Multiple factors have kept households from adopting rooftop installations, but financial benefits might make them more interested this time
After the inauguration of the Ayodhya Ram temple on January 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana (PMSY) later in the evening. The scheme aims to provide rooftop solar (RTS) power systems to 1 crore households, which will help poor and middle-income houses lower their electricity bills. On February 1, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said in her interim Budget speech that the 1 crore households can get up to 300 units of free solar electricity every month, and save up to Rs 18,000 annually, while selling the surplus to power distribution companies.
For more than a decade, the government has been trying to boost the RTS power sector. The central and state governments have undertaken many initiatives, including policy, regulatory, fiscal, and financial measures, to promote RTS installations, but India missed its target to achieve installed capacity of 40 GW by 2022. The government has now extended this deadline to 2026. (See box.)