Solar Brief Local

Nobody owns Punjab's rooftop solar market

On the national portal's public list of registered vendors, read on 30 October 2026, 436 firms have fitted at least one PM Surya Ghar rooftop in Punjab. The biggest has fitted 587 in the whole scheme so far, fewer than 3 of every 100 in the state. The firm in 50th place has fitted 113, and the one in the middle 22. The work is spread across hundreds of small firms, and the newest work is spread even wider.

By Tanay Bhatia, Co-founder, SolentraPublished Updated

What happenedPM Surya Ghar's registered vendor list for Punjab, read 30 Oct 2026

Under PM Surya Ghar, a home gets the central subsidy only through a vendor registered on the national portal, MNRE's guidelines say. The portal keeps a public list of these registered vendors: pick a state and a district, and it shows the firms registered there, each with its number of installations, and can sort them by installations in the district, in the state or across India. On 30 October 2026 we read the list for all 23 of Punjab's districts, and for Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. A firm can be listed in many districts, so we counted each firm once per state, using its count for the whole state. These counts cover the whole scheme so far, not just this year.

Punjab's list has 555 firms, and 436 of them, which we call the working firms, have fitted at least one rooftop in Punjab; the other 119, about 1 in 5, have fitted none here. Between them, the 436 have fitted 21,317 rooftops, 50 short of the 21,367 on our tracker's reading that morning, so the list accounts for almost every subsidy rooftop in the state (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026).

No firm comes close to owning this market. The biggest has fitted 587 rooftops in Punjab, fewer than 3 of every 100. The firm in 50th place has fitted 113, and if you line up the 436 working firms by size, the one in the middle has fitted 22. Half of Punjab's rooftops were fitted by 49 firms, about 1 in 9 of the working firms, and the other half by the remaining 387. And 147 working firms, about 1 in 3, have fitted fewer than 10 (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026).

Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh look different. In Himachal, 187 of the 273 listed firms have fitted at least one rooftop there; the biggest has fitted 1,537, about 1 in 10 of the state's rooftops, and 17 firms have fitted half of them. In Chandigarh, 881 firms are listed but only 106 have fitted a rooftop there; the biggest has fitted about 1 in 8 of Chandigarh's rooftops, and 7 firms have fitted half. In both, a short list of firms does much of the work. In Punjab, the work is spread across hundreds of firms (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026).

The table shows how many rooftops it takes to hold each place on Punjab's list.

Punjab: PM Surya Ghar rooftops fitted so far, by a firm's place on the list
Place on the listRooftops fitted
No. 1, the biggest587
No. 10296
No. 20217
No. 50113
No. 10066
Middle of the 436 working firms22

Portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026. Rooftops each firm has fitted in Punjab in the whole scheme so far, each firm counted once. Places run from the biggest of the 555 listed firms; the two firms in the middle of the 436 that have fitted at least one have 22 each. Our own count from the public list. We do not name firms.

What our tracker showsPunjab's subsidy rooftops, and who fitted the newest ones

Our tracker reads the PM Surya Ghar national portal every day and counts home rooftops under the scheme. On the 30 October reading, Punjab had 21,367 of them, with 97.9 MW of panels. That is 2,615 more than on our first reading, 29 August, and 1,214 more than on 30 September, about 40 a day over the last 30 days. You can follow it district by district on our Punjab tracker.

We also read the vendor list on 26 September, so we can see who fitted the newer rooftops. Between the two reads, the firms' Punjab counts rose by 1,388, close to the tracker's 1,387 over the same days, and no firm's count fell. In all, 318 different firms added at least one rooftop, no firm added more than 37, and 18 firms fitted their first Punjab rooftop. The 10 firms that were biggest on 26 September had fitted about 18 of every 100 Punjab rooftops by then, but only about 9 of every 100 of the new ones (portal vendor list, read 26 Sep and 30 Oct 2026).

The tracker counts rooftops; it does not say who fitted them, and neither source says why one firm gets more work than another. So we do not read a firm's size as a sign of its quality. Applications are a separate count, and our Shraddh to Navratri story follows Punjab's week by week.

Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Punjabrooftops
Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Punjab (rooftops) Punjab: 18,752 on 29 August 2026 to 21,367 on 30 October 2026, in rooftops. 18,00019,00020,00021,00022,00029 Aug30 Oct15 Sep1 Oct15 Oct 18,752 21,367 Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Punjab (rooftops) Punjab: 18,752 on 29 August 2026 to 21,367 on 30 October 2026, in rooftops. 18,00019,00020,00021,00022,00029 Aug30 Oct1 Oct 18,752 21,367

Source: Solentra's daily readings of the PM Surya Ghar national portal (pmsuryaghar.gov.in), 29 August to 30 October 2026. No reading was saved on 1 September. Home rooftops under the scheme only. Which firm fitted each rooftop comes from the portal vendor list, read on 26 September and 30 October 2026.

