Rajasthan crosses one lakh rooftop solar installation milestone

Jaipur, Nov 12 (PTI) Rajasthan has crossed the milestone of installing over one lakh rooftop solar plants under the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana with more than 10,000 new installations being added every month.

A total of 33,922 rooftop solar systems have been installed in the area of Jaipur power distribution company (discom), 32,957 in Ajmer discom and 33,378 in Jodhpur discom, taking the total number of installations in the state to 1,00,257 with a combined capacity of 408 megawatts, a release said.

So far, subsidy has been directly transferred to the bank accounts of 86,307 consumers who have installed rooftop solar plants. Jaipur discom has released subsidies to 29,585 consumers, Jodhpur discom to 28,490 and Ajmer discom to 28,232 users.

Under the scheme, a maximum subsidy of Rs 78,000 is provided for installing a rooftop solar system of up to 3 kW capacity, the release said.

"Rajasthan now ranks fifth in the country in terms of rooftop solar installations under the scheme, after Gujarat (6.73 lakh), Maharashtra (3.33 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (2.73 lakh) and Kerala (1.59 lakh)," the release said.

The demand for rooftop solar systems has seen a sharp rise from 37 installations in February 2024, when the scheme was launched, to over 10,000 per month at present.

Rajasthan's three power distribution companies have also introduced several innovations to make the installation process simpler.

"These include the introduction of the Rooftop Solar Champion Award for employees, standard operating procedures to streamline applications, exemption from upfront charges and simplified billing and metering processes. These steps have significantly boosted consumer participation in the scheme," the release added. PTI SDA HVA