Rooftop solar
Also called: RTS, Residential rooftop solar · Topic: Energy Resources of India: Conventional and Non-conventional · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Rooftop solar (RTS) means solar photovoltaic panels fixed on the roof of a house or other building. Photovoltaic panels turn sunlight straight into electricity. The building uses this power first. Through net metering, any extra power goes to the grid. Net metering is a meter that records the power you send out and subtracts it from your bill. Rooftop solar needs no extra land, unlike ground-mounted solar parks. Power is also made right where it is used, so less is lost on long power lines. This kind of spread-out, small-scale generation is called distributed (decentralised) generation.
Example
The PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana was launched on 13 February 2024 and is run by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). It has an outlay of ₹75,021 crore. It aims to put rooftop solar on 1 crore homes by FY 2026-27 and gives up to 300 free units of electricity a month. By May 2026 it had added more than 12 GW of rooftop solar capacity.
Don't confuse with
- Solar park: a large ground-mounted plant on open land, such as Bhadla in Jodhpur district (Rajasthan). It sells power to the grid in bulk. Rooftop solar is small, sits on buildings and mainly serves the building itself.
- PM-KUSUM (2019): this scheme is for farmers. It funds solar pumps and small solar plants on barren or farm land. PM Surya Ghar covers only the rooftops of homes.