One year down, 8.5% of targeted households have rooftop solar installations

Nearly a year after the Centre launched the ₹75,000 crore PM Surya Ghar scheme, 8.5 lakh households have installed rooftop solar connections, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, said at a public event on January 29

Nearly a year after the Centre launched the ₹75,000 crore PM Surya Ghar scheme, 8.5 lakh households have installed rooftop solar connections, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, said at a public event on Wednesday (January 29, 2025). First announced following the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last January, the scheme was officially launched on February 15, 2024.

The scheme, on the whole, targets one crore household installations across India. Mr. Joshi told The Hindu that this target is likely to be met “within the next two or three years”. “Any scheme that launches takes some time to get going,” he remarked.

Last month, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy remarked about the “slow pace” of installations. Only five lakh installations, of a total 20 lakh applications made on the Surya Ghar portal, had been completed as of October last year, the committee noted. The Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy told the committee that there were “rain-related delays” but the Centre was on track to ensure that 12 lakh households were covered in the financial year 2024-2025. With time, the pace of installations would accelerate, the bureaucrat said. He explained that from 3,000 installations in a day, the number of daily installations had risen to 9,000.

The scheme subsidises 60% of the solar unit cost for systems up to 2 kW capacity and 40% of additional system costs for systems between 2 kW and 3 kW capacity. The subsidy has been capped at 3 kW capacity. At current benchmark prices, this means a ₹30,000 subsidy for a 1 kW system, ₹60,000 for 2 kW systems, and ₹78,000 for 3 kW systems or higher.

Speaking at the India Energy Transition Conference, organised by industry lobby group, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Union Minister Mr. Joshi said India is set to add 50 GW of new renewable capacity annually in the coming years. In the last 10 years, India’s installed renewable capacity rose by 200%, from 75.52 GW in 2014 to 220 GW today. The tariff for grid-connected solar power plants has decreased by 80%, from ₹10.95 per unit in 2010-11 to just ₹2.15 per unit, making India a leader in affordable renewable energy, he added.