2 weeks Ago
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Pakistan has quietly emerged as an unexpected global leader in solar energy adoption. By 2024, the country is forecast to add an amazing 17 gigawatts (GW) of solar power , accounting for more than a third of its production capacity. This quick rise has propelled Pakistan into the ranks of top solar adopters, alongside global powerhouses such as China, the United States, and Germany.
“This is probably the most extreme case that has happened in any country in the world with the speed that it’s happening,” said Dave Jones, an energy expert at UK-based think tank Ember . The driving force behind this solar surge is simple: necessity. With an unreliable power supply, skyrocketing energy rates, and life-threatening heat waves , many Pakistanis have turned to low-cost Chinese solar technology as an alternative.
The human impact: using the sun to avoid blackouts Shafqat Hussain, an Islamabad resident, says solar power has transformed his life. Hussain felt it was time to take action after a 28-hour blackout during a heatwave left his mother in the hospital with heatstroke . “There is no alternative in this country,” Hussain remarked, describing the effort to cope with Pakistan’s frequent power outages.
“When you don’t have electricity, forget about air conditioning—your fans don’t work, your refrigerators are off, and you don’t even have cold water to drink.” He installed solar panels bought from China, and the effects were life-changing. His family’s energy expenditures have decreased by 80 percent, and the threat of blackouts has vanished.
“We now have a sense of safety,” he explained, referring to their newfound stability in life. Growing pains: the grid struggles to adapt While the solar expansion is altering people’s lives, it is also causing problems for Pakistan’s national grid operators. With millions switching to solar throughout the day, demand for grid power has plummeted unexpectedly, disrupting operators’ capacity to manage supply and demand.
“The way those power plants were planned and funded was to run a minimum number of hours,” Jones explained. “Because they’re no longer meeting those minimum hours, the electricity they do provide is becoming significantly more expensive for the remaining consumers.” The volatility also makes it difficult for grid operators to plan their energy needs.
If the government believes this disruption is too great, Jones says, it may implement limits to impede the solar revolution. “What really risks happening in Pakistan now is that you have a blanket ban on any more solar coming in,” he warned. Chinese connection: solar’s global expansion Pakistan’s solar boom is part of a wider global trend driven by the falling cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, which have plummeted by 90 percent in the past 15 years.
China, the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of solar panels, is responsible for much of this cost drop. “It is transformative and it’s affordable,” said Azeem Azhar, tech entrepreneur and founder of research group Exponential View . He compared the quick acceptance of solar technology to the PC revolution of the 1980s, which democratized computing.
Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, the UAE, Thailand, and South Africa are all riding the wave, purchasing large quantities of Chinese solar panels. However, Pakistan’s specific constraints, including an unreliable system and variable energy prices, have made solar adoption an especially urgent priority. What’s next for Pakistan’s energy revolution? While solar power meets daytime energy needs, battery storage represents the next frontier in Pakistan’s energy change.
Currently, solar panels cannot store energy for nighttime use, forcing homeowners to rely on the grid after sunset. However, this could soon change. “We haven’t yet got the price of batteries down far enough to rely on battery backup,” Azhar shared.
“But that will happen in the next few years. Batteries are really, really coming down in price.” As battery technology grows more affordable, Pakistan might lessen its reliance on fossil fuels, paving the way for a more sustainable and dependable energy future.
The difficulty now is to manage the changeover. Policymakers must find a method to integrate solar into the national grid without punishing consumers or slowing development. For millions of Pakistanis, like Hussain, the stakes could not be greater.
“We just couldn’t survive without solar,” Hussain remarked, reflecting on his family’s transformation. As the country navigates the solar revolution, it provides a model for how necessity and creativity may work together to solve even the most difficult energy difficulties..
