PM Surya Ghar - Muft Bijli Yojana (UPSC/RAS/PSI)

• Nodal Ministry- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)
• National Programme Implementing Agency (NPIA)- REC Limited
• Concept - Instead of relying entirely on massive, distant power plants, millions of citizens generate their own clean energy directly on their rooftops.
• Install Rooftop Solar (RTS) systems across 1 crore (10 million) residential households, empowering them to generate clean energy and receive up to 300 units of free electricity per month.

• Scheme Type- Central Sector Scheme (it means centre providing100% funding )
• Central Financial Assistance (CFA) & Subsidy Architecture -

• The central subsidy is directly transferred into the consumer’s bank account via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) upon verified commissioning-

1. Group Housing Societies / RWAs- ₹18,000 per kW for common area lighting and EV charging infrastructure (capped at 500 kW capacity).
2. Collateral-Free Concessional Credit- Beneficiaries installing systems up to 3 kW capacity get access to collateral-free, low-interest bank loans (at 7% interest) across participating public sector banks.

Structural Features & Execution Mechanisms

1) National Portal (pmsuryaghar.gov.in)- Handles the entire workflow online—from registration and DISCOM feasibility approvals to vendor selection and DBT subsidy disbursal.

2) ALMM Compliance- Requires solar PV modules to be sourced from the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) to strengthen domestic manufacturing under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

3) Model Solar Village Component- Allocates ₹800 crore to establish one exemplary "Model Solar Village" in every district across India (with ₹1 crore allocated per selected village) to encourage rural solar adoption.

4) DISCOM Incentives- Provides financial incentives to distribution companies (DISCOMs) for upgrading billing systems, enabling auto-load enhancements (up to 10 kW without delay), and speeding up net-metering integration.

Macro Economic, Environmental & Social Impact

1) Clean Capacity Target- Envisions adding 30 GW of solar capacity purely in the residential rooftop sector.

2) Carbon Abatement- Projected to generate 1,000 Billion Units (BUs) of clean power, mitigating 720 million tonnes of CO2equivalent emissions over the 25-year operational lifecycle of the systems.

3) Employment Creation- Estimated to generate over 17 lakh direct/indirect jobs across manufacturing, supply chain, installation, sales, and long-term Operations & Maintenance (O&M) services.

4) Grid Efficiency- Decreases Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses by co-locating power generation with local load centers, improving tail-end grid voltage stability.

Key Challenges & Implementation Bottlenecks

a) DISCOM Resistance- Potential revenue losses from high-paying residential customers adopting net-metering.

b) Supply-Side Constraints- High demand vs. domestic manufacturing capacity for ALMM-compliant solar cells and wafers.

c) Grid Upgradation- Local distribution transformers in suburban and rural areas require technical upgrades to handle bi-directional solar feed-in witho