As of 2025, solar power was the largest electricity source in Pakistan, accounting for more than 25% of total production in 2025. In 2024, solar power installations in the country grew at a high rate with solar installations providing an estimated one-third of the country's entire generating capacity added during the year. As electricity prices doubled from 2021 to 2024, and Chinese solar panel manufacturers with manufacturing overcapacity cut prices, Pakistanis have taken to installing solar panels around the country, importing $1.4 billion of panels from China in the first half of 2024. Imports of solar panels totaled 17GW of capacity in 2024, double the capacity of imports the previous year. In 2024, Pakistan imported more solar panels than any other country in the world.

As of 31 March 2025, Pakistan has reached over ~2,813 MW of net-metered rooftop solar installed, up from about 2,500 MW a year earlier. By the end of April 2025, net-metered solar had reached 5.3 GW (5,300 MW). The country’s total installed generation capacity stood at 46,605 MW by end-March 2025. This includes all sources (hydro, thermal, nuclear, renewable).

Solar power became part of the energy mix in 2013, following government policies aimed at supporting renewable energy development. The country now has seven large-scale solar projects that contribute 530 MW to the national grid, along with a growing number of harder to measure off-grid projects. The country has solar plants in Pakistani Kashmir, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. Initiatives are under development by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Chinese companies, and Pakistani private sector energy companies. The Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Park (QASP) was built in the Cholistan Desert, Punjab, in 2015 and has a 400 MW capacity.

Solar irradiance in Pakistan is 5.3 kWh/m²/day.

Beginning in the 1980’s the first photovoltaic solar panels were installed in Pakistan in 18 different stations around the country, with a capacity of 440 kW. In 1983, a 6 kW PV system was donated by Kyocera to power the village of Kankoi, but the project was not successful. Due to a lack of expertise and maintenance, further expansion of solar projects was not pursued. In the 1990s, the first renewable energy departments were established in Pakistan, and in the early 21st century, the Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) and the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) were established. Later in 2013, the AEDB issued a tax exemption for imported solar modules. Pakistan has mostly relied on expensive imports of fossil fuels for electricity production, but as power demand increased throughout the country, this method of production became costly. Increased incentive to install PV systems has given Pakistan a way to reduce reliance on these imports and expand access to electricity to more isolated regions of the country, such as the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, where the accessibility to the national power grid is 54.7% and 77.6%, respectively. Solar has expanded rapidly in the country since then, with 2024 seeing an increase in solar panel imports by 227% from 2023.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the Federal Minister of Water & Power of Pakistan, announced on 2 July 2009 that 7,000 villages would be electrified using solar energy by 2014. Senior adviser Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa stated that the Punjab government would begin new projects aimed at power production through coal, solar energy and wind power; this would generate additional resources.

The Government of Pakistan allowed the provincial government of Sindh to conduct feasibility research. The government planned to install a desalination plant powered by solar energy.

On 21 May 2022, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the removal of 17 per cent general sales tax on solar panels.