Pakistan

Pakistan has imported over 50 GW of solar modules from China, including 18 GW during the country’s last fiscal year. In the absence of official installation figures, Islamabad-based thinktank Renewables First says up to 33 GW of solar capacity could have been deployed in Pakistan to date.

A Husqvarna researcher developed a fast, interpretable PV hotspot-detection method using IR thermography and Lab* color-space features instead of heavy neural networks, achieving up to 95.2% accuracy with shallow classifiers. The lightweight system works in real time on drones or edge devices and could save 17,620 kWh and 8.9 tons of CO₂ annually by improving fault detection in solar panels.

Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has initiated a public consultation on proposed revisions to solar net-metering regulations. A key change under consideration is a reduction in the tariff for surplus solar power, which could be cut by half from PKR 26 ($0.093) per kWh to PKR 13 per kWh.

China’s Juhang Energy Technology met with representatives from Pakistan’s Board of Investment to discuss implementation of a solar panel manufacturing facility in Pakistan, aimed at both domestic demand and potential exports.

Solar association chair argues urgent battery energy storage deployment is key to supporting continued PV boom in Pakistan. Residential solar CEO predicts surge in behind-the-meter storage demand if and when Pakistan’s generous net metering policy is wound down.

A research team assessing the social embeddedness of solar minigrids in rural Pakistan found the technology responds to energy poverty while fostering empowerment in communities, leading the team to conclude a minigrid can foster broader societal change while providing a technological solution.

Researchers have developed a maximum power point tracking algorithm based on the social hierarchy and hunting strategy of grey wolves. When tested under realistic shading conditions, the grey wolf optimizer achieved an average MPPT efficiency of 98.15%, significantly outperforming conventional MPPT methods.

With no utility-scale projects set to come online this year, the growth of Pakistan’s solar market is being driven by net-metering installations. There were over 4,000 new net-metering connections pending by the end of June, with regulatory bottlenecks contributing to a growing backlog.

An international research team has tested a hybrid control technique combining adapted perturb and observe (APO) with model-predictive control to address complex partial shading in solar arrays. The method, validated through simulation and physical experiments, reportedly outperforms existing approaches.

Researchers have combined the theory of planned behavior, the technology acceptance model, and diffusion of innovations theory to investigate rooftop solar adoption in China. From a 1,200-person survey, they found that subjective norms and social influence from peers and community had a surprisingly more substantial effect than personal attitudes or perceived ease of use.