Over the last few years, something extraordinary has been happening in Pakistan.
Solar panels, until recently a rarity in the country, have enjoyed a dramatic surge in popularity. Satellite and aerial imagery shows how solar panels were virtually non-existent in cities such as Karachi and Lahore before the covid pandemic. A trickle of installations started to occur in 2021 and 2022, which quickly becoming a flood in 2023 and 2024. Today, almost every rooftop in some of the more affluent urban areas is carpeted in solar panels.
Data from energy think tank Ember shows the capacity of solar panels exported from China by far the world's largest solar panel manufacturer to Pakistan exploded from 3.3 gigawatts in 2022, to 19 gigawatts in 2023 and 17 GW in 2024. In the 12 months to July 2025, Pakistan has imported more panels from China than any other country except for the Netherlands, which, as Europe's largest maritime gateway is likely to re-export much of its imported panels.