Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM)

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, also called the National Solar Mission, is India's main government programme to produce electricity from sunlight. It was launched on 11 January 2010 as one of the eight missions under India's climate plan. Its goal was to make solar power cheap enough to compete with coal, and to make India a world leader in solar energy. Almost every big solar scheme in India today, from solar parks to rooftop panels, grew out of this mission.

Why was it needed?

In 2010, India got most of its electricity from coal. Coal pollutes the air, adds to climate change, and India has to import a part of what it uses. At the same time, India gets plenty of sunshine: most of the country has about 250 to 300 sunny days a year. But solar power was very costly then, at more than ₹10 per unit, so companies would not build plants on their own.

The mission was created to break this cycle. The idea was that if the government created a large, steady demand, factories and developers would grow, and the price would fall.

Where did it come from?

The story has a few clear steps:

• 2008: India released the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) on 30 June 2008. It had eight national missions, and the solar mission was the first of them.
• 11 January 2010: The JNNSM was launched. Its original target was 22 GW by 2022: 20 GW of grid-connected solar power plus 2 GW of off-grid solar (systems not connected to the main grid, like solar pumps and lights in villages). It also aimed for 20 million square metres of solar thermal collectors (panels that heat water).
• The mission was planned in three phases: Phase I (2010 to 2013), Phase II (2013 to 2017) and Phase III (2017 to 2022).
• June 2015: The Union Cabinet raised the grid-connected target five times, from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2022. This was split into 60 GW of large ground-mounted plants and 40 GW of rooftop solar.
• 2021: At the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, India announced a bigger goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, with solar as the largest part.

How did the mission make solar cheap?

Think of it like a big wholesale order. If one shop buys a few solar panels, it pays a high price. If the government promises to buy power from thousands of megawatts of plants, makers can produce at a large scale and the cost per panel falls. The mission did this in a few ways:

1. Long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs): Government agencies signed 25-year contracts to buy power from solar plants at a fixed price. This gave developers a steady, safe income, so banks were willing to lend to them.
2. Reverse auctions: Developers competed by quoting the lowest price at which they would sell power. The lowest bidder won. This pushed prices down sharply over the years.
3. A central buyer: The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a public sector company set up in 2011 under MNRE, buys solar power from developers and sells it on to DISCOMs. Because a trusted central company stands in the middle, developers worry less about late payments.
4. Land and transmission support: Through solar parks, the government arranges land, roads, water and grid connection in advance, so developers can simply set up panels.

Because of these steps, solar power prices fell from more than ₹10 per unit in the early years to around ₹2 to ₹3 per unit in recent auctions.

The key schemes that grew out of the mission

• Solar Parks Scheme (December 2014): Large areas set aside for many solar plants together. The target was first 20 GW, raised to 40 GW in February 2017. SECI administers it. Rajasthan's Bhadla Solar Park (about 2,245 MW, in Phalodi district) is one of the largest solar parks in the world.
• PM-KUSUM (approved 19 February 2019): Helps farmers use solar power through three parts: small solar plants on farm land (Component A), standalone solar pumps (Component B) and solarising existing grid-connected pumps or farm feeders (Component C).
• PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (2024): Gives subsidies for rooftop solar panels on homes, aiming at one crore households.
• Support for making panels in India: A Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for high-efficiency solar modules, the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), which lists the panels allowed in government-backed projects, and a basic customs duty on imported solar modules (40%) and cells (25%) from April 2022 to cut dependence on imports.

Did India meet the targets?

Not on time. India did not reach 100 GW of solar by 2022. Large ground-mounted plants grew fast, but rooftop solar lagged far behind its 40 GW share. India finally crossed the 100 GW mark on 31 January 2025 (100.33 GW). After that, growth sped up. India added a record 44.6 GW of solar in 2025-26 alone. As of 31 July 2026, India had about 164.6 GW of installed solar capacity, out of about 300.5 GW of total non-fossil capacity.

India's position and the role of the States

India is now among the top three countries in the world for installed solar capacity. The National Institute of Solar Energy has estimated India's solar potential at about 748 GW, and Rajasthan has the largest share of it, thanks to the Thar desert's strong sunshine and large areas of open land. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lead in installed capacity.

As of November 2026, Rajasthan reports about 45 GW of solar capacity, the highest of any State. Since electricity is in the Concurrent List (both the Centre and the States can make laws on it), the mission depends heavily on State policies, State DISCOMs and State land rules. That is why frameworks that compare States matter.

Commonly confused concepts

• JNNSM vs International Solar Alliance (ISA): JNNSM is India's own national programme (2010). ISA is an international organisation of countries, started by India and France in 2015, with its headquarters in Gurugram.
• Installed capacity vs electricity generated: Capacity (in GW) is the most a plant can produce at one moment. Generation (in GWh or units) is the electricity actually produced over time. A solar plant works only in daylight, so it generates far less in a year than a coal plant of the same capacity.
• Solar parks vs Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects: Both come under the same 2014 scheme. A solar park is the prepared land with shared facilities; an ultra mega project is a single very large plant, usually 500 MW or more.
• PM-KUSUM vs PM Surya Ghar: PM-KUSUM is for farmers and farm pumps. PM Surya Ghar is for rooftop solar on homes.
• Renewable vs non-fossil: "Renewable" (solar, wind, small hydro, biomass) does not include nuclear power. "Non-fossil" includes renewables, large hydro and nuclear. The 500 GW goal is a non-fossil target.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Rooftop lag: Rooftop solar missed its 40 GW target by a wide margin because of upfront costs, weak awareness and slow net-metering approvals by DISCOMs. PM Surya Ghar is meant to fix this.
• Weak DISCOM finances: Many State DISCOMs pay developers late, which raises risk and cost. Late Payment Surcharge rules and SECI's role as a middleman try to reduce this.
• Transmission and storage: Solar power peaks at midday and stops after sunset. Without enough transmission lines and battery storage, some solar power gets wasted (curtailed). Programmes like the Green Energy Corridor and battery storage tenders aim to solve this.
• Land and wildlife: Large solar parks need vast land and can clash with local grazing and wildlife. In Rajasthan, overhead power lines threaten the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. In M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India, the Supreme Court in April 2021 ordered lines in the bird's habitat to go underground where possible, and in March 2024 it changed this order and set up an expert committee to balance conservation and clean energy.
• Import dependence: India still imports a large part of its solar cells and wafers, mainly from China. The PLI scheme, ALMM and customs duties aim to build a full domestic supply chain.
• Way forward: Experts suggest more storage, stronger grids, healthier DISCOMs, faster rooftop approvals, and land use that combines solar with farming (agrivoltaics) to reduce land conflicts.

Concepts to Know

• Gigawatt (GW) and megawatt (MW): Units of power capacity. 1 GW = 1,000 MW. One MW of solar panels needs roughly 4 to 5 acres of land.
• Grid-connected vs off-grid: A grid-connected plant sends power into the main electricity network. An off-grid system works on its own, for example a solar pump on a farm with no power line.
• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): A long-term contract in which a buyer (like a DISCOM or SECI) agrees to buy electricity from a plant at a fixed price for many years.
• Reverse auction: An auction where sellers compete to offer the lowest price, instead of buyers competing to offer the highest.
• DISCOM: The distribution company that brings electricity to homes and farms and collects bills. Most DISCOMs in India are owned by State governments.
• Curtailment: When a grid operator tells a power plant to cut its output because the grid cannot take the extra power at that moment.