Pakistan has joined the ranks of the world’s leading solar markets, importing 17 gigawatts of solar panels last year alone, according to the Global Electricity Review 2025 by Ember, an energy think tank in the UK.
This surge represents a doubling of the previous year’s imports, and makes Pakistan one of the top global buyers of solar panels.
The scale of Pakistan’s imports is particularly striking because it is not driven by a national programme or utility-scale rollout.
Instead, the majority of the demand appears to come from rooftop solar installations by households, small businesses and commercial users looking to secure cheaper and more reliable electricity in the face of frequent power outages and rising energy costs.