.5 GW during the day, a major milestone.
As installed capacity grows, there is a greater need for battery energy storage systems (BESS) and pumped storage projects, Sarangi said.
“Today we have about 6 GWh of BESS capacity, but projections are that India will need approximately 236 GWh by 2030. Orders for more than 200 GWh have already been placed and we expect significant capacity addition over the next year or two,” he added.
The ministry is also testing agricultural photovoltaics, under which elevated solar panels allow agricultural activities to continue underneath. Sarangi said 40 to 45 pilot projects are being implemented across the country to identify suitable crops and agricultural practices.
