Twenty-one years old Samia Waseem walks through narrow, dark stairs to her apartment on the fourth floor where a small bulb is flickering with the help of a battery. There are a total of 40 flats in this four-storey building consisting of three blocks.

Samia says that she leaves home in the morning and when she returns in the evening, darkness often greets her due to loadshedding. She has thought about installing a solar energy system many times but when she got information about it, she realised that this task is not easy. She is a university student who works in a private firm to meet her expenses. She lives in a rented flat in the central area of Karachi.

“It is almost impossible for a tenant to get permission from the landlord to install a solar energy system. Even if I somehow install it, I will have to bear the expenses again in case of changing the house, which I cannot afford,” she says. 

Just like the rest of the world, Pakistan is also taking advantage of the cheap green energy, namely rooftop solar panels, but millions of residents of densely populated flats in Karachi are deprived of benefiting from it.

Syed Zain Wisal (25) lives in a four-storey building in the Central District, which has a total of 99 flats. He is one of the lucky people who were able to install a solar energy system. He says that his flat, a personal property, is located on the first floor, for which he installed solar panels on the rooftop of the building.

“There has been a difference of about Rs15,000 in my electricity bill. I used to get a Rs20,000 bill, which is now around Rs5,000. However, I faced many obstacles in installing the panels.”

Govt unmoved for apartment dwellers’ access to solar energy

Though only a handful of Karachi’s buildings meet standards of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for building over 150 meters high, if we look at the statistics, the city has become a jungle of apartments compared to other urban centres in the country.

The results of the digital census show that there are a total of 67,575 multi-storey (high-rise) buildings in the four districts of the metropolitan city, of which 44,328 are residential, 1,616 buildings are commercial and 21,631 are used for both commercial and residential purposes.

A residential building in this city usually has six to 12 flats, but there are dozens of buildings, each of which houses hundreds of families. A 50-storey residential project is still under construction in a densely populated area here.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah last month announced the Sindh Solar Energy Project, under which 200,000 solar kits would be distributed free of cost to low-income families by July 2025. These kits include solar panels, a fan, three bulbs, a battery backup and mobile chargers.

The main building of the Karachi Metropolitan Municipality was converted to solar power last year where 259 panels were installed, generating about 700 units of electricity per day.

According to the chief minister, 656 schools, 24 libraries and other government buildings in the province will be converted to solar power this year. However, no steps have been taken regarding the residents of apartments.

It is not that the pace of adoption of solar is slow here but most of the multi-storey buildings are covered with solar panels. But residents of the apartments cannot take advantage of solar power as per their needs.

Less space atop apartment buildings, every resident wants solar

Syed Zain Wisal says that it was not easy for him to get solar installed. All the flats have water tanks on the roof, which reduces the space, while everyone wants to install panels to save on high electricity bills. Therefore, it is difficult to get permission from the building administration. 

“The biggest problem is that the neighbouring buildings are taller, due to which the duration of sunlight on our roof is reduced. The second problem is that the roof is not our own but shared. There is a fear of the plates being stolen, for which we have spent extra money and installed cameras on the roof,” he says.

However, Imaduddin Khan, the CEO of the solar company The Future Power, says that he receives more complaints from the apartments about damage to the panels due to aerial firing and bullets than theft. He says Karachi’s

weather is very good for solar. Therefore, despite all the obstacles, the number of solar users has increased by 30pc this year. The only problem here is pollution, due to which users have to clean the panels four times a month, i.e. every week.

Khan says that installing solar systems in apartment buildings is very difficult. Some rooftops and penthouses have space, but most people in apartments install panels in the gallery where barely one or two plates can be installed. Installing a small system is not very profitable.

Solar energy expert Arsalan Mahmood is the operations manager of a private company that manufactures electrical equipment. He confirms that the number of people switching to solar in Karachi is less than Lahore’s. The main reason for this is the tall buildings, which block the sun, and the second reason is the apartment system, where there is less space available for panels on the rooftop.

Possible steps to make solar energy common in Karachi

Arsalan Mahmood says that a large part of Karachi’s population lives in apartments and steps must be taken to provide affordable electricity to these people. The immediate priority should be to build elevated structures in the parking areas of apartments and install panels on them.

In this way, the problem of solar systems for many buildings will be solved and vehicles will also be protected from the sun. Similarly, the rooftops of all the big malls and their parking areas within the municipal corporation should be used for solar.

Arsalan believes that if feasibility is made for the owners of big commercial plazas and residents of big residential buildings in Karachi, they will generate their own electricity, but the biggest role in this will be played by net metering. If K-Electric moves forward, this problem can be easily solved.

The second solution is that a structure can be installed in the empty space between two tall buildings, which is commonly called a ‘scissors structure’. By installing panels on this structure, space for solar installation can be created for both buildings.

Arsalan Mahmood says that Pakistani policymakers should learn from other countries. Saudi Arabia is converting its capital Riyadh to green energy by installing solar plants.

“In our country, empty land in and around Karachi can be used for solar parks and power plants. The government and K-Electric or any other private company can start a solar project through a joint venture.”

According to him, the construction and maintenance of solar parks around the city will be easy. The cost of electricity transmission will be reduced and cheap electricity will also be available.

Number of net metering users on the rise 

Sohail Ghauri, the CEO of importer company IE Solar Energies, believes that the industry in Karachi is rapidly moving towards green energy.

“The textile sector, cement, electronics and automobile industries, all are turning to solar for international standards and certifications, which greatly benefits the country’s exports. The textile industry is especially a step ahead.”

He believes that the number of solar consumers in Karachi is encouraging. Looking at the statistics, he claims that according to an estimate, domestic consumers here have installed 2,000MW of solar energy systems so far. Some of them are on net metering and some are off-grid.

Arsalan Mahmood believes that since K-Electric is a private institution, its net metering policy is easier than that of government-owned DISCOs. That is why the number of net metering customers here, which was 4,500 in 2023, has now reached about 6,500 and this number will increase further in the future.

He claims that the trend of increasing solarization in Pakistan will continue till 2028. If the practice of installing solar panels on parking areas and scissors structures becomes common, the most work of solar energy systems maintenance will be done in Karachi and surely thousands of people will get employment.