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The Budget for FY26 gave a healthy boost to spending on distributed renewable energy (RE) segment with budget estimates totalling ₹22,600 crore, a massive over two-fold surge from budget estimates (BE) for FY25, and a 66 per cent jump from the revised estimates (RE).
The expansion of the distributed renewable energy (RE) segment, which aims to install solar power on 1 crore low income households and proliferation of solar power in villages, is the key to boost consumption of clean energy sources as well as help households access low cost power sources both for urban and rural poor.
The budget allocation for PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojna in FY26 has grown by 80 per cent to ₹20,000 crore from FY25 (RE) of ₹11,1000 crore. Compared to the BE for FY25, the allocation rose by more than three times. So far, around 8.5 lakh installations have taken place under the scheme.
The PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) aims at solarizing one crore households by providing free electricity up to 300 units every month. The government has allocated around ₹75,000 crore.
Similarly, the allocation for the PM Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) grw by 3 per cent to ₹2,600 crore compared to the RE of FY25 (₹2,525 crore).
Under PM-KUSUM the government aims to increase the income of farmers and provide sources for irrigation and de-dieselization of the agricultural sector. Under the scheme, subsidy is given for installation of standalone solar pumps and also for solarization of existing grid-connected agricultural pumps.
The total budget expenditure on the solar power sector proposed in the FY26 budget is ₹24,224.36 crore, a 60.83 per cent growth from the RE for FY25 (₹15,061.35 crore). Of this, PM Surya Ghar accounts for a massive 85.56 per cent of the total allocation on solar power, followed by PM-Kusum at 10.73 per cent.
In fact, PM Surya Ghar accounts for more than three-fourth of the total budgeted spending on MNRE’s central sector schemes and projects (₹26,399.37 crore), which includes solar power, wind power, renewable energy sources (RES) and green hydrogen mission.
Besides, PM-Kusum accounts for almost 10 per cent of the total central sector schemes and project spending.
The budgetary allocation for the green hydrogen mission has doubled to ₹600 crore from the BE of FY25. However, the allocation for the Wind Power and other RES has come down to ₹551 crore from a RE of ₹846 crore in FY25.
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