Forget the metros, India's solar boom has a new address

India's rooftop solar adoption is increasingly being driven by tier-II and tier-III cities, with districts such as Lucknow, Nagpur, Surat, Varanasi and Ernakulam emerging among the country's top performers, while major metros including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata do not feature even among the top 100 districts, according to a report by The Times of India.

The trend comes as the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, launched in February 2024, gathers pace. The scheme aims to provide rooftop solar systems to one crore households and enable them to receive up to 300 units of free electricity every month through solar generation.

According to the report, 36.3 lakh rooftop solar systems have been installed so far, benefiting more than 44.1 lakh households. The government has released over ₹25,000 crore in subsidies from the scheme's total outlay of ₹75,021 crore. Households installing rooftop solar systems of up to 3 kW are eligible for a central subsidy of ₹78,000, with several states offering additional incentives.


The Times of India reported that districts such as Jalgaon, Amravati and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar in Maharashtra; Junagadh, Mahesana and Bhavnagar in Gujarat; Thrissur, Kollam and Alappuzha in Kerala; and Ganganagar in Rajasthan also rank among the top 50 districts for rooftop solar adoption.

Officials told The Times of India that more than 60% of rooftop solar installations under the scheme fall in the 3-4 kW category, with Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala and Assam emerging as the leading states.

Officials attributed the higher adoption in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Kerala to sustained awareness campaigns.

"States have formed discom- and district-level teams to create awareness about cleaner and cheaper sources of energy. Adoption in such states is definitely higher," an official told The Times of India.

According to ministry officials quoted by the newspaper, the programme has gathered "unprecedented" momentum, with nearly three lakh rooftop solar installations being completed every month on average.

The focus is now shifting towards expanding rooftop solar adoption in urban areas through group housing societies, where a single installation can meet the electricity needs of multiple households as well as common facilities.

The Centre is also pushing the Utility-Led Aggregation (ULA) model to extend the benefits of rooftop solar to low-income households that cannot install systems because of financial or structural constraints. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Bihar, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi are adopting the model, with the government targeting 30 lakh households under the initiative, the report said.