From panels to progress: powering a brighter future in Pakistan

Image © shutterstock/Pisit+Kitireungsang

In 2025, we celebrated a pivotal milestone: for the first time, wind and solar power generated more electricity than coal.¹ This signals a rapid transformation in how the world powers its homes, industries, and businesses. As well as delivering cleaner air, healthier lives, and job prosperity, this will also reduce household bills, and build economic stability and security.²

One of the most striking examples of this transformation is unfolding in Pakistan, where an exciting clean energy revolution is underway.

According to the World Resources Institute, Pakistan has undergone one of the most rapid and unanticipated transitions to clean energy, driven largely by homes and businesses installing rooftop solar panels. In just a few years, the country’s electric grid has transformed from negligible solar power to having an expected 20 per cent of all its electricity coming from solar by 2026.^3,4

Pakistan, like many countries across the world, has been facing high energy prices, an unstable power grid supply, and the removal of diesel subsidies. As a result, fuel was more expensive, and this was driving consumer demand for cheaper, more reliable alternatives.

What sets Pakistan’s solar expansion apart is that it is anchored in the needs of the community. According to an energy expert in Karachi called Ubaid Ullah, the energy transition is driven by people. Rather than relying on large-scale utility projects, most panels are installed on household rooftops and in the fields of small farms independently by ordinary people. “If you look at satellite images of any Pakistani city,” he says, “all the roofs appear blue, covered in solar panels.”⁵ This bottom-up movement reflects a shift in consumer behaviour, driven by necessity and opportunity.

According to Dave Jones from the energy think-tank, Ember, solar panels are available for USD 60 to USD 80 in the country. “This is a consumer revolution,” he says. “Ordinary people can simply buy a panel from a hardware shop and install it themselves with the help of a YouTube video.”⁶

The solar boom in Pakistan has been astonishing for its speed and scale. But the other remarkable feature of the boom is that it has been largely unplanned. Indeed, Pakistan proves a different story is possible: a revolution driven by market forces, rather than climate-driven or state-led green policies. According to the World Resources Institute, one of the most profound dimensions of Pakistan’s solar boom is how it has facilitated energy access after 60 years of trying to do this with subsidised fossil fuels.

Indeed, vast swathes of rural Pakistan that were previously unserved by the grid, now have access to low-cost electricity. For rural households, stand-alone solar systems mean that access to lighting, connectivity, and cooling are now possible and affordable. “We hope that Pakistan’s people-led transition can evolve from an infrastructure of necessity into a foundation for resilience, opportunity and social renewal,” says Jigar Shah, senior fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI) Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition.⁷

Alongside this rapid, people-led transformation, a number of local research organisations have helped strengthen the enabling environment for distributed renewables. Through public awareness efforts, knowledge sharing, and constructive engagement with decision-makers, they have contributed to greater understanding of solar’s practical and economic benefits.

In Pakistan, organisations such as Renewables First, an energy and environment think-tank based in Islamabad, have played an important role in informing policymakers and strengthening the data underpinning the country’s solar expansion. Their work has added valuable local context, supported dialogue around import conditions and taxation, and helped ensure that accurate evidence informs national energy discussions.

These efforts have reinforced confidence in solar as a reliable and financially viable solution – helping sustain momentum behind the country’s bottom-up transition. Muhammad Mustafa Amjad from Renewables First says: “Beyond policy, the solar boom is essentially people-led and market driven – it is the people motivating markets to import more solar panels.”

A blueprint for other nations?

About 600 million people in Africa – nearly half of the continent’s population – lack access to reliable electricity. But this is changing: Ember has found evidence of a nascent solar boom across the continent. With household incomes between Pakistan and many countries across the African continent being quite similar, African policy-makers are starting to think about how to catalyse solar power uptake and transform and strengthen the energy system.

Many people believe that Pakistan’s experience can be a model for other developing nations. They hope that renewable energy heralds in the cleaner, safer, fairer, and more affordable future that the world needs. “Global South countries don’t have to be the laggards,” says Muhammad Mustafa Amjad. “They can actually be the leaders of the energy transition.”⁸

As Waqas Moosa, CEO of Pakistan-based Hadron Solar, a leading solar solutions provider in Pakistan, says: “The Stone Age did not finish because we ran out of stone, the Iron Age did not finish because we ran out of iron, and the oil age is not going to finish because we ran out of oil or fossil fuels. It basically ends when the new technology is ready to take the throne. And today, renewables are in the right place.”⁹

Through the Global Climate Initiatives Programme, Oak supports regional regranters that are working with organisations including Renewables First, the World Resources Institute Polsky Energy Center, the European Climate Foundation and Ember. We support practical, people-first solutions that help communities thrive, while reducing the harm caused by pollution and the overuse of natural resources.

References:

_{1: Bocca, R. Renewables overtake coal – and other latest energy news. World Economic Forum, 15 October 2025 (updated 5 January 2026). Available at: weforum.org/stories/2025/10/ renewables-overtake-coal-energy-news/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
2: Beiser McGrath, L. High energy bills lend unexpected support for renewable investment. British Politics and Policy at LSE, 12 November 2025. Available at: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/ high-energy-bills-lend-unexpected-support for-renewable-investment/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
3: Barnard, M. Pakistan’s 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy. CleanTechnica, 4 April 2025. Available at: cleantechnica.com/2025/04/04/ pakistans-22-gw-solar-shock-how-a-fragile state-went-full-clean-energy/ (Accessed 23 February 2026).
4.& 7: Shah, J. The Perfect Storm Fueling Pakistan’s Solar Boom. World Resources Institute, 1 October 2025. Available at: wri.org/insights/pakistan-solar energy-boom (Accessed 23 February 2026). 5. Mishra, S. How Pakistan quietly became world’s biggest solar importer. The Independent, 14 April 2025. Available at: independent.co.uk/climate change/news/pakistan-solar-energy-panels imports-china-b2732711.html (Accessed 23 February 2026).
6: Payton, B. Africa aims to replicate Pakistan’s extraordinary solar success. African Business, 28 August 2025. Available at: african.business/2025/08/energy resources/africa-aims-to-replicate-pakistans extraodinary-solar-success(Accessed 23 February 2026).
8: Paddison, L. How Pakistan pulled off one of the fastest solar revolutions in the world. CNN, 1 May 2025. Available at: accuweather.com/en/climate/ how-a-grassroots-movement-in-pakistan pulled-off-one-of-the-fastest-solar revolutions-in-the-world/1770601 (Accessed 23 February 2026).
9: Gardiner, B. Pakistan’s Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People. Yale Environment 360, 9 July 2025. Available at: e360.yale.edu/features/pakistan solar-boom (Accessed 23 February 2026).}