Union Consumer Affairs and New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday, 3 June 2026, declared that India has overtaken the United States in annual solar capacity additions in 2025 to become the world's second-largest solar growth market. In a post on X, the minister attributed the surge to policy support, innovation and infrastructure built under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

'India's solar growth story is setting global benchmarks,' Joshi wrote, adding that the country is now the 'fastest-growing major solar market' and is 'driving record capacity additions through strong policy support, innovation and world-class infrastructure.' He framed the milestone as evidence that the #CleanEnergy transition is 'accelerating, strengthening energy security, advancing sustainable development and reinforcing India's position as a global leader in #RenewableEnergy.'

Context

The minister's announcement positions India alongside China at the top of the global solar league table, a status the government has been pursuing for over a decade. Joshi, a senior BJP leader from Karnataka, holds the renewable energy portfolio in addition to consumer affairs and food and public distribution, giving him direct oversight of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The post is accompanied by the hashtag #IndiaRanks2InSolar, signalling a coordinated government messaging push around the milestone. It does not specify the gigawatt figure for 2025 additions, which the MNRE is expected to release in its official year-end statistics.

Policy backdrop

India's solar push traces back to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, launched in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change with an initial target of 20 GW of solar power by 2022. That target was repeatedly revised upward, and in 2019 the government set an overarching renewable energy goal of 450 GW by 2030, with solar as the largest component.

To anchor global cooperation, India co-founded the International Solar Alliance with France in 2015, a treaty-based grouping that aims to mobilise USD 1 trillion in solar investments across member countries. Domestic momentum has been reinforced by a production-linked incentive scheme for solar module manufacturing, viability gap funding for utility-scale projects, and rooftop and agricultural programmes such as PM-KUSUM and the rooftop solar mission.

Stakeholders and impact

The acceleration cited by Joshi has direct implications for solar developers, state-owned power distribution companies and household rooftop adopters. Faster capacity addition typically lowers tariffs discovered in MNRE and state auctions, but also stresses transmission infrastructure and discom balance sheets that must integrate variable renewable supply.

For domestic manufacturers, the framing of India as the 'fastest-growing major solar market' is intended to attract investment in cell, wafer and module production, an area where the country has historically depended on Chinese imports. The government has been progressively tightening rules on approved module and cell lists to push localisation.

Geopolitically, surpassing the USA in annual additions, as claimed in the post, would mark a symbolic shift in the clean-energy hierarchy at a time when industrial policy on solar manufacturing is intensifying in both Washington and New Delhi.

What's next

Attention will turn to the MNRE's official 2025-26 capacity addition data, which is expected to formalise the numbers behind Joshi's claim. Any upward revision of the 2030 renewable target, or new sector-specific announcements in the next Union Budget and at upcoming COP climate negotiations, will indicate how the government plans to convert this growth momentum into long-term decarbonisation outcomes.