{"id":542229,"date":"2026-03-17T11:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/542229\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:50:10","slug":"pakistans-solar-boom-shielding-country-from-hormuz-disruptions-study-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/542229\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s solar boom shielding country from Hormuz disruptions: study – Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan\u2019s solar boom<\/a>, which was driven by the installation of rooftop solar panels, is shielding the country from supply disruptions and price shocks due to the closure of the vital energy route, the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

According to an analysis published by Renewables First and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Pakistan would be far more exposed to the price shocks<\/a> now rippling out of the Middle East without the growth of distributed solar.<\/p>\n

The study noted that Pakistan has avoided more than $12 billion in oil and gas imports since 2018, which would have been needed to meet domestic energy demand.<\/p>\n

This \u201crepresents not just fiscal relief, but a structural reduction in geopolitical risk exposure that no LNG contract or hedging strategy could have delivered at equivalent scale or speed\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the prices the market expects for this year, Pakistan could save a further $6.3 billion by the end of the year,\u201d the study claimed.<\/p>\n

Despite the solar cushion, the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> remains important for Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2024, and despite reducing its reliance, Pakistan still ranked third globally in LNG dependence on Hormuz-transiting cargoes as a share of total consumption, and fifth for oil,\u201d it said, adding that any sustained disruption to the strait would send immediate shockwaves through Pakistan\u2019s energy system.<\/p>\n

However, due to rapid solarisation, this imported energy dependence is decreasing. \u201cAs rooftop panels spread across homes, farms, and factories, demand for LNG has fallen. The clearest signal sits in Pakistan\u2019s long-term LNG contracts, where some shipments have been diverted to international markets, and the government has been actively renegotiating terms as solar-driven displacement reduces the need for imported volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A graph showing fossil fuel import costs avoided by solar. \u2014 via Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air<\/p>\n

According to the study, had it not been for the deployment of rooftop solar, which reduced the reliance on grid power and imported gas, load-shedding and other measures to restrict power supply during peak hours would have been considered during this energy crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that load shedding and other measures to restrict power supply during peak demand periods are not currently being considered shows how solar is both saving money and providing additional power.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may be noted that the government has taken a series of measures to ration fuel amid the closure of the Hormuz Strait. A recent government briefing revealed<\/a> that the country would run out of LNG by April 14 due to the suspension of its supply from Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cPakistan\u2019s solar revolution wasn\u2019t planned in Islamabad \u2014 it was built on rooftops. But as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz escalate<\/a>, those panels are proving to be one of the country\u2019s most effective energy security strategies, with distributed solar now shouldering a growing share of the country\u2019s electricity needs,\u201d said Rabia Babar, energy data manager at Renewables First.<\/p>\n

The analysis attributed Pakistan\u2019s solar story to market forces and consumers. It also gave credit to the government for maintaining a \u201czero-rated tax regime on solar PV imports\u201d, which turbocharged such imports from under 1GW in 2018 to over 51GW by early 2026 \u2014 one of the \u201cfastest consumer-led energy transitions on record, and one that drove a 40pc drop in oil and gas imports between 2022 and 2024\u201d.<\/p>\n

A graph showing solar PV imports in Pakistan. \u2014 via Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air<\/p>\n

The 2022 energy crisis<\/a>, after the Ukraine invasion<\/a> and the \u201cprecipitous fall in costs of solar manufacturing in China,\u201d was a catalyst for this solar surge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis grassroots solar surge has gathered pace since the energy crisis of 2022 and has quietly delivered what years of state energy policy had not thus far: falling fuel import dependence, stronger energy security, and a measure of relief from spiralling electricity costs for millions of households.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said Pakistan\u2019s solar boom was acting \u201clike an insurance policy against oil and LNG shocks\u201d in this energy crisis.<\/p>\n

The study also compared Pakistan with other Asian states, pointing out that other countries such as China, India, and South Korea were \u201cdisproportionately exposed\u201d due to disruptions in Hormuz because of their reliance on LNG. Although Pakistan still appears prominently in both the volume and dependency rankings for Hormuz-transiting energy, the trajectory is downward, it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina, India, South Korea and most other Asian economies have increased their LNG imports, while Pakistan\u2019s energy curve has bent the other way,\u201d it said, adding that any sustained disruption would continue to hit Asian economies hardest.<\/p>\n

According to the analysis, it is renewables, not oil and gas, that offer the lowest-cost path to energy access for low- and middle-income households, and \u201cevery gigawatt of distributed solar deployed is, in effect, a hedge against the brewing energy crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD: Pakistan\u2019s solar boom, which was driven by the installation of rooftop solar panels, is shielding the country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,211623,208342],"class_list":["post-542229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-mideast-ties","tag-us-iran-rift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}