Comment by Riaz Haq on June 17, 2025 at 10:03am

Pakistan's solar surge lifts it into rarefied 25% club

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/pakistans-solar-surge-l...

As solar farms were the fifth-largest supply source for electricity just two years ago, solar's pre-eminence so far this marks a sharp swing towards renewables within the country's utility network.
In addition, the country is committed to much more growth in renewable energy generation capacity through the rest of this decade.
Pakistan is targeting 60% of electricity supplies to come from renewable sources by 2030, according to the International Trade Administration.
Through the first four months of 2025, renewable energy sources generated 28% of the country's electricity, so energy planners are aiming for a more than doubling in that share by the end of the decade.
With solar modules representing the quickest and cheapest means to meet those goals, further rapid build-out of the country's solar farm system looks likely, which will cement Pakistan's status as a global solar superpower.

Comment by Riaz Haq on Monday

Doug Lewin
@douglewinenergy
Something remarkable just happened in Pakistan.
In only 8 months, citizens built the equivalent of half the country’s national electric grid, without waiting for government or utilities.

How?
☀️ Cheap solar panels
☀️ TikTok tutorials showing how to install them
☀️ Farmers leading the way, swapping diesel pumps for solar

The results:
✅ Diesel sales dropped 35% in one year
✅ Families slashed costs and gained energy independence
✅ National demand on the grid actually declined because of so much distributed generation

This isn’t just about Pakistan. It’s a glimpse of how fast the world can shift when technology gets cheap enough and people take energy into their own hands.

These are the kinds of numbers that change the world.

🎧 Full Energy Capital Podcast episode with Bill McKibben here: https://tinyurl.com/mwmackr2

https://x.com/douglewinenergy/status/1958271947743301729

Comment by Riaz Haq on Monday

Pakistan's solar boom started to take off in 2023 when the price of solar panels from China dropped by more than 40%, as China ramped up its exports. Pakistani importers saw the potential to make a profit and bought them up en masse, selling them across the country. The solar transition further sped up in 2024, as the price of Chinese solar panels dropped even more, flooding the market with technology that many Pakistanis couldn't previously afford.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/08/21/g-s1-82369/s...

Adnan Shams, an electrician in Islamabad, says he has experienced the boom firsthand as more people call on him for solar installation. Earlier this summer, he attended a solar training course at National Skills University Islamabad, where the instructor taught students how to install panels. "[Solar] is beneficial in the long run, which is why the work is increasing," he says.



The proliferation of cheaper and more reliable batteries, used to store solar energy and also imported from China, now looks set to advance solar adoption as customers look for additional ways to reduce their bills and ensure a steady electricity supply.

Solar adoption reveals cracks in Pakistan's power system
But the millions of new solar users — like Zia and his neighbors — are having an impact on the financing of Pakistan's power sector.

That's because of reforms that date back to the 1990s. Pakistan was then struggling to produce enough electricity for its growing population. So the country set up long-term contracts to pay independent companies to produce electricity, regardless of how much is used.

These days, people are using less power from the Pakistani grid to avoid high electricity bills, says Rabia Babar, data manager at Renewables First. "The electricity cost in the country has increased so people are in conservation mode. They use less electricity to save [on] their electricity bills," she says.

As more Pakistanis add solar, demand for electricity from the grid has gone down, even though many still rely on the grid, especially at night.

As a result of this lessening demand and the government's continued obligation to independent power producers, "the same number of payments needs to be made by a lesser number of consumers," says Pakistan's energy minister, Awais Leghari.

He says the government is troubleshooting how to bring more industrial customers onto the grid to offset residential customers who are switching over to solar, while planning targeted subsidies for low-income users. "Our challenge is to get the demand to go up," he says.

Pakistan's capacity to generate electricity has also increased, with some residential and industrial solar producers selling the energy they make back to the grid by using net metering.

The Pakistani government has already taken several steps to regulate the residential solar industry, including lowering the rate it pays for electricity that household solar setups produce.

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