In 2014, India had about 3 GW of solar power installed. By June 2026, that figure had grown more than fifty-fold, to 162.15 GW. In 2025 alone, India added more solar capacity than the United States. That single fact made India the world’s second-largest solar growth market. Falling tariffs, aggressive auctions, and new manufacturing all helped drive this leap.
🏛️ Must Know
India’s Solar Capacity Growth
- India’s installed solar capacity reached 162.15 GW by 30 June 2026.
- That is more than fifty times the roughly 3 GW installed in 2014.
- The National Solar Mission, launched in 2010, laid the policy foundation for this growth.
- Solar tariffs fell from about ₹18 per unit in 2010 to a record ₹2.44 per unit in 2017.
- That record was set at the Bhadla Solar Park auction, run through SECI’s e-Reverse Auction mechanism.
- Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra lead in installed capacity.
- Large-scale solar plants contribute 118.79 GW; rooftop solar contributes 27.88 GW.
- India’s total non-fossil power capacity reached 283.46 GW, including 274.68 GW of renewables.
📘 Good to Know
India’s Five-Pillar Solar Policy
- India’s solar policy rests on five pillars: vision, demand, cost, infrastructure, and manufacturing.
- The vision pillar draws from India’s Panchamrit goals at COP26: 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030, and net-zero emissions by 2070.
- The demand pillar includes Renewable Purchase Obligations, PM Surya Ghar, and PM-KUSUM.
- The cost pillar runs on SECI’s e-Reverse Auction, which drives tariffs down through competitive bidding.
- The infrastructure pillar centres on the Solar Parks Scheme, first set at 20 GW and expanded to 40 GW in 2017.
- By February 2026, 54 solar parks had sanctioned 39,188 MW of capacity.
- Rajasthan leads with 11 parks and 10,726 MW; Gujarat follows with 7 parks and 12,150 MW.
- Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan spans about 5,700 hectares and holds 2,245 MW of capacity, built between 2015 and 2020.
- The Green Energy Corridor Programme had evacuated 24,567.8 MW by February 2026, with about 44 GW more planned.
- The manufacturing pillar runs on the PLI Scheme for High-Efficiency Solar PV Modules, launched in 2021.
- The scheme’s outlay grew from ₹4,500 crore to a total of ₹24,000 crore after a 2022 expansion.
- It attracted about ₹35,000 crore in investment and created roughly 10,000 direct jobs by October 2024.
- India co-founded the International Solar Alliance with France at the 2015 Paris climate summit, COP21.
- ISA members include the Maldives, Greece, Germany, Italy, Bhutan, Luxembourg, and Argentina. Spain was welcomed into the ISA during President Pedro Sanchez’s October 2024 visit to India, part of the wider India-Spain relationship.
- India proposed One Sun One World One Grid, called OSOWOG, in 2018.
- It launched the Green Grids Initiative-OSOWOG with the UK at COP26 in 2021. Australia, France, the US, and the ISA backed the initiative.
- Net metering is sometimes seen in the news in the context of promoting the production and use of solar energy by households and consumers directly, letting rooftop solar owners feed surplus power back to the grid for credit.
📝 Previous Year Questions
UPSC CSP 2016 — What Net Metering Actually Promotes
- UPSC 2016 Net metering is talked about in the context of promoting the production and use of solar energy by households and consumers, letting them sell surplus power back to the grid. See UPSC CSP 2016 GS Paper I, Q36. View this question.
UPSC CSP 2018 — What’s Actually True About Solar Power Production
- UPSC 2018 India is not among the top manufacturers of silicon wafers for photovoltaic units, and solar tariffs are set through competitive bidding, not directly determined by the Solar Energy Corporation of India. See UPSC CSP 2018 GS Paper I, Q67. View this question.
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