Experts have warned that Pakistan is losing billions of dollars because it imports most of its solar equipment instead of making it at home.
At the Solar, Storage and Flexibility Conference in Islamabad on 6 August 2026, speakers said the country has built one of the world’s biggest consumer-driven rooftop solar markets. Yet almost all panels, batteries, inverters and even electric vehicles still come from abroad. As a result, much of the economic value and jobs stay overseas.
Pakistan imported more solar panels in the past two years than many countries installed in a whole decade. Residential electricity demand rose 32 percent in the same period, largely thanks to rooftop solar. The Global Solar Council even uses Pakistan’s rapid solar growth as a success story for the rest of the world.
However, experts stressed that the next step must be local industry. Andrew Chang, CEO of New Energy Nexus, said a real industrial ecosystem needs more than factories. It needs technology that works, skilled people, and support for entrepreneurs.
The distributed solar market is already worth around $14 billion, but less than four percent of it has been financed by banks. Speakers called for better loans, blended finance, credit guarantees and green bonds so households and small businesses can buy storage systems and other equipment more easily.
They agreed that Pakistan’s solar boom has shown how cheap clean energy can help people. The real test now is whether industry, banks and the government can move fast enough to create local manufacturing, jobs and lasting value inside the country.