Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Union renewable energy secretary, said that around 100,000 households are installing rooftop solar systems each week under the Centre's flagship PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana and that the government is confident the target of covering 10 million (mn) homes by March 2027 remains on track. The scheme, launched in February 2024, seeks to reduce reliance on conventional power.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy figures to July 13 show the scheme has benefitted 4.65 mn households, with Gujarat on 1.06 mn, Maharashtra on 1.04 mn and Uttar Pradesh on 676,000. Other leading states include Kerala, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, while Delhi has recorded 14,736 household rooftop solar connections. Households installing systems larger than three kilowatt (kW) receive a central subsidy of Rs78,000.

Sarangi attributed recent momentum to word-of-mouth by beneficiaries and sustained awareness campaigns across print, television and FM radio, and said an aggressive push in lagging states had helped. He added that the expansion supports India’s broader target of installing 500 gigawatt (GW) of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and that the government has already installed 288 GW. On July 6, clean energy supplied 50.02 per cent of India’s daytime electricity demand of 221.5 GW.

Experts welcomed the acceleration but noted challenges such as smoothing the subsidy process and inconsistent financing at the ground level. The Utility-Led Aggregation model has been cited as a growth driver in states such as Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Sarangi added that battery energy storage systems (BESS) capacity stands at 6 gigawatt-hour (GWh), projections suggest nearly 236 GWh will be needed by 2030, and orders for over 200 GWh have been placed, while the ministry is running 40-45 agri-photovoltaic pilot projects.