India’s rooftop solar capacity is growing rapidly, driven by rising domestic adoption under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. The report “Plugging storage into India’s rooftop solar revolution” by EMBER examines how this growth is reshaping demand and grid exports from rooftop solar systems, the challenges posed by existing metering and settlement arrangements, and how storage-linked incentives and evolving settlement mechanisms can help build flexibility within rooftop solar capacity.
Key highlights:
- Rooftop solar accounts for 19% of India’s total installed solar capacity as of July 2026, concentrated in ten Indian states: India’s total installed solar capacity reached 164.6 GW in July 2026, of which 30.7 GW comes from rooftop solar capacity, i.e., one in every 5 GW of solar capacity is on rooftops. This rooftop solar share tripled since 2019 from 6% to 19%, demonstrating a significant growth led by Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- Residential consumers now account for half of India’s rooftop solar capacity: Residential rooftop solar capacity under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana stood at 14.9 GW across 5 million households as of July 2026, with ~88% of it concentrated in ten states.
- Daytime solar exports from residential rooftops can come down by 85-90% by incentivising battery storage integration: Adding a 5-kWh battery to a 3-kW rooftop system can drastically cutdaytime solar exports. However, under the current metering mechanism, it stretches the household’s payback period from around 3.3 years for solar alone to over 9 years, building a case for financial incentive to the households. For example, a 50% subsidy for battery storage under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana can cut the payback period down to under 7 years.
Access the full report here