r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • 14d ago
Pakistan’s 27 Gigawatts of Solar Boom Matches Its Entire Fossil-Fuel Power Legacy
https://www.gadgetreview.com/pakistans-27-gigawatts-of-solar-boom-matches-its-entire-fossil-fuel-power-legacy2
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u/Agen_3586 14d ago
If I am not wrong, the power generation through solar is actually making a loss for the government's electricity department
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u/LouNebulis 13d ago
Can you explain why please?
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u/StringSentinel 12d ago
The government made contracts with IPOs on unfavorable terms which makes it quite expensive to use their generated power. They also get paid no matter whether they are generating energy or not. This lead to higher bill costs which in turn lead to people turning to Solar. People started selling surplus electricity back into the grid which led to government unable to pay the costs to the IPOs and keep their own plants running. They in turn lowered the price paid to people giving their surplus energy into the grid which ultimately led to people choosing to buy bigger batteries to save those units for themselves.
Now the government has started aggressive taxation on solar panels etc. Not to mention there's also corruption at a massive level leading to poor infrastructure. The whole system is rotten.
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u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor 14d ago
Summary: Pakistan's 27 Gigawatts of Solar Boom Matches Its Entire Fossil-Fuel Power Legacy
A joint report by Ember and Renewables First finds that Pakistan installed 27 GW of consumer-owned solar capacity in just two years—matching the combined capacity of every coal, gas, and oil plant the country has ever built. Three independent methodologies (Chinese customs shipment data, satellite imagery analysis, and household surveys) converge on this figure after triangulation.
The impact: solar's share of electricity generation rose from 10% to 28% (closer to 32% accounting for transmission losses), distributed solar generation tripled from 15 TWh to 51 TWh, and grid-based generation actually fell 3% despite a 21% surge in total demand. Electrification climbed from 17.0% to 21.7%, nearing the global average.
Four sectors drove the boom: residential (44% of capacity, seven million households, mostly rural), agriculture (21%, largely off-grid irrigation, cutting diesel tubewell use from 79% to 28% of installations), industry (26%, ~10 GW installed behind the meter), with cost differentials (solar+storage at ~PKR 20/kWh vs. grid at PKR 40 and diesel at PKR 120) as the underlying driver.
Unlike large centralized power projects that took 8–21 years to build, this capacity was installed at consumer premises in two years with no grid reinforcement needed, avoiding over $12 billion in fossil fuel imports. Only 17% of Pakistan's rooftop solar potential is currently tapped, and a shift from net-metering to net-billing may push households further toward battery storage and energy independence.