Pakistan became the world's third-biggest buyer of solar panels
Imports of solar cells and panels (HS 854143), US$ billion, as reported by importers, 2025 vs 2022.
- 1. China now uses more electricity per person than the EU
- 2. Solar now makes more of Brazil's power than fossil fuels
- 3. Rooftop solar now outsizes coal on Australia's main grid
- 4. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 5. France swung from power importer to record exporter
- 6. Over a quarter of China's new heavy trucks are electric
- 7. Nepal imports twice as many electric cars as petrol cars
- 8. The US now ships a quarter of the world's LNG
- 9. Kazakhstan mines more uranium than Canada and Namibia combined
- 10. Indonesia now mines two-thirds of the world's nickel
- 11. India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people
- 12. Sun and wind now beat fossil fuels in Chile
- 13. Two in three rickshaws sold in India are electric
- 14. Argentina mined 60% more lithium in just one year
- 15. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 16. Only 16 countries are building new coal power plants
- 17. Egypt's sun and wind now outproduce its Nile dams
- 18. The price of lithium fell 86% in three years
- 19. Pakistan now gets more power from solar than from coal
- 20. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
- 21. The Philippines is building more solar than it already runs
- 22. Nine in ten Indonesians now cook with clean fuels
- 23. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 24. India's sun and wind now outproduce Germany's
- 25. Solar now beats coal in 25 of 81 coal-burning countries
- 26. Indonesia climbed from ninth to second among cobalt miners
- 27. Fossil fuels fell from all to two-thirds of UAE power
- 28. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 29. Paraguay now uses most of the power it makes
- 30. Nigeria now imports more solar panels than generators
- 31. Zimbabwe climbed to fourth among the world's lithium miners
- 32. Coal's share of Bangladesh's power jumped from 2% to 22%
- 33. Guyana now emits more CO2 per person than Britain
- 34. Nepal now sells more electricity than it buys
- 35. Emerging economies now take 42% of China's electric car exports
- 36. China's car sales to Ethiopia are now mostly electric
- 37. Saudi Arabia's battery imports grew 46-fold since 2019
- 38. Pakistan became the world's third-biggest buyer of solar panels
- 39. Solar beats hydropower in 28 of 131 countries
Pakistan's solar panel imports in 2025, five times its $0.38 bn of 2022: from 27th to 3rd among reporting importers.
of Pakistan's 2025 panel imports came from China ($1.93 bn of $1.94 bn).
Only the United States and Germany bought more; Pakistan now outbuys the Netherlands and Spain, 3rd and 5th in 2022.
the numbers & method
| 2025 (bn) | 2022 (grey bar) (bn) | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 6.72 | 10.23 |
| Germany | 1.98 | 4.34 |
| Pakistan | 1.94 | 0.38 |
| Brazil | 1.73 | 3.94 |
| Netherlands | 1.60 | 4.27 |
| India | 1.42 | 0.54 |
| Italy | 1.24 | 1.64 |
| France | 1.22 | 1.29 |
| Spain | 1.20 | 3.56 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1.03 | 0.33 |
Claim types Fact
UN Statistics Division, UN Comtrade (HS, annual), commodity 854143 (photovoltaic cells assembled in modules or made up into panels; an HS 2022 code, so no comparison before 2022), imports from World as reported by each importer, US$ (CIF), read from the UN Comtrade API via the progrss vault (un-comtrade; GUIDELINES §4.11; live re-read failed: web access refused this run). Pakistan, US$ million: 2022 382.9; 2023 1,026.4; 2024 2,197.3 (4th); 2025 1,942.8; from China 1,933.7 in 2025. Pakistan's rank among reporting countries: 27th of 111 (2022), 14th of 135 (2023), 4th of 132 (2024), 3rd of 121 (2025). Not every country has reported 2025 yet; no country that imported more than $0.4 bn in 2024 is missing in 2025. China, the main seller, imported $35 M in 2025. Values are in current dollars; panel prices fell sharply over the period, so 2022 vs 2025 values understate the growth in panels for every country. Pakistan's 2025 imports were 12% below its 2024 peak. Ranks and ratios are progrss calculations. Pakistan rose to 3rd in 2025 as Brazil's and India's imports fell faster than its own.
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