More than 19,000 housing pockets have rooftop solar systems, benefits 9 lakh households
Official data shows rooftop solar systems have now been installed across more than 19,000 residential housing clusters nationwide, benefiting about 9 lakh households
The expansion is being driven primarily by the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the Centre's flagship residential rooftop solar scheme
The scheme provides Central Financial Assistance (subsidy) directly to household beneficiaries and aims to make rooftop solar adoption mainstream in urban and semi-urban residential colonies
The data reflects continuing scale-up of grid-connected residential solar capacity as part of India's broader renewable energy and net-zero commitments
PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana — Structure and Subsidy Design
PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana is a Central Sector Scheme approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2024 to install rooftop solar systems in one crore households and provide up to 300 units of free electricity per month to beneficiary households.
The 9 lakh households now benefiting from rooftop solar across 19,000+ housing pockets represent on-the-ground progress toward the scheme's 1-crore-household target.
Net Metering, RESCO, and Utility-Led Asset (ULA) Models
Rooftop solar systems can be deployed under different ownership/financing models. Under direct CAPEX ownership, the household owns the system after paying the upfront (subsidised) cost. Under the RESCO (Renewable Energy Service Company) model, a private developer owns and maintains the system for a fixed period (typically 5+ years) while the household pays only for electricity consumed. Net metering allows a grid-connected rooftop system to export surplus generation to the grid, with the meter recording net import/export.
Key Details
- RESCO and Utility-Led Asset (ULA) models were introduced under PM Surya Ghar guidelines to reduce upfront cost barriers for households unable to pay even the subsidised share
- The scheme covers grid-connected systems installed on residential rooftops, terraces, and balconies, including group net metering and virtual net metering for multi-dwelling housing pockets/societies
- A ₹100 crore payment-security corpus was established to de-risk RESCO investment in the residential segment
"Housing pockets" — clusters of residential buildings/societies — are the natural unit for group and virtual net metering, which is how rooftop solar scales beyond standalone bungalows to apartment complexes.
India's Renewable Energy and Climate Targets
Rooftop solar is one pillar of India's larger non-fossil fuel capacity target. India's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC, August 2022) commits to 50% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 and a 45% reduction in emissions intensity of GDP by 2030 (from 2005 levels).
Key Details
- India's overall renewable energy target: 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based capacity by 2030
- Rooftop solar traces its policy lineage to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), launched 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)
- PM Surya Ghar is projected to add roughly 30 GW of rooftop solar capacity in the residential segment, generating about 1,000 billion units of electricity and avoiding roughly 720 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions over the systems' 25-year lifetime
Each new "housing pocket" solarised under the scheme is a small but cumulatively significant contribution to India's 500 GW non-fossil capacity target and its NDC commitments.
- Housing pockets with rooftop solar (per this data): 19,000+
- Households benefited: ~9 lakh
- PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana launched: February 2024; outlay ₹75,021 crore; target 1 crore households by FY 2026-27
- Subsidy (CFA): ₹30,000/kW (first 2 kW) + ₹18,000/kW (3rd kW), capped at ₹78,000 per household
- Free electricity entitlement: up to 300 units/month per beneficiary household
- India's NDC target: 50% non-fossil cumulative installed electric capacity by 2030; 45% emissions-intensity reduction by 2030 (from 2005 levels)
- India's overall renewable capacity target: 500 GW non-fossil by 2030
- Origin scheme: Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), 2010, under NAPCC