Chinese solar panel imports to Pakistan are soaring this year
2025 depicts data from January through April. Renewables First analysed Chinese import data collected by UK-based climate think tank Ember.
Chinese solar panel imports into Pakistan in 2025 are set to exceed last year’s record-breaking total, according to new data released by Islamabad-based think tank Renewables First.
Solar panels have been flooding Pakistani markets in recent years as the country copes with rolling blackouts from its fossil-fuel-dominated power grid and a 155 percent jump in electricity bill prices since 2021.
Solar panel imports from China more than quadrupled to 16.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 from just 2.5 GW in 2021, making Pakistan one of the world’s top destinations for Chinese solar panels, the think tank said.
The impact is already visible in the power supply. Solar energy has accounted for nearly a quarter of Pakistan’s utility-supplied electricity so far this year, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing data from nonprofit Ember.
Pakistan has already imported 10 GW of solar panels from China in 2025 — almost 60 percent of the total imported last year — the data shows.
“This trend suggests that 2025 is on track to surpass last year’s solar imports,” said Rabia Babar, data manager for Renewables First, in comments to Cipher.
Solar panels are now a common sight across Pakistan, reshaping how households, farms, and businesses access electricity — a transition extensively documented across Renewables First’s energy coverage.
Solar technology has become increasingly attractive and affordable for Pakistani consumers as global prices have plunged, according to the International Energy Agency reports.
China produces far more solar panels than it consumes domestically and has been exporting them at low cost worldwide, particularly to Asian markets. China has invested an estimated $60 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan, where Chinese exporters do not face the anti-dumping tariffs imposed by the United States and the European Union.
However, the influx of low-cost solar panels has created challenges for Pakistan’s nascent solar manufacturing sector. While consumers benefit from lower electricity bills, domestic manufacturers struggled to compete, in part because import duties were applied to solar panel components until last year.
Although the government later lifted these levies for manufacturers meeting certain criteria, developers say the policy shift came too late to prevent damage to the local industry.
Last week, Pakistan’s ruling party proposed an 18 percent sales tax on imported solar panels in the upcoming federal budget to encourage domestic manufacturing. The proposal, however, faces uncertainty as a key coalition partner in government opposes the measure.
The Pakistan Solar Association has rejected claims that the tax would revive local manufacturing. “There is no large-scale or high-efficiency solar panel manufacturing facility in Pakistan today,” said Waqas Moosa, head of the association and co-founder of Lahore-based Hadron Solar, in a statement.
For instance, Pakistan-based Tesla Industries — an engineering firm incorporated in 1992 and unrelated to Elon Musk’s company — produced mainstream solar panels more than a decade ago. However, amid competition from cheaper Chinese alternatives, the company later pivoted to manufacturing panels solely for small-scale applications.
Article / Report originally published at: Cipher News