Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday, 14 July 2026 highlighted the rapid grassroots expansion of rooftop solar adoption across India, noting that smaller Tier-II and Tier-III cities are outpacing metros under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. The minister pointed to Gujarat as the national leader in rooftop solar installations, followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, with Lucknow emerging as the country's top-performing district.

Context

Joshi wrote that India's 'clean energy transition is now being powered from the grassroots,' describing the trend as 'heartening.' He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership for ensuring that 'benefits of sustainable development are reaching every corner of the country, making clean energy a true people's movement.' The post underscores the government's framing of solar energy as a welfare measure — reducing household electricity bills — alongside its environmental and energy-security dimensions.

The minister's remarks come as rooftop solar registrations under the scheme have visibly spread beyond India's major urban centres, with smaller cities and districts recording strong uptake driven by central subsidies, falling panel costs, and state-level net-metering policies.

Policy Backdrop

The PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana was announced in the Union Budget 2024-25 with a total outlay of Rs 75,021 crore, targeting installation of rooftop solar systems on one crore households across India. Eligible households can receive up to 300 units of free electricity per month through the subsidy-linked scheme.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which Joshi heads alongside the Consumer Affairs portfolio, serves as the nodal body coordinating subsidies, state agency partnerships, and installation targets. The push for distributed rooftop generation is part of India's broader goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2070. Rooftop solar also helps reduce transmission losses inherent in large utility-scale parks located far from consumption centres.

India's solar policy lineage stretches back to the National Solar Mission of 2010 and was given international momentum through the International Solar Alliance, co-founded by India and France in 2015 to mobilise global investment in solar infrastructure.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are households in Tier-II and Tier-III cities — a demographic that has historically had limited access to clean energy incentives designed around urban infrastructure. Lower electricity bills directly translate to disposable income gains for middle- and lower-middle-income families, while state electricity distribution companies (discoms) benefit from reduced peak-load pressure on the grid.

Gujarat's consistent leadership in rooftop solar is attributed to early state-level policy support and industrial incentives that created a mature installation ecosystem. The rise of Lucknow as the top district nationally signals that Uttar Pradesh — one of India's most populous and power-deficit states — is making measurable progress in decentralised energy access, with implications for both energy security and household welfare in the Hindi heartland.

What's Next

The government's mid-term progress against the one-crore household installation target will be a key metric to watch through 2026-27. State budget cycles in the coming months could see additional incentives or streamlined rooftop approval processes, particularly in states seeking to replicate Gujarat's model. Sustained momentum in smaller cities will be critical to demonstrating that India's clean energy transition is genuinely distributed — and not concentrated in a handful of industrial or metropolitan clusters.