u/chamomile_tea_reply

A few years ago, these rooftops in Lahore were largely bare. Now most of them are covered in solar panels.

Pakistan has experienced one of the fastest rooftop solar booms in the world. In just a few years, solar has grown to provide around a quarter of the country’s electricity.

But what really stands out is that this wasn’t primarily driven by government mandates or large-scale subsidy programmes.

It was driven by households and businesses responding to rising costs and unreliable electricity supply.

✅ Electricity prices surged after the 2022 LNG crisis
✅ Blackouts and unreliable supply pushed people to seek alternatives
✅ Cheap Chinese solar panels suddenly made rooftop solar affordable at scale

Pakistan has imported roughly 45 GW of solar panels in just the last few years - that's almost equivalent to the total capacity of the country’s grid.

Battery imports are also rising rapidly as households and businesses look to get more value from their rooftop solar systems.

This is what energy transitions look like when economics drives adoption.

For those interested, these images show Faisal Town in Lahore between May 2022 and September 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gavinmooney_a-few-years-ago-these-rooftops-in-lahore-share-7457319009634504704-Gne3

We solved smog. Everyone just takes that for granted.

Failed doomsday prediction #703

This article from 1982

This prescient Nat Geo article (1982) on “micro-chips”