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New Delhi: India expects to take its flagship rooftop solar scheme, PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, to 75 lakh households by December 2026, up from over 40 lakh beneficiaries reached in its first two years, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday.
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Joshi was speaking at a fireside chat during the event "Two years of PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana: Scaling the solar home to 1 crore rooftops," held to mark the scheme's second anniversary.
Joshi said the Utility-Linked Aggregation (ULA) model has been designed to speed up implementation, particularly among underserved households. Under the model, around 30 lakh rooftop solar installations have already been planned across states, with utilities helping drive faster adoption and execution. He said the initiative would especially benefit families consuming between 1 kW and 3 kW of electricity and widen access to affordable clean energy. With more than 65 lakh applications already in the pipeline, he said the scheme is seeing strong public participation and unprecedented momentum nationwide.
The minister said India's solar growth is accelerating rapidly, pointing out that the first 50 GW took 96 months, the next 50 GW took 36 months, and the climb from 100 GW to 150 GW took only 14 months. He said May 2026 was the strongest month since the scheme's launch, with a record 3.16 lakh rooftop solar installations in a single month and 15,000 households added in just one day.
The pace of adoption, he said, has quickened on its own — from 118 days to add one lakh households earlier to less than eight days today. Rooftop installations have risen from about 7,000 a month before the scheme to over three lakh a month now, while more than 17 lakh households have achieved zero electricity bills, he added.
Joshi said more than Rs 22,750 crore in subsidies has been disbursed, including Rs 2,743 crore in May 2026 alone. "PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana is creating one of the world's largest residential solar markets while advancing India's clean energy transition and energy self-reliance," he said.
At a time when the world faces energy uncertainties due to the West Asia crisis, the minister said initiatives such as PM Surya Ghar are bolstering India's energy security and strategic resilience. Expressing confidence that every household will have rooftop solar by 2047, he said, "PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana will become people's movement." Looking ahead, he said the government would integrate Battery Energy Storage Systems as storage costs fall and broaden adoption through the Model Solar Village initiative.
In a post on X, Joshi said: "Chaired the event commemorating two years of the @PMSuryaGhar Muft Bijli Yojana. PMSGMBY is a landmark initiative that is transforming India's energy landscape and empowering citizens through clean, affordable electricity. During the fireside chat, reflected on the remarkable progress of the scheme and expressed confidence that from over 41 lakh beneficiary households today, we will reach 75 lakh households by the end of this year. Also unveiled the PM Surya Ghar logo and conferred awards on stakeholders whose efforts are driving the rapid adoption of rooftop solar across the nation. Together, we are advancing PM Shri @NarendraModi ji's vision of Energy Aatmanirbharta and sustainable development."
Launched on February 13, 2024 with an outlay of Rs 75,021 crore, PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana has become the world's largest domestic rooftop solar programme, said the MNRE in a statement. Over 1 crore households have registered on the National Portal, with more than 33 lakh rooftop systems installed as of May 2026, adding over 12 GW of capacity. Rooftop solar now accounts for nearly 45 percent of residential solar capacity, with deployment growth rising to 85 percent during 2024–2026. The scheme supports India's push towards its 500 GW non-fossil capacity target by 2030, with total solar capacity crossing 150 GW as of March 2026, while improving energy access and easing the subsidy burden on DISCOMs.
Joshi launched the PM Surya Ghar logo and a WhatsApp bot, and conferred PM Surya Ghar Awards on top-performing states and UTs, DISCOMs, banks, vendors and other stakeholders, including standout performers during the "Month of Solar" campaign in May 2026. Secretary, New & Renewable Energy, Santosh Kumar Sarangi, along with other senior officers, was present at the event.
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The minister also released two reports by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) — one on what drives rooftop solar installation decisions in Indian homes, based on a pan-India survey, and another on maximising rooftop solar performance through a robust operations and maintenance ecosystem. The latter flagged the need for better maintenance and the potential to generate over 3.3 lakh jobs a year as deployment scales.
The event featured two plenary sessions on the future of rooftop solar in India. The first, "From 40 Lakh to 1 Crore: The PM Surya Ghar Journey," brought together senior representatives from the Ministries of New and Renewable Energy, Power and Finance and leading financial institutions to discuss policy, financing and implementation priorities for scaling to one crore households. The second, "Subnational Frontiers: Powering the State-Led Solar Surge," convened state energy leaders to discuss cross-state learnings, incentive models and strategies to balance rooftop expansion with DISCOM sustainability.
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