India rooftop solar growth hit 6.4 gigawatts in 2026, a 104% jump, JMK Research counts

India rooftop solar growth in 2026 outpaces the rest of the market

India rooftop solar growth in 2026 reached 6.4 gigawatts in just the first half of the year, JMK Research and Analytics counts, a 104% increase over the same 6 months in 2025, more than doubling. A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts, a unit large enough to measure additions to a national power system. Rooftop solar means panels installed on the roofs of homes and businesses, connected to the shared electricity network, rather than built across open land. That pace outpaced India own much larger utility scale segment, ground mounted solar farms built across open land, which added about 19 gigawatts in the same 6 months, a bigger number but a smaller proportional jump.

PM Surya Ghar drives the surge

Down To Earth and JMK Research own report both credit most of that surge to 1 program, PM Surya Ghar, Muft Bijli Yojana, a government subsidy scheme whose name translates as free electricity scheme, that pays households toward the cost of installing rooftop solar panels. As of 5 June 2026, the scheme had reached more than 40 lakh, 4 million, Indian households and installed more than 12 gigawatts of capacity under its own count, India Brand Equity Foundation reports, with 22,750 crore rupees, about 227.5 billion rupees, disbursed in subsidies, and 17 lakh, 1.7 million, of those households now report zero electricity bills. The government has set a target of 75 lakh, 7.5 million, households by December 2026.

India has a strong residential rooftop solar pipeline, but converting it into installations will depend on faster approvals, financing, and project delivery.

Raj Prabhu, chief executive officer of Mercom Capital Group. Source 2.

The growth against the fleet it joins

Weighed against the scale it is adding to, the surge looks even sharper. India cumulative grid connected rooftop solar fleet stood at 32.59 gigawatts nationwide as of 31 August 2026, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy own live dashboard states. Dividing the 6.4 gigawatts added in just the first half of the year by that total, an arithmetic check run here rather than a figure either source states directly, shows the half year addition equals roughly a fifth, 19.6%, of every gigawatt of rooftop solar India has ever installed. The 12 gigawatts installed specifically under PM Surya Ghar is not the same fleet as this 32.59 gigawatt total, which also counts commercial and industrial rooftop systems the household scheme does not cover.

Which states led, and what they built

Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu led all Indian states for total solar capacity added in the first half of 2026, JMK Research and Analytics counts, with Gujarat adding 7.6 gigawatts, Rajasthan 6.6 gigawatts and Tamil Nadu 2.4 gigawatts. That ranking covers total solar, mostly the ground mounted, utility scale segment, not rooftop installations specifically, since no source gives a state by state breakdown for rooftop alone.