Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy • Hacker News Board

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#11

Post by limaoscarjuliet » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

sohkamyung wrote: post #8

Off-topic, but the image captioned "Including workers in traditional dress handling solar infrastructure" looks AI generated. The workers on the extreme left and right are standing on solar panels, and the one in the centre is holding some metal bars that merge Escher-like with the panels behind him. Even the caption sounds like part of an AI prompt to generate the image.

Also "Battery storage is the next act [...]". There is no way they went "Full Clean Energy" without battery storage.

Sounds more like op-ed piece than actual facts.

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#12

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:20 PM UTC

sohkamyung wrote: post #8

Off-topic, but the image captioned "Including workers in traditional dress handling solar infrastructure" looks AI generated. The workers on the extreme left and right are standing on solar panels, and the one in the centre is holding some metal bars that merge Escher-like with the panels behind him. Even the caption sounds like part of an AI prompt to generate the image.

[deleted]

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#13

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:23 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #7

It is nice to see good news from time to time. I think the bigger question here is what role Chinese policy is playing in this story. Is their involvement strictly commercial? Have Chinese politicians decided on some sort of Marshall Plan-style approach to the Middle East? The US has spent decades destabilising this region of the globe. I am hopeful that China and India will want peace and prosperity instead and we'r…

Chinese - Pakistan relations go quite back by this point & are quite active, especially on the military purchasing front: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Pakistan_relatio...

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#14

Post by thedays » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:25 PM UTC

The author of this article appears to be unaware that very high electricity prices have been the other key driver behind Pakistan’s solar boom along with the massive reduction in the cost of solar panels.

This was covered recently in a great interview with two Pakistani renewable energy experts on the Volts podcast: https://www.volts.wtf/p/pakistans-solar-boom

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#15

Post by blackhawkC17 » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:25 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #7

It is nice to see good news from time to time. I think the bigger question here is what role Chinese policy is playing in this story. Is their involvement strictly commercial? Have Chinese politicians decided on some sort of Marshall Plan-style approach to the Middle East? The US has spent decades destabilising this region of the globe. I am hopeful that China and India will want peace and prosperity instead and we'r…

> I think the bigger question here is what role Chinese policy is playing in this story. Is their involvement strictly commercial?

There's little government policy behind it. It's basically:

Chinese companies invest in massive production of solar panels and drive prices down to unprecedented levels.

Pakistani individuals and businesses, facing energy shortages and very expensive grid power, decide to invest in solar panels to get cheap energy.

> Have Chinese politicians decided on some sort of Marshall Plan-style approach to the Middle East?

Not even close, and there's no reason for them to do this.

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#16

Post by rurban » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

limaoscarjuliet wrote: post #11

sohkamyung wrote: post #8

Off-topic, but the image captioned "Including workers in traditional dress handling solar infrastructure" looks AI generated. The workers on the extreme left and right are standing on solar panels, and the one in the centre is holding some metal bars that merge Escher-like with the panels behind him. Even the caption sounds like part of an AI prompt to generate the image.

Also "Battery storage is the next act [...]". There is no way they went "Full Clean Energy" without battery storage. Sounds more like op-ed piece than actual facts.

Nonsense. When you have huge cheap water dams, you won't need expensive tiny battery storage

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#17

Post by cowmix » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

sohkamyung wrote: post #8

Off-topic, but the image captioned "Including workers in traditional dress handling solar infrastructure" looks AI generated. The workers on the extreme left and right are standing on solar panels, and the one in the centre is holding some metal bars that merge Escher-like with the panels behind him. Even the caption sounds like part of an AI prompt to generate the image.

I'm not sure what bugs me more. People using GenAI for making content or people using GenAI AND being lazy about it.

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#18

Post by lolc » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:42 PM UTC

I can't take this article seriously:

1. Uncanny slop "photo" of people installing panels, not even labeled as generated. There is zero excuse for this.

2. No links to sources. Either they are lazy or just making things up.

3. Wild swings in context and sloppy usage of terms like "producing electrons". A sloppy style can be fun to read, but it doesn't work here because it is applied inconsistently.

I'd like to read an article on solar in Pakistan, but this source is no good. The whole site is suspect when this article is tolerated on it.

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#19

Post by pastage » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

If a 1000W panel is 4 square meter, that is cracy amount of square kilometers.

Re: Pakistan's 22 GW Solar Shock: How a Fragile State Went Full Clean Energy

#20

Post by ganarajpr » Tue, Apr 08, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

The main reason for this is the exhorbitant cost of Energy in the country - apart from the constant 6-8 hrs powercut even in the urban centers.

I have seen videos where a layman, who earns around 20-30k a month is slapped with a 32k electricity bill. I am not sure if a layman with means of this level is adopting Solar, but surely anyone else with the money to afford it will. Mostly because it makes economic sense.