Grassroots Movement in Pakistan: Lightning-Fast Solar Revolution

Grassroots Movement in Pakistan: Lightning-Fast Solar Revolution

In Pakistan, deep blue solar panels twinkle on the roofs of major cities and line the properties of villages across the country. Pakistan, home to over 240 million people, is experiencing one of the fastest solar evolutions in the world while struggling with poverty and economic instability.

The Rise of Solar Energy in Pakistan

The country has become a huge market for solar energy due to the influx of extremely cheap Chinese solar panels. In 2024, Pakistan imported 17 gigawatts of solar energy, more than double the previous year, making it the third largest importer in the world, according to Data of the climate research institute Ember.

Unique solar boom

Mustafa Amjad, program manager at Renewables First, an energy think tank in Islamabad, called Pakistan's story unique. While solar energy has already been adopted on a large scale in countries such as Vietnam and South Africa, no other country has achieved the speed and scale that Pakistan has achieved. He stressed: "There is no political pressure driving this; this is essentially people-led and market-driven."

Challenges of the energy transition

However, Pakistan’s solar story is not just a success story; it is complex and could pose difficulties in the future as the energy landscape changes rapidly. Many analysts argue that what is happening here undermines the increasingly popular narrative that renewable energy is unaffordable, undesirable and can only succeed with large government subsidies. Harjeet Singh, climate activist and founder of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, noted: "Contrary to the idea that renewable energy only lives on subsidies or is 'imposed' on developing countries, people in Pakistan are actively choosing solar energy because it makes financial sense."

The “bottom-up” revolution

As Waqas Moosa, chairman of the Pakistan Solar Association and CEO of Hadron Solar, explained, Pakistan's solar boom is due to a "perfect storm" of various factors. At the forefront are the falling costs of solar panels from China and the extremely high electricity prices.

Pakistan's energy woes have their roots in the 1990s, when the country signed expensive electricity contracts, many of them pegged to the US dollar. These challenges have been exacerbated by the sharp decline in the Pakistani rupee and falling electricity demand, partly due to the increase in solar production. In the last three years, electricity costs have risen by 155%, while grid stability is being questioned in many regions due to power outages lasting several hours. Households and companies that can afford it are increasingly switching to cheap solar energy.

A new way of thinking about electricity

The exact amount of solar energy installed is difficult to measure, but analysts estimate that around 15 gigawatts were installed last year. This is significant as the peak demand for electricity in Pakistan is around 30 gigawatts. Moosa compares the progress to the rise of social media. Just as platforms like TikTok and Instagram have allowed people to bypass traditional media, the solar revolution is giving Pakistanis the opportunity to become both electricity producers and consumers.

Challenges for the future

But this revolution also has dark sides. Moosa expressed concerns that the power grid could come under pressure as expensive electricity pushes more people away from the grid and towards solar use - which could further exacerbate conditions. In addition, solar energy could further widen the gap between rich and poor, as this technology is usually only available to the wealthy.

Pakistan's solar boom is not perfect, but it has broader lessons, especially for countries where grid power is expensive and unreliable. Singh highlights that the falling costs of renewable energy often represent the “most rational economic path away from fossil fuels”, while proactive planning and timely investment are essential to keeping the grid stable.

Pakistan is currently a “model country” for the energy transition in the global south. Amjad added that it is crucial that the country's solar story "becomes a fairy tale and not an example of how not to do it."