India's solar boom began with big utility farms; rooftop solar on homes, businesses and factories grew from 1.06 GW (March 2018) to 25.73 GW (March 2026). In February 2024 the flagship PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana — ₹75,021 crore, targeting 1 crore homes — took rooftop solar to ordinary households at scale.
Rooftop Solar · PM Surya Ghar
Rooftop Solar · PM Surya Ghar
Rooftop solar lets homes generate their own clean power and cut bills. India's rooftop solar capacity grew from 1.06 GW in March 2018 to 25.73 GW in March 2026, and in 2024 the flagship PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (₹75,021 crore) set out to put solar panels on 1 crore homes, and had reached over 43 lakh households by June 2026 — giving many households free electricity and even income from selling surplus power. The counter shows cumulative rooftop solar capacity.
43 lakh+
Homes with rooftop solar (Surya Ghar, June 2026)
1 crore
Homes targeted (Surya Ghar)
₹75,021 cr
Scheme outlay
Rooftop solar capacity (March 2018 → March 2026)
| Year | Rooftop solar capacity |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 1.1 GW |
| 2019 | 1.8 GW |
| 2020 | 2.5 GW |
| 2021 | 4.4 GW |
| 2022 | 6.7 GW |
| 2023 | 8.9 GW |
| 2024 | 11.9 GW |
| 2025 | 17.0 GW |
| 2026 | 25.7 GW |
2018
0.0GW
Rooftop solar capacity
20182026
Since 2018
Added
+24.7 GW
2018
1.1 GW
2026
25.7 GW
Why it matters Rooftop solar cuts power bills and carbon together, eases the grid, and turns millions of homes into tiny power producers — clean energy that pays for itself.
- Rooftop solar 1.06 GW (March 2018) → 25.73 GW (March 2026)
- PM Surya Ghar (2024): 1 crore homes targeted, 43 lakh+ reached (June 2026); ₹75,021 crore
- Source: MNRE
History
Free power for a crore homes
With ₹75,021 crore and subsidies covering much of the cost, PM Surya Ghar aims to fit solar on 1 crore homes — cutting household power bills and letting families sell surplus power back to the grid, turning rooftops into income.
How it works
PM Surya Ghar puts rooftop solar on ordinary homes: a household installs panels through vendors on a government portal, gets a central subsidy of up to ₹78,000, and pays off the rest, often via cheap loans. The panels cut or zero-out the family's bill, and any surplus power is sold back to the grid through net metering — turning the roof into a small earner.
Outlook
Launched in 2024, the scheme targets 1 crore homes with rooftop solar and has become the fastest-growing part of India's solar push, reaching over 43 lakh homes by June 2026, as rooftop capacity climbed to 25.73 GW in March 2026. The next steps are simplifying installation and finance, and leaning on healthy DISCOMs to buy back surplus power reliably — the two things that decide whether a crore households actually sign up.
By the numbers
Rooftop solar 1.06 GW (March 2018) → 25.73 GW (March 2026); PM Surya Ghar (2024): 43 lakh+ homes reached (June 2026) of 1 crore targeted, ₹75,021 crore outlay. Source: MNRE; PIB.
Data current to: 31 March 2026
Source: MNRE — cumulative grid-connected rooftop solar capacity across all segments (GW), as on 31 March, 2018–2026; PM Surya Ghar from February 2024. MNRE year-end state-wise capacity reports: 1.06 GW (2018) to 25.73 GW (2026); PIB, April 2026: 25.73 GW rooftop, 8.71 GW of it added in 2025-26 (linked). MNRE does not report rooftop capacity separately before March 2018. · link