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The Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy announced that the next phase of PM-KUSUM will carry a dedicated component for agrivoltaics, with land ownership remaining with the farmer.
The focus will be on small and marginal farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, cooperatives and panchayats.
India added 55.29 GW of non-fossil capacity last year; decentralised solar contributed 16.3 GW, comprising 7.6 GW from PM-KUSUM and 8.7 GW of rooftop solar.
About 29 lakh pumps have been solarised under PM-KUSUM, and PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana is touching 5.6 million beneficiaries.
The announcement came at the curtain-raiser for the 7th Agrivoltaics World Conference 2026, to be held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, from 21-23 October 2026.
De-dieselise agriculture, give farmers a solar income stream and add decentralised solar capacity in rural areas.
Key: Launched March 2019 by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; targets 34,800 MW of solar capacity with central financial support of about Rs 34,422 crore. Three components: A - 10,000 MW of decentralised ground/stilt-mounted grid-connected plants; B - 14 lakh standalone solar agriculture pumps; C - solarisation of 35 lakh grid-connected pumps including feeder-level solarisation. The agrivoltaics component announced here is for the scheme's next phase.
Take rooftop solar to one crore households and supply up to 300 units of free electricity a month.
Key: Launched 13 February 2024 with an outlay of Rs 75,021 crore; the world's largest domestic rooftop solar programme, run by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, with central subsidy support to households.
Force distribution licensees, open-access consumers and captive users to buy a fixed share of their electricity from renewable sources.
Key: Flows from Section 86(1)(e) of the Electricity Act, 2003, with State Electricity Regulatory Commissions specifying targets; the Ministry of Power notified a uniform national trajectory in 2022 rising from 24.61% in FY 2022-23 to 43.33% by FY 2029-30. It is the demand-side counterpart to schemes like PM-KUSUM, which add supply.
Aggregate small and marginal farmers into producer companies or cooperatives so they gain bargaining power on inputs, credit, processing and marketing.
Key: Central sector scheme launched 29 February 2020 with an outlay of Rs 6,865 crore; implementing agencies include SFAC, NABARD, NCDC and NAFED, with matching equity grant and credit guarantee support. FPOs are named as a delivery route for the new agrivoltaics component.
Solar panels are mounted high enough above a field, and spaced widely enough, that crops keep growing beneath them while electricity is generated above. The design variables are panel height, row spacing, tracking system and the crop's shade tolerance, so the right configuration differs by crop, climate and region.
Simple Analogy: One field working two shifts - crops below, electricity above.
Under the Panchamrit commitments announced at COP26 (Glasgow, 2021), India pledged 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030, 50% of energy requirements from renewables, a one-billion-tonne cut in projected emissions, a 45% reduction in emissions intensity from 2005 levels, and net zero by 2070. The 50%-of-installed-capacity milestone was reached ahead of the 2030 deadline, which is the context for the 55.29 GW addition cited.
The Minister asked ICAR, agricultural universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to produce crop-wise and region-wise agrivoltaics data, and industry to design structures that let tractors and harvesters move freely.
India's combination of small holdings, abundant sunshine and still-developing grids is presented as the template for replicating agrivoltaics across the Global South - the same South-South framing that runs through India's recent agricultural diplomacy.
GS Paper 3 > Infrastructure: Energy; Agriculture and Farmer Incomes
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Renewable Energy
Simultaneous use of the same land for crop cultivation and solar power generation, with panels raised and spaced to let farming continue underneath.
Small, distributed solar generation - rooftop and farm-level - as opposed to large utility-scale solar parks.
A statutory obligation under Section 86(1)(e) of the Electricity Act, 2003 requiring obligated entities to source a set share of electricity from renewables.