London, 25 June 2026 – Pakistan’s energy economy is now as electrified as the global average, following a rapid solarisation that has transformed the country’s energy system in just two years, according to a new report, “The Solarisation of Pakistan’s energy economy”, from Ember and Renewables First.
Official statistics largely ignore distributed solar. This is the first time Pakistan’s energy statistics have been rebased to reflect Pakistan’s transformative distributed solar boom. The report makes the case that distributed solar actually helped to grow electricity demand.
Pakistan’s total electricity demand rose by 21% in two years. The rise in electricity demand of 33 TWh from FY23 to FY25 was led entirely by distributed solar generation, which rose by 36 TWh.
This surge in distributed solar, pushing up electricity demand, raised Pakistan’s electrification rate (the proportion of final energy demand coming from electricity) to 21.7% in FY25, a whisker away from the global average of 22.0%. Whilst electricity demand surged by 21%, non-electricity energy use rose just 2% – therefore distributed solar met not only electricity demand growth, it met almost all the energy demand growth.
