Pakistan’s citizen-led solar rush: Where panels power education and health – and are gifted in dowries

You might have listened to a podcast or read an article about Pakistan’s solar rush. Seeing it on the ground and on rooftops and being able to speak with experts in Pakistan gave me a fuller picture of how a country with 250 million people and a GDP per capita of about $A2,300 a year is embracing solar. 

The first thing that energy adviser Syed Faizan Ali Shah wanted to make clear was that the solar boom did not come out of nowhere.

In Punjab, where load-shedding was rampant and schools could become too hot to operate safely, the government rolled out solar across thousands of public schools.

This was associated with mass training of solar installers and the creation of a trade that didn’t exist previously. It meant kids could go to school and the fans, lights and other essential equipment could keep running even when the grid supply failed. (See here for ADB’s account of the Punjab Ujala (enlightening) solarisation project).

Prior to this, in 2015–16, the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur brought online four 100 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar projects in Punjab. It was developed under the provincial government led by then chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, now Pakistan’s Prime Minister. 

These antecedents meant there was some experience and industry base for the citizen-led solar rush that has followed.

That rush has been extraordinary: 38 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity across the residential, industrial, agricultural and commercial sectors, including 18% of households according to Renewables First and Ember (see their recent report on The solarisation of Pakistan’s energy economy). A 28% share of Pakistan’s electricity generation was from distributed solar in FY25, up from just 10% in FY23.

Households and businesses in Pakistan rushed to install solar because electricity rates increased dramatically, jumping 155% over three years and Pakistan hit 38% inflation in May 2023. The cost of panels, meanwhile, dropped and some early adopters were able to benefit from a generous net-metering policy.

Now, according to IEEFA, residential solar with a medium battery produces electricity at around Pakistani rupees (PKR) 20/kWh (about $A0.10/kWh) – half the PKR 40/kWh (about $A0.20/kWh) cost of grid electricity. 

At the Solar.Storage.Flexibility.2026 conference in Islamabad, former Pakistan climate change minister Senator Sherry Rehman spoke to the case of a mother who wants to keep her children cool when it’s 43°C overnight, so they can sleep and be able to learn at school the next day. As she summarised it, “solar is education.”

Solar is also healthcare, when it is installed on the rooftops of hospitals and clinics, enabling them to run critical equipment during the day. And solar is health; it reduces financial stress and drives economic development when it powers a fan or air conditioner through the summer, often one panel at a time. 

Muhammad Hassan Dajana (industry liaison at Renewables First) and I spoke with souvenir sellers in Taxila who had a single solar panel connected to a DC cooling unit to keep them cool during the day while they waited for tourists to pass by (video below).

This video shows how the DC cooling unit runs directly off the solar panel – even when the grid connected supply is subject to load shedding (as it was when we visited). 

One of the sellers also has nine panels on his home, which means he can run his air conditioning, fridge and can iron clothes without worrying about the cost of electricity. His electricity bills have gone from 18,000 to 20,000 PKR (about $A90–$100) a month down to 1,500 to 2,000 PKR (about $A8–$10) a month.

The reason they have not hit zero is that he can’t yet afford a battery. He is putting the savings into his house and towards his daughters’ dowries. At the conference, there was also mention of solar panels being included as part of dowries.

As the godfather of energy efficiency in Australia Alan Pears taught me, and I try and convey to others, it’s not about the electricity; what people value are the services electricity can provide.

Now millions of Pakistanis can keep cool, keep their food fresh, cook on electric induction stoves (rather than fuel burning ones), and create new services for their families and their communities, all at a fraction of the cost of grid supplied electricity.  

Most importantly, these services – particularly cooling – are vital to surviving a changing climate.  

Dr Gabrielle Kuiper is an independent DER specialist whose work portfolio is available at www.gabriellekuiper.xyz