India may soon install 1 lakh rooftop solar systems every 4-5 days, says Pralhad Joshi

India is currently installing one lakh rooftop solar systems every six days and the pace is expected to accelerate further, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi told Business Today on the sidelines of the BRE Summit 2026.

"Today, every six days we are completing installation of one lakh rooftop solar systems. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, it will come down to four or five days for every one lakh installations," Joshi said.

The remarks come as the government accelerates the rollout of the PM Surya Ghar Yojana, a ₹75,000-crore scheme aimed at providing up to 300 units of free electricity every month to 1 crore households through rooftop solar installations by March 31, 2027.

As of November 2, the scheme had received over 88.3 lakh applications, while more than 55.3 lakh rooftop solar systems had been installed, benefiting over 65.4 lakh households according to data seen on the National Portal for Rooftop Solar.

Asked about the scheme's progress, Joshi said he was confident the government would continue to meet its rollout milestones and achieve the scheme's target as installation rates continue to improve.

The minister also highlighted how India's rapidly expanding rooftop solar ecosystem is changing the country's power landscape, creating fresh opportunities as well as challenges for utilities and grid operators.

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"There was no decentralised power generation earlier. Now it is decentralised, so solutions will also come," Joshi said while responding to concerns around grid stability, storage requirements and balancing power supply from a growing number of distributed energy resources.

According to him, the power sector is witnessing a structural shift as households and farmers increasingly become electricity producers alongside conventional power plants.

"Earlier, generation points were very limited. Now generation points are in thousands and lakhs. Every household can generate electricity, farmers are generating electricity and some are even selling power to discoms," he said.

The minister also indicated that the government is working on refining future phases of the PM-KUSUM scheme after learning from challenges encountered during the implementation of earlier phases.

Acknowledging concerns raised by stakeholders, including issues flagged by the agriculture ministry and state governments, Joshi said such challenges are inevitable in large-scale programmes.

"When work begins at this scale, new issues emerge. Some concerns have come to our notice and discussions are underway. We will try to address the issues raised by farmers, state governments, the agriculture ministry and industry," he said.

The government has already rolled out nearly 30 lakh solar pumps under various components of PM-KUSUM and is preparing the next phase of the programme, which is expected to further boost solarisation in the agriculture sector.