Chhattisgarh Khaira Solar Village: India’s First 100 Percent Solar Village Under PM Surya Ghar

A small village in Chhattisgarh has become India’s first village to reach full saturation under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, with every household now powered by rooftop solar. Khaira, in Rajnandgaon district, has equipped all 141 of its households with solar panels, giving the village of 889 residents a combined clean energy capacity of nearly 282 kilowatts.

Each home in Khaira carries a 2-kilowatt rooftop system. The systems work on net metering, so electricity generated during the day first meets the household’s own needs and any surplus is fed back into the grid. Officials say the transformation cost the villagers nothing from their own pockets: central and state subsidies covered the base cost, and corporate social responsibility funding bridged the remaining gap.

The achievement reaches the village’s most vulnerable families as well. Of the 141 solar-equipped homes, 93 were built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin, so their new pucca houses came with renewable power from the start. The collector has said 21 Scheduled Tribe families and four Scheduled Caste families are among the beneficiaries, sharing equally in the clean energy dividend.

Local women played a central role in making it happen. Women mobilisers known as PM Surya Sakhis, including local champion Sangeeta Sahu, worked alongside the self-help group network associated with Padma Shri awardee Phoolbasan Bai Yadav and village sarpanch Bhupendra Yadav to take the scheme to every home. Rajnandgaon Collector Jitendra Yadav has credited that ground-level mobilisation, together with the subsidy and CSR support, for taking the village to complete coverage.

PM Surya Ghar, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2024, offers households subsidies for rooftop solar panels and up to 300 units of free electricity a month. Khaira’s milestone gives the scheme its most concentrated success story so far, showing how a central scheme, state support, corporate funding and village-level mobilisation can combine to take an entire village off dependence on the conventional grid. For other villages watching, Khaira now stands as a concrete example of what full saturation looks like in practice.