There was no drastic law, no global investment blitz, nor a prime minister announced the green revolution. Still, by the end of 2024, Pakistan imported more solar panels than most other countries in the world.
Faced with economic challenges and high energy poverty, South Asian countries have witnessed one of the most unexpected clean energy success stories of a decade.
Pakistan joined the world’s leading solar power market class, importing 17 gigawatts of solar panels last year alone. Global Electric Review 2025 Ember, Energy Think Tank UK.
This surge represents a doubling of imports in the previous year, making Pakistan one of the top global buyers of solar panels.
The scale of Pakistan’s imports is particularly impressive as they are not driven by the development of national programs or utility scales.
Instead, the majority of demand appears to come from rooftop solar installations by households, small businesses and commercial users looking to ensure cheaper and more reliable electricity in the face of frequent blackouts and rising energy costs.
Ember reports that rooftop solar installations for homes and businesses across the country are surged as “a way to access low-cost electricity.”
Pakistani experts reflect this analysis.
Muhammad Mustafa Amjad, Program Director at Renewables First, said Independence The solar boom is best understood as a “survival response” by people and businesses increasingly priced from the grid for inefficient planning and unreliable supply.
“It shows structural change,” he adds.
Pakistan’s solar panels have been imported in fiscal 2024 alone, says Amjad, which amounts to about half of the nation’s peak electricity demand.
“Rooftop solar is quickly becoming a priority energy provider,” he adds. “And the role of the grid must be adapted on a large scale to be related to a rapidly moving energy economy.”
Ubaid Ula, an energy expert in Karachi, argues that the energy transition is caused by people having problems in their hands.
“If you look at satellite images of Pakistan cities,” he says Independence, “All roofs look blue and are covered in solar panels. ”
In regions where grid instability is often afflicted, solar panels have emerged as a practical alternative to unreliable public supply. The sharp rise in imports in 2024 follows years of power outages, tariff fluctuations and high costs associated with diesel generators and imported fuels. Many Pakistanis began to directly adopt solar technology rather than waiting for national reform. In many cases, panels and inverters are installed without relying on subsidies or intensive plans.
This makes the growth of the Pakistan sun a bit unusual in global landscapes.
In many countries, the adoption of the sun is closely tied to climate policy or international funding. In contrast, Pakistan’s solar boom appears to be a response to market logic and regional needs, rather than climate diplomacy.
Ember The report points out that Pakistan’s growth is primarily happening “other than a formal energy planning framework.”
Industry experts say that Pakistan’s solar journey has minimal direct government intervention. In fact, infrastructure is struggling to keep up.
Regulators have approved net metering policies in recent years and eased import restrictions, but there have been no large public spending programs or large solar auctions to match the pace of adoption seen at the household or commercial level.
Despite importing record amounts of solar panels, Pakistan’s official grid-connected solar capacity remains much lower, indicating that many of the new solar is operating off-grid or behind the meter.
This difference between ground installation and official planning has already raised concerns. Grid operators and utility companies struggle to adapt to the widespread self-generating effects, especially in urban areas where high-value customers generate their own power during the day and rely only on the grid as a backup.
The dynamic, sometimes called the “utility death spiral,” can erode the financial foundations of public energy providers while putting new pressure on infrastructure during peak evenings.
In that analysis, Ember It warns that this type of rapid, decentralized growth requires updated planning and regulatory tools to avoid instability.
“Along with this deployment, we need an updated system planning and regulatory framework to ensure a sustainable and managed transition,” the report said.
While focusing on solar, Pakistan’s broader renewable energy mix includes increased contributions from wind, hydroelectric power and bioenergy.
However, solar is the fastest segment, especially as it can be deployed on a small scale with minimal bureaucratic friction.
In countries with long-standing challenges in governance and infrastructure delivery, the modularity of solar technology has made it possible to adopt without large public investment.
Imports in 2024 reflect more than a surge in consumer interest. They also talk about the reduction in costs of solar technology around the world, especially for modules manufactured in China, which dominates the international supply chain.
The decline in equipment prices is combined with volatile local fuel costs and a permanent power shortage, making it one of Pakistan’s most economically viable energy solutions today.
Nevertheless, there remains a big gap in how migration is managed. With little monitoring of system quality, storage deployment, or grid balancing mechanisms, Pakistan risks eroding the long-term benefits of expanding clean energy.
Without investment in stronger data, more transparent planning, and grid modernization, the current surge could exacerbate existing inequalities in access and reliability.
Still, the broader message from Pakistan’s experience is clear. The adoption of clean energy is no longer confined to wealthy countries and economies.
When economics works and barriers are low, energy transitions can be quickly eradicated, even in places where policies have historically slowed ambitions.
What’s happening in Pakistan may be messy and uneven, but it retains its global importance. It provides a blueprint (or at least a suggestion) about what the energy transition will look like in most of the global South. Not as a carefully coordinated top-down process, but as a decentralized, demand-driven shift driven by necessity and economy.
According to Amjad, this makes Pakistan an early example of a new energy model.
“For the global Southern economy, this presents an alternative bottom-up, people-driven, market-driven model of the energy transition.
He adds that battery storage is likely to follow the same trajectory as solar. It is cheap and modular, and is quickly adopted at the edge of the grid rather than at the center. “The prices of batteries, which follow a similar trajectory to solar, will undoubtedly accelerate the pace of energy transitions across the world’s tropical countries as volatility on imported fuels continues to drive renewable growth.”
Harjeet Singh, a strategic adviser to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, says Pakistan’s story shows that solar is more than just a green option, it’s affordable.
“The incredible growth of solar energy in countries like Pakistan emphasizes that solar is no longer an environmental choice. It is a powerful economic solution, especially for developing countries. Volatile fossil fuel prices, rising electricity prices, often unreliable grids, households, businesses, and soaring people, as they can be counted on, providing clean people.
“This isn’t just about decarbonisation. It’s basically about ensuring energy access, promoting economic stability and increasing energy safety.”
