Following his return from Ayodhya after the Ram temple’s consecration ceremony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on January 22 Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna that the first initiative he would begin would be to install solar roofs in one crore residences.
In a social media post on X, previously Twitter, Modi stated, “The first decision I have made after returning from Ayodhya is that our government will launch ‘Pradhanmantri Suryoday Yojana’ with the target of installing solar rooftops on 1 crore houses.”
“This will not only reduce the electricity bill of the poor and middle class but will also make India self-reliant in the energy sector,” the Prime Minister stated.
“All the devotees of the world always get energy from the light of Suryavanshi Lord Shri Ram,” he stated.
“Today, on the auspicious occasion of consecration in Ayodhya, my resolution got further strengthened that the people of India should have their solar rooftop system on the roof of their houses,” Modi continued.
Stakeholders in the industry praised the prime minister’s move. The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) Senior Programme Lead Neeraj Kuldeep stated that India offers enormous potential for rooftop solar system installation, regardless of one’s location. Indian families have the potential to install more than 640 GW of rooftop solar power, according to a recent CEEW research.
As a consequence of the government capital subsidy scheme, over 7-8 lakh families have installed rooftop solar systems, adding roughly 4 GW of solar power.
The announcement made today to solarize one crore homes would provide the rooftop solar industry with the boost it needs to reach a tipping point. There will be a 20–25 GW increase in solar capacity due to the 12–14 times increase in solar-powered houses. This would improve the financial health of our power discoms and help governments save money on electricity subsidies, according to Kuldeep.
In the upcoming years, there will be unprecedented household solar adoption due to tailwinds such as regulatory backing, greater subsidies, and easing of solar licenses, according to Shreya Mishra, CEO of SolarSquare.
“Consumers have a strong desire to use solar power to become energy independent, and India should quickly catch up to more developed residential solar markets like Germany, Australia, and Brazil,” Mishra stated.
The Turn to Green
According to a recent research by the international energy think tank Ember, if India meets its renewable energy ambitions, solar and wind energy would account for two-thirds of the country’s growth in power output by 2032.
Since 2017, when solar energy made up just 1% of India’s total electricity mix, the country has seen substantial changes in its energy balance. If India achieves the solar objectives set forth in the 14th National Electricity Plan (NEP14), its contribution is predicted to increase rapidly, from 5 percent to 25 percent in the fiscal year 2022–2032.
This implies that, if India continues on its current trajectory to meet its NEP14 targets, the country’s increase in power generation, which has been mostly driven by coal for the last ten years, may move toward solar and wind power in the next ten years. This is according to Ember’s study.
