The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) marked two years of the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, pointing to how fast India’s rooftop solar programme has grown and rolling out new measures to push adoption further. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said the scheme has already reached over 40 lakh households and is on track for 75 lakh rooftop installations by December 2026.
A new model to reach underserved households
Speaking at “Two Years of PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana: Scaling the Solar Home to 1 Crore Rooftops,” Joshi introduced the Utility-Linked Aggregation (ULA) model, built to push rooftop solar into underserved households in particular. Around 30 lakh installations are already planned under this model, with electricity distribution companies taking the lead on rolling it out. PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana is aimed at households using between 1 kW and 3 kW, and more than 65 lakh applications are already in the pipeline.
Solar capacity is growing faster each year
Joshi said the pace of India’s solar rollout keeps picking up. The first 50 GW of capacity took 96 months to install. The next 50 GW took 36 months. Going from 100 GW to 150 GW took just 14 months. May 2026 was the best month yet for the scheme, with 3.16 lakh rooftop systems installed and 15,000 households added in a single day.
Implementation speed has jumped
The time needed to add one lakh beneficiary households has dropped from 118 days to under eight, Joshi said. The scheme has paid out more than ₹22,750 crore in subsidies so far, ₹2,743 crore of that in May 2026 alone, helping build what’s now one of the largest residential rooftop solar markets in the world.
Energy security and what’s next
Joshi tied the programme to India’s broader energy security at a time of global uncertainty. Monthly installations have gone from around 7,000 before the scheme launched to over three lakh now, and more than 17 lakh households report zero electricity bills since going solar.
Looking ahead, he said the goal is to make rooftop solar a household norm by 2047, backed by battery storage as costs come down, along with related efforts like the Model Solar Village programme.
MNRE Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi and other senior ministry officials attended the event.
About the scheme
Launched on 13 February 2024 with an outlay of ₹75,021 crore, PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana is now the world’s largest residential rooftop solar initiative. Over one crore households have registered on the national portal, and more than 33 lakh rooftop systems were installed by May 2026, adding over 12 GW of generation capacity. Rooftop solar makes up nearly 45% of India’s residential solar capacity, and deployment has grown 85% between 2024 and 2026. The programme PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana also feeds into India’s target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030; total installed solar capacity crossed 150 GW as of March 2026.
Key Takeaway: Joshi also unveiled the PM Surya Ghar logo and a WhatsApp bot, and handed out PM Surya Ghar Awards to top-performing states, UTs, DISCOMs, banks, vendors, and other stakeholders, including standout performers from the “Month of Solar” campaign in May 2026.
He launched two reports from the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one on how households decide to adopt rooftop solar, the other on the growing operations and maintenance ecosystem, which the report estimates could generate over 3.3 lakh jobs a year as installations keep expanding.
The event wrapped up with two plenary sessions on scaling rooftop solar to one crore households, covering financing, state-led rollout strategies, incentive models, and how to grow rooftop solar without straining the finances of electricity distribution companies.
MCQs:
1. PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana was launched on:
A. 15 August 2023
B. 26 January 2024
C. 13 February 2024
D. 1 April 2024
2. PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana is implemented by the:
A. Ministry of Power
B. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
C. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)
D. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