See the numbers
Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Punjab
ReadingPunjab
29 Aug 202618,752
30 Aug 202618,780
31 Aug 202618,788
2 Sep 202618,903
3 Sep 202618,939
4 Sep 202618,976
5 Sep 202619,022
6 Sep 202619,079
7 Sep 202619,096
8 Sep 202619,168
9 Sep 202619,223
10 Sep 202619,281
11 Sep 202619,336
12 Sep 202619,365
13 Sep 202619,395
14 Sep 202619,410
15 Sep 202619,467
16 Sep 202619,514
17 Sep 202619,578
18 Sep 202619,628
19 Sep 202619,683
20 Sep 202619,714
21 Sep 202619,740
22 Sep 202619,785
23 Sep 202619,839
24 Sep 202619,886
25 Sep 202619,935
26 Sep 202619,980
27 Sep 202620,013
28 Sep 202620,028
29 Sep 202620,091
30 Sep 202620,153
1 Oct 202620,205
2 Oct 202620,267
3 Oct 202620,319
4 Oct 202620,355
5 Oct 202620,367
6 Oct 202620,425
7 Oct 202620,479
8 Oct 202620,522
9 Oct 202620,580
10 Oct 202620,628
11 Oct 202620,678
12 Oct 202620,693
13 Oct 202620,739
14 Oct 202620,788
15 Oct 202620,828
16 Oct 202620,872
17 Oct 202620,904
18 Oct 202620,942
19 Oct 202620,946
20 Oct 202620,997
21 Oct 202621,028
22 Oct 202621,066
23 Oct 202621,102
24 Oct 202621,138
25 Oct 202621,164
26 Oct 202621,168
27 Oct 202621,231
28 Oct 202621,278
29 Oct 202621,323
30 Oct 202621,367

What it could mean for IndiaRoom for focused installers, district by district

A market spread this wide could leave room for a focused installer to grow. In Punjab, the firm in 50th place has fitted 113 rooftops in the whole scheme so far, and the one in the middle 22 (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026). The newest work is spread even wider: of the rooftops added in the 34 days to 30 October, the 10 firms that were biggest at the start fitted only about 9 of every 100. That could mean the work is not gathering into fewer hands; the list does not say why.

The list cannot tell us why Punjab's work is so spread out. It could be that most homes hire a firm close by, that few firms have built a steady flow of jobs across districts, or both; we have not tested either. Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh show that the work can sit with fewer firms, and read over time, the list could show whether Punjab's stays spread out or gathers.

District by district, the picture may look different again. A firm listed for all 23 districts may do most of its work in one or two, and the list shows each firm's count for the district you pick. So the room for a small or new installer is likely to differ from one district to the next.

For India, the same public list covers every state and district. Read beside the daily count of rooftops, it could show where the scheme's work sits with a few firms and where it is spread across many, which may matter to anyone deciding where to sell, hire or set up.

What it means for youLook up an installer's count on the portal's vendor list

If you install rooftop solar in Punjab: put your own Punjab-wide count of scheme rooftops next to the table above. On the 30 October read, 113 put a firm in Punjab's top 50, and 22 put it in the middle of the 436 working firms. Then open the portal's registered vendor list and pick Punjab and your district. Sorted by state-wise installations, each firm's card shows its count for all of Punjab, yours included; sorted by district-wise installations, the list shows who is fitting rooftops near you. Nobody owns this market, so a steady run of jobs, done well, could move a firm up the list. Your record on the portal is also what a careful customer can look up before they sign.

If your firm is listed but has not fitted a rooftop here: you are one of many. Of the 555 firms listed for Punjab, 119 have fitted none in Punjab, and in Chandigarh 775 of the 881 listed have fitted none there (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026). Being listed is not the same as getting work; the first few jobs are what put a firm on the ladder.

If you are a dealer or distributor: most of Punjab's work is spread across many small firms. Half of all rooftops came from 49 firms and the other half from 387, and the firm in the middle has fitted 22 in the whole scheme so far (portal vendor list, read 30 Oct 2026). No single account covers the market; reaching it means many small accounts, each fitting a handful of rooftops, visited district by district. Our dealer page sets out how to sell SolarYaan inverters with Solentra.

If you are a homeowner choosing an installer: the subsidy needs a vendor registered on the national portal, so before you sign, find the firm on the portal's vendor list for your district. The list has a search box for the firm's name, each firm's card shows its number of installations, and the list can be sorted by installations in your district, so you can see where the firm stands among those working near you. Most of Punjab's working firms are small, so a small count is not a reason to say no on its own. Ask to see one or two of their finished rooftops near you, and check that the firm named on your agreement is the one on the list.

Solentra is a distributor: it sells SolarYaan inverters to installers and dealers, and it does not appear in any of these counts.

Sources

  1. MNRE, National Portal for Rooftop Solar, Registered vendors, the public list by state and district: all 23 Punjab districts, all 12 Himachal Pradesh districts and Chandigarh, .
  2. MNRE, National Portal for Rooftop Solar, Registered vendors, the same public list and districts, an earlier read, .
  3. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Operational Guidelines for Implementation of PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana for the component “CFA to Residential Consumers”, .
  4. MNRE, National Portal for Rooftop Solar, PM Surya Ghar national portal, read daily by Solentra since 29 Aug 2026, .

The Solar Brief puts public reports in our own words and reads them against Solentra's own daily record of the PM Surya Ghar national portal. Where we say what something could mean, that is our reading, not a forecast. Nothing here is financial, loan or legal advice.

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