Five states hold most of India's rooftop solar. The rest are not far behind by accident

India's rooftop solar programme is national. Its results are not evenly distributed, and the gap between the leading states and the rest has stayed wide even as total installations have multiplied.

On scheme figures reported for 5 August 2026, the leaders were:

• Gujarat — 7,80,553 installations
• Uttar Pradesh — 7,29,337 installations
• Maharashtra — 7,11,190 installations

Behind them, on figures reported for 20 July 2026, came Kerala with 2,99,065 installations (1,158.89 MW), Rajasthan with 2,65,022 (1,022.10 MW) and Andhra Pradesh with 2,36,286 (740.68 MW).

Estimates of how concentrated this is vary with the measure used. Reporting on the same group of five states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala — has put their share of India's installed rooftop capacity at more than 70 per cent in one account and nearly 82 per cent in another. Either way, five states out of twenty-eight hold the great majority of what has been built.

It is not about sunshine

The intuitive explanation is solar resource, and it is wrong. Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal are not short of sunlight, and all three have been identified as needing to accelerate deployment. India's solar irradiance varies across the country, but not nearly enough to explain a state holding twenty times another state's installed base.

The explanations that hold up are procedural and financial:

Process friction at the DISCOM. Every rooftop system needs technical feasibility approval and a net meter from the local distribution company. Where that approval is fast and predictable, installations follow. Where it is slow, or where the rules on sanctioned load are applied restrictively, vendors quietly stop selling into that territory because their working capital is tied up waiting.

Awareness. National awareness of rooftop solar is now high, but awareness of the specific scheme and of what it actually pays varies sharply by state and between rural and urban households.

Financing access. The scheme's concessional loans run through banks. Where local branches are familiar with the product, applications convert. Where they are not, households are told to arrange the money themselves.

State top-ups. Some states add their own subsidy on top of the central assistance. Delhi, for example, approved an additional ₹30,000 for rooftop solar under PM Surya Ghar. A state-level top-up changes household economics directly and visibly.

Gujarat's head start is real

Gujarat did not begin with PM Surya Ghar. It ran state rooftop programmes well before February 2024 and built an installer base, a DISCOM process and a household expectation that solar is a normal thing to put on a roof. CEEW's national survey found Gujarat households reporting a 13 per cent willingness to install against a 5 per cent national average — a difference in disposition, not in daylight.

That is the uncomfortable lesson for lagging states: the leaders are ahead partly because they started earlier, and a head start in installer capacity compounds.

What this means for a household

Where you live changes your experience of the same national scheme.

In a leading state, expect a competitive vendor market, a DISCOM that has processed thousands of these applications, and shorter waits. Your risk is choosing badly among many vendors, not finding one.

In a lagging state, expect fewer vendors, longer feasibility timelines, and branch staff who may be unfamiliar with the loan product. Ask a prospective vendor how many systems they have commissioned on your DISCOM's network specifically — a vendor experienced in a neighbouring state is not the same thing.

Check for a state top-up before you sign. It is the single largest state-level variable in what you will actually pay, and it is not always volunteered.

Sources and references

Official scheme data, as reported.

• Business Standard — "PM Surya Ghar got 7.77 million applications, 4.19 million installations", 11 August 2026, reporting state installation figures as of 5 August 2026, business-standard.com. Accessed 23 August 2026.
• Energetica India — state-level installation and capacity figures as of 20 July 2026, energetica-india.net. Accessed 23 August 2026.
• Mercom India — "Delhi Approves ₹30,000 Additional Subsidy for Rooftop Solar Under PM Surya Ghar", mercomindia.com. Accessed 23 August 2026.

Independent research.

• Council on Energy, Environment and Water — "Over 25 Crore Households can Deploy 637 GW of Solar Capacity on Rooftops", 16 November 2023, ceew.in. Source for the Gujarat willingness figure of 13 per cent against a 5 per cent national average. Accessed 23 August 2026.
• Business Standard — "Why some states lag in rooftop solar installation despite PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana", 26 June 2026, business-standard.com. Accessed 23 August 2026.

A note on the figures. Published estimates of the top five states' share of installed rooftop capacity differ — one account gives more than 70 per cent and another nearly 82 per cent, and the underlying dates differ. Both are reported here rather than averaged into a single figure that no source states.

ISB interpretation. The account of DISCOM process friction, working-capital effects on vendor coverage, and the guidance in the final section are Indian Solar Bazar's own analysis.