NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that over 1 crore households have already registered for the solar rooftop scheme PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. “Outstanding news! In about a month since it was launched, over 1 crore households have already registered themselves for the PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. Registrations have been pouring in from all parts of the nation,” PM Modi posted on X. The Prime Minister further said that Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have seen over 5 lakh regulations. “Those who haven’t registered should also do so at the earliest,” he added. The rooftop solar programme announced in the interim Budget tabled on February 1, would be known as PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. The rooftop solar project, with an investment of over Rs 75,000 crores, aims to light up 1 crore households by providing up to 300 units of free electricity every month. To popularise this scheme at the grassroots, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayats shall be incentivised to promote rooftop solar systems in their jurisdictions. According to the government, the benefits expected from this solarisation are savings up to Rs 15,000-18,000 crore annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies; charging of electric vehicles; entrepreneurship opportunities for a large number of vendors for supply and installation; and employment opportunities for the youth with technical skills in manufacturing, installation and maintenance. India meets a sizable portion of its energy needs through coal-fired electricity, and this solar rooftop programme could be seen as an avenue to reduce the dependence of conventional sources of power. At COP26 held in 2021, India committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge. It included reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, generating half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reducing emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030. India as a whole also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent and has committed to net-zero emissions by 2070. About 44 per cent of India’s energy requirements at present come from non-fossil sources and are likely to touch as high as 65 per cent by 2030, much higher than what the country pledged at the COP summit in 2021, Union Minister RK Singh, who handles power and renewable portfolio, said.
