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Cheap solar power undercuts Pakistan’s state grid

Sep 18, 2024, 7:06am EDT
South Asia
Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
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The News

Pakistani businesses are turning to cheap rooftop Chinese-made solar panels as electricity prices go up.

The state-run electricity company has borrowed billions of dollars to finance coal plants, and payments on the debt have gone up. As the government now scales back electricity subsidies, “moneyed Pakistanis have capitalized on the country’s punishingly harsh sunlight,” the Financial Times reported, importing $1.4 billion in solar panels in the first half of 2024.

“Every bit of space I have,” one factory owner said, “I want it covered in solar panels.”

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Pakistan’s growth in solar is mirrored in other developing countries across Asia and Africa, the climate writer Bill McKibben noted: “This won’t just transform the climate, it will transform lives.”

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