India’s total installed solar capacity crossed 168 GW by August 2026, according to MNRE data, marking a nearly 60-fold jump since 2014.

Solar is now the single largest piece of India’s renewable energy mix, ahead of wind, hydro and other clean power sources put together.

The growth hasn’t slowed either. India added close to 34.45 GW of new solar capacity in the first eight months of 2026, including 2,442.75 MW in August.

FY26 was bigger still, with a record 44.61 GW added, nearly double the previous year. In 2025, India briefly overtook the US to become the world’s second-largest solar market by annual additions.

Most of this capacity comes from large, ground-mounted solar farms, which together account for around 120 GW.

Rooftop installations make up a smaller but fast-growing slice, somewhere between 28 GW and 33 GW. The government’s newest push is aimed at floating solar.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana, or PM-SSY, a Rs 5,070 crore scheme to build 5,000 MW of floating solar capacity paired with at least 10,000 MWh of battery storage.

It will run from FY27 to FY31, with funding continuing until FY33. The thinking behind it is simple.

Reservoirs and industrial water bodies can host solar panels without competing for scarce land.

MNRE expects the scheme to lift India’s floating solar capacity from around 700 MW to nearly 5,700 MW, cut close to 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year, and create 16,000 to 17,000 jobs.

On the household side, the PM Surya Ghar scheme has already helped more than 51 lakh homes install rooftop solar.

Nearly 19 lakh of those households now pay zero electricity bills. Manufacturing is scaling up too.

Domestic module-making capacity has grown from just 2.3 GW in 2014 to around 172 GW by March 2026, backed by government incentives aimed at cutting India’s reliance on imported solar equipment.

Falling costs made much of this growth possible. Solar tariffs in India dropped from around Rs 18 per unit in 2010 to as low as Rs 2.44 per unit at a 2017 auction, making solar cheaper than most other power sources in the country today.

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