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Solar energy

Solar energy: installed capacity and the schemes that grow it on rooftops, farms and water, the manufacturing chain from polysilicon to module, cell technologies, and the International Solar Alliance. Prelims has asked about the largest floating solar project in India and about solar water pumps.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2025: PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana and rooftop solar
  • Prelims 2018: solar power tariffs and the Solar Energy Corporation of India

Showing 2 of 5 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 August 2026.Show all

Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana

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Prelims and Mains

A reservoir carries no crop and costs nothing to acquire, which is the whole argument for floating a solar farm on it.

  • The Cabinet approved the ₹5,070 crore Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana (PM-SSY), India’s first national scheme dedicated to floating solar.
  • It targets 5,000 MW by 2030-31, is implemented by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), and pays up to ₹1 crore a megawatt on commissioning.
  • Every project must carry at least two hours of co-located storage, 10,000 MWh in all, to reduce curtailment.
  • About 700 MW already floats, led by 278 MW at Omkareshwar on the Narmada, against a potential the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) puts at about 102 GW.
Floating solar
  • Takes no new land, sitting on reservoirs and other water bodies
  • Water keeps the panels cool, and a cooler cell converts a little more of the light
  • Shading the surface cuts evaporation from the water body
  • Costs more to build, and must survive wind, waves and changing water levels
  • May harm aquatic life and birds, and needs many agencies to agree
Land based solar
  • Needs large tracts of land, which is scarce and costly
  • Cheaper for each megawatt built, and simpler to install and maintain
  • Panels sit in still hot air, and a hotter cell loses efficiency
From The Hindu, 1 August 2026, and The Indian Express, 24 August 2026

What changed

  1. 1 Aug 2026

    The Hindu, 1 Aug 2026: Cabinet approves scheme to promote floating solar plants (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 31 Jul 2026: Cabinet approves 'Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana (PM-SSY)' for Development of Floating Solar Photovoltaic Projects (opens in a new tab)

Background reading: PIB, 2 Aug 2026 · The Indian Express, 24 Aug 2026: Floating solar: can it be India's next renewable energy success story? (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2022: the largest floating solar project in India

PM-KUSUM

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Prelims and Mains

The scheme agrivoltaics is being added to, which has so far worked on the pump rather than the field.

  • The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM), launched in 2019, supports decentralised solar plants, standalone solar pumps and the solarisation of grid connected agricultural pumps.

About 29 lakhAgricultural pumps solarised

7.6 GWDecentralised solar added under PM-KUSUM

From the Press Information Bureau (PIB) release and The Hindu, 9 September 2026; capacity figures are for last year.

What changed

  1. 9 Sep 2026

    PIB, 9 Sep 2026: The Farmer Who Has Always Fed the Nation is Now also Lighting it up, with the Annadata Becoming an Urjadata: Union Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 9 Sep 2026: PM-KUSUM 2.0 announcement likely soon; agrivoltaics to get dedicated component (opens in a new tab)

  2. 9 Sep 2026

    • Agrivoltaics raises solar panels high enough that the crop goes on growing underneath.
    • The Minister for New and Renewable Energy said the next phase of PM-KUSUM will carry a dedicated agrivoltaics component, with PM-KUSUM 2.0 due shortly.
    • It targets small and marginal farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, cooperatives and panchayats, and land ownership stays with the farmer.
    • One acre then earns three ways: the crop, power sold to the distribution company (DISCOM), and diesel not bought.

    PIB, 9 Sep 2026: The Farmer Who Has Always Fed the Nation is Now also Lighting it up, with the Annadata Becoming an Urjadata: Union Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 9 Sep 2026: PM-KUSUM 2.0 announcement likely soon; agrivoltaics to get dedicated component (opens in a new tab)

  3. 13 Aug 2026Updatenewly added

    • The scheme has three components: A, decentralised plants of 500 kW to 2 MW set up by farmers, cooperatives, panchayats and farmer producer organisations; B, standalone solar pumps; and C, solarisation of grid connected pumps, including whole feeders. Component A has moved far more slowly than B, because a plant needs land, a grid connection, a tariff and a financial close where a pump needs only a tender.
    • Because farmers cannot raise the equity, Component A has been moved under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund so that projects can draw subsidised loans.

    Mains: once pumping costs almost nothing, a farmer has no reason to save groundwater, so solar pumps without groundwater rules raise extraction.

    Frontline, 13 Aug 2026: PM-KUSUM has moved fast on subsidised standalone pumps and slowly on turning farmers into power producers, and the gap between the two is a question of who can raise capital. (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2020: solar water pumps