Prime Minister Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana: The aim is to provide up to 300 units of free electricity per month to one million households in the country.
The Union cabinet on Thursday approved the PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana (PM-SGMBY) installing rooftop solar in one crore households nationwide with a total outlay of ₹75,021 crore.
A Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi was held today. “Prime Minister Surya Ghar Muft Bjili Yojana has been approved today to provide 300 units of free electricity to 1 crore households,” Union Minister Anurag Thakur told reporters.
Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13, the scheme aims to provide up to 300 units of free electricity per month to one million households in the country.
“To further promote sustainable development and well-being of the people, Prime Minister Surya Ghar: Muft launches Bijli Yojana. With an investment of over Rs 75,000 crore, this project will have up to 300 residential units. Our goal is to educate a billion by providing free electricity every month,” Prime Minister Modi said in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter).
At an announced total cost of ₹ 75,021, each household will get a central subsidy of ₹ 30,000 for a 1 kW system, ₹ 60,000 for a 2 kW system and ₹ 78,000 for a 3 kW system. The government is creating a solar village model in each district to act as role model for adoption of rooftop solar in rural areas.
Advantages:
Rooftop solar households can save on electricity costs by using solar energy and earn additional income by selling excess electricity to meters.
In addition, the project will generate an additional 30 GW of solar power from residential rooftop solar panels across the country and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 720 million tonnes over 25 years. Lifetime of roofing systems.
Additionally, the PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana would create around 17 lakh jobs in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, sales, installation, operations and management and other services.
How to apply?
Through the national portal https://pmsuryaghar.gov.in/, people can apply for PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana and financial subsidy and choose the right providers for rooftop solar installation. You also have the option of accessing a low-interest loan product without collateral, which currently runs at around 7%.
When announcing the new system, the prime minister said that the significant support will be credited directly to people’s bank accounts, and that the central government will ensure that there is no financial burden on people.
Centre’s push for green energy:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that solar panels will be installed in the interim budget of 2024-25. Sitharaman said the rooftop solar initiative, which encourages people to buy solar panels and add electricity to the grid, would save ₹15,000 a year.
The allocation for solar power (grid) in 2024-25 will be Rs 10,000 crore in the next fiscal as compared to Rs 4,970 crore in 2023-24. For wind power (grid), Rs 930 billion has been allocated for an expenditure of Rs 1,214 billion in 2023-24.