Parliament Question: Target to solarise 28 lakh households

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 266 ANSWERED ON 17.03.2026 TARGET TO SOLARISE 28 LAKH HOUSEHOLDS *266. DR. SUMER SINGH SOLANKI

Will the minister of new and renewable energy be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Ministry has met its interim target of solarising 28 lakh households;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the roadmap to reach the 1 crore mark by March 2027;

(d) the impact of reduction of customs duty on solar glass raw materials on the cost of domestically manufactured solar modules;

(e) whether the Ministry plans to integrate solar-hour-aligned Time-of-Day (ToD) tariffs to encourage rooftop solar owners to maximise daytime energy use; and

(f) if so, the details thereof? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS, & FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI)

(a) to (f) A statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****STATEMENT Statement referred to in reply of parts (a) to (f) of Rajya Sabha Starred Question No. 266 to be answered on 17.03.2026 regarding Target to solarise 28 lakh households

(a) to (c) The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is implementing PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (PMSG: MBY) since February 2024 with an aim to achieve rooftop solar (RTS) installations in one crore households in the residential sector by FY 2026-27.

The PMSG: MBY is a demand-driven scheme wherein all residential consumers in the country, having a grid-connected electricity connection with the local DISCOM, can avail the benefits of the scheme, for installation of RTS systems by applying on the National Portal of the scheme.

Under the scheme, since its launch in February 2024, a total of 31,53,340 households have benefitted with the installation of RTS systems as on 11.03.2026. The state-wise details are given in the Annexure.

With the efforts undertaken by the MNRE, including creating awareness, capacity building of DISCOM officers, upgrading of National Portal, enhancement of vendor base and more engagement with the various stakeholder, the RTS installation progress has been accelerated and during the month of February 2026, average per day RTS installation has been around 8391 households i.e. one lakh households have been covered in less than 12 days.

Further, MNRE has included RESCO/Utility-Led Aggregation (ULA) Models under the

PMSG: MBY to enable DISCOMs/State Governments/State Designated entities to support RTS development under RESCO and ULA models, primarily for low-income households/ families.

Under the ULA model of the PMSG: MBY, MNRE has already sanctioned 12.58 lakh installations in 10 States/UTs i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, DNH & DD, Telangana, Bihar and Tripura.

In addition, to increase the installation rate, to achieve RTS installations in one crore households by FY 2026-27, the Ministry has taken the following measures: • Online process from application to disbursal of subsidy directly into the bank account of the residential consumer through the National Portal.

• Availability of collateral-free loan from nationalized banks at a concessional interest rate of repo-rate plus 50 bps, i.e., 5.75% per annum for the present, with a tenure of 10 years. • Simplified the regulatory approval process by waiving technical feasibility requirement and introducing auto load enhancement upto 10 kW.

• Net metering agreement has been made part of application in the National Portal. • Simplified process for registration of vendors to ensure sufficient and qualified vendors are available. • Capacity building and training programmes being conducted for creating skilled manpower.

• Creating awareness about the scheme, through awareness and outreach program such as print advertising in leading newspapers, TV commercials campaigns, Radio campaigns across FM stations including regional channels, etc., in the country.• Regular monitoring of the progress of the scheme at different levels including with states/DISCOMs.

• Conducting regional review meetings from time to time. • Established grievance redressal mechanism for timely resolution of grievances. A Call Centre with telephone number 15555 is operational in 12 languages.

Further, MNRE and REC ltd., as the National Programme Implementing Agency (NPIA), for

PMSG: MBY, work in close coordination with all the DISCOMs, for effective implementation of the scheme.

(d) Sodium antimonate is one of the inputs used in the manufacturing of solar glass; however, currently, there is no operational manufacturing capacity in the country for the production of sodium antimonate required for the manufacturing of solar glass. Accordingly, Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on the import of sodium antimonate for use in the manufacture of solar glass has been decreased from 7.50% to nil. This reduction of BCD on sodium antimonate is envisaged to have a positive impact on the domestic solar glass manufacturing sector by increasing its cost competitiveness, which in turn is envisaged to increase the cost competitiveness of domestic solar PV module manufacturers.

(e) & (f) Ministry of Power has notified the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Amendment Rules, 2023, dated 14.06.2023, which introduced Time of Day (ToD) Tariff for electricity consumers, as a demand response mechanism. Under the ToD framework, electricity tariffs vary across different time blocks of the day to reflect the availability of power and system demand to encourage consumers, including domestic consumers, to shift electricity consumption to daytime hours when solar generation is higher. These tariffs are determined by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs), which tailor the implementation to reflect the local demand and solar generation profiles. The installation of smart meters to study hourly consumption patterns at the consumer level is also crucial for the successful implementation of solar-hour ToD tariff structure.

*****Annexure referred to in reply of parts (a) to (c) of Rajya Sabha Starred Question No. 266 to be answered on 17.03.2026 regarding Target to solarise 28 lakh households State/UTs wise progress under the PMSG: MBY (as on 11.03.2026) S Households Benefitted State/UT No. (No.) 1 Gujarat 8,43,126 2 Maharashtra 7,59,857 3 Uttar Pradesh 4,10,555 4 Kerala 2,10,317 5 Rajasthan 1,58,119 6 Andhra Pradesh 1,13,015 7 Madhya Pradesh 1,05,476 8 Assam 99,010 9 Uttarakhand 71,078 10 Tamil Nadu 69,226 11 Haryana 68,630 12 Odisha 46,690 13 Telangana 42,995 14 Chhattisgarh 39,057 15 Karnataka 26,104 16 Jammu & Kashmir 25,872 17 Bihar 16,921 18 Punjab 11,867 19 NCT of Delhi 10,514 20 Himachal Pradesh 7,677 21 Puducherry 2,723 22 Tripura 2,517 23 Goa 2,334 24 Jharkhand 1,871 25 Ladakh 1,444 26 West Bengal 1,398 27 Chandigarh 1,093 28 Mizoram 950 29 Lakshadweep 916 30 Manipur 874 31 DNH & DD 620 32 A& N Islands 240 33 Nagaland 181 34 Meghalaya 43 35 Sikkim 29 36 Arunachal Pradesh 1 Total 31,53,340