Pakistan now gets more power from solar than from coal
Share of Pakistan's electricity generation by source, %, 2017–2025, Ember yearly data.
Solar's share of Pakistan's electricity in 2025, up from 7.7% in 2023, against coal's 14.5% and nuclear's 14.0%.
Solar output more than tripled in two years, from 11.4 TWh in 2023 to 36.6 TWh in 2025, while gas fell from 43.8 to 39.3 TWh.
Gas and hydro each made about 23% in 2025: at 21.4%, solar is now Pakistan's third-largest source of power.
the numbers & method
| Year | solar (%) | gas (%) | hydro (%) | coal (%) | nuclear (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 0.7 | 37.7 | 21.4 | 8.4 | 6.2 |
| 2018 | 0.7 | 44.5 | 21.2 | 12.2 | 7.2 |
| 2019 | 1.9 | 34.1 | 24.9 | 19.2 | 6.7 |
| 2020 | 3.0 | 35.2 | 24.8 | 19.7 | 7.4 |
| 2021 | 3.9 | 33.1 | 22.3 | 18.0 | 9.6 |
| 2022 | 5.1 | 29.8 | 22.8 | 15.3 | 14.8 |
| 2023 | 7.7 | 29.6 | 25.7 | 15.1 | 15.4 |
| 2024 | 13.1 | 28.0 | 25.4 | 13.4 | 15.3 |
| 2025 | 21.4 | 23.0 | 23.1 | 14.5 | 14.0 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate
Ember yearly electricity generation data, read on the Ember API (api.ember-energy.org/v1/electricity-generation/yearly, entity PAK) on 4 Nov 2026. Shares of total generation, %. Solar / coal / nuclear / gas / hydro: 2023 7.67 / 15.05 / 15.36 / 29.59 / 25.67; 2024 13.13 / 13.38 / 15.34 / 27.99 / 25.40; 2025 21.40 / 14.47 / 14.03 / 23.00 / 23.06. Generation 2023 / 2025, TWh: solar 11.35 / 36.60; gas 43.80 / 39.34; total 148.01 / 171.06. Ember compiles national statistics and, where these are missing or late, its own estimates; the API does not flag which values are estimated, so the latest year may be revised. 'Other fossil' (mostly oil; 22.6% in 2017, 1.5% in 2025; the largest source in 2014–16), wind (2.2%) and bioenergy are not drawn. Multiples and differences are progrss calculations. Licence: CC BY 4.0. The chart starts in 2017, the first year coal was above solar (solar was ahead of a near-zero coal in 2014–16); solar passed coal again in 2025 and nuclear the same year.
Published 4 Nov 2026
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