Pakistan is in the middle of a solar power revolution. Over the past five years, the percentage of electricity generated from solar panels jumped from 2% to nearly 25%. Almost all of that growth has been driven by individuals buying their own solar panels, removing their homes or businesses from the centralized grid and generating electricity for themselves. For The Big Fix, The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Naveed Arshad, director of the Energy Institute at Lahore University of Management Sciences, about why — and how — Pakistan has embraced solar power.
In this AP file photo, a flood victim, Muhammad Ibrahim, and his family eat rice next to a solar panel used for electricity in Ismail Khan Khoso village in Sohbatpur, a district of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, Thursday, May 18, 2023. In rural areas of Baluchistan, only those who kept their solar panels out of the floodwaters have access to electricity to keep cool in the summer heat.
Solar power is booming in Pakistan. The country generates almost 25% of its electricity from solar power — five years ago, it was only 2%.
The surge is continuing to accelerate. 
The World is looking into the why and how of this surge continuing, as part of The Big Fix, a series on the most ambitious ways people are working to tackle the climate crisis. 
“Most of the deployment happened on people rooftops, in industrial warehouses, even people bought chunks of land to install solar panels,” said Naveed Arshad, director of the Energy Institute at Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Arshad told The World that the overhaul began when two simultaneous events occurred: First, Russia invaded Ukraine, sending energy prices soaring. Then, Pakistan’s currency was devalued, making electricity even more expensive.
To bring their bills down, many people turned to solar.
Parts of this interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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