CNN: Glimmering, deep-blue solar panels carpet rooftops in Pakistan’s largest cities and dot the perimeters of houses in villages across the country.

Pakistan, home to more than 240 million people, is experiencing one of the most rapid solar revolutions on the planet, even as it grapples with poverty and economic instability.

The country has become a huge new market for solar as super-cheap Chinese solar panels flood in. It imported 17 gigawatts of solar panels in 2024, more than double the previous year, making it the world’s third-biggest importer, according to data from the climate think tank Ember.

Pakistan’s story is unique, said Mustafa Amjad, program director at Renewables First, an energy think tank based in Islamabad. Solar has been adopted at mass scale in countries including Vietnam and South Africa, “but none have had the speed and scale that Pakistan has had,” he told CNN.

There’s one particular aspect fascinating experts: The solar boom is a grassroots revolution and almost none of it is in the form of big solar farms. “There is no policy push that is driving this; this is essentially people-led and market driven,” Amjad said.

Pakistan’s solar story is not a straightforward good news story; it’s complex and messy with potential trouble ahead as the energy landscape changes radically and rapidly. But many analysts say what’s happening here undermines an increasingly popular narrative that clean energy is unaffordable, unwanted and can only succeed with large-scale government subsidies.

“Contrary to the notion that renewables only thrive on subsidies or are ‘forced’ onto the Global South, Pakistanis are actively choosing solar because it makes financial sense,” said Harjeet Singh, climate advocate and founding director of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.

As the country grapples with severe and deadly heat waves — temperatures nudged toward 122 degrees Fahrenheit in April — there is also hope access to solar can help people afford the cooling systems on which they increasingly rely to survive >>>