PM announces Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana

Subject: Schemes

Section: Environment

Context:

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi announced the launch of rooftop solar scheme for free electricity – PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana.

More on news:

The scheme was first announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Interim Budget 2024-25.

About the scheme:

The scheme Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, 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.
The scheme aims to incentivise the adoption of solar energy among residential consumers, promoting sustainability and reducing reliance on conventional energy sources.
It is a grid connected rooftop solar PV system, where the DC power generated from a solar panel converted to AC power using a power conditioning unit/Inverter and is fed to the grid.
All stakeholders will be integrated into a National Online Portal.
In order to popularize this scheme at the grassroots, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayats shall be incentivised to promote rooftop solar systems in their jurisdictions.
The scheme will lead to more income, lesser power bills and employment generation for people.
Under the scheme, subsidies will be given directly to people’s bank accounts.
The government has appointed eight central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) to implement the scheme across all states and union territories of the country.
These include NTPC, NHPC, EESL, PowerGrid, Grid-India, THDC, SJVN and NEEPCO.
These CPSUs will be responsible for installation of rooftop solar in one crore households.
Under rooftop installation, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are fixed atop a building, home, or a residential property