Pakistan Is Tapping Into Solar Power at an 'unprecedented' Rate. Here's Why

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

toomuchtodo

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Solar PowerPakistan EconomyImf PolicyRenewable Energy

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Solar Power

Pakistan Economy

Imf Policy

Renewable Energy

Pakistan's rapid adoption of solar power is driven by IMF-mandated subsidy reforms and looming tax on solar panels.

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JumpCrisscross

4 months ago

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“the government's rollback of energy subsidies, which previously made electricity more affordable. Pakistan made these subsidy reforms in recent years because of loan requirements from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF”

A pretty solid statement of success for IMF policy.

“In June, the government also announced a 10% tax on imported solar panels into Pakistan — almost all of which come from China.”

Dumb fucks.

toomuchtodoAuthor

4 months ago

That tax is certainly disappointing, but I'm confident based on modeling that this will not materially impair uptake necessary to drive out a majority of remaining fossil generation in Pakistan (imports are ~15-17GW of solar PV per year as of 2024, peak demand is ~30GW). Batteries are up next. Total current coal capacity is 8.45GW, fossil gas 17.4GW per Electricity Maps and Ember Energy.

Perhaps an opportunity to use carbon credits or a similar funding method to negate these import tariffs to keep the deployment going at speed. Philanthropy or NGO dollars don't have to pay for all of the clean energy imports, just enough to equalize the import tariffs to zero.

https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/PK/72h/hourly

https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/pakistan/

https://uploads.renewablesfirst.org/Pakistan_Electricity_Rev...

https://bsky.app/profile/evcurvefuturist.com/post/3lsyf4gruh...

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