Nuclear electricity output rises 3.7pc in 2025, while solar generation reaches 36.3 TWh and becomes the country’s largest power source
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan produced a record 22.5 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from nuclear power in 2025, marking a 3.7 per cent increase from 21.7 TWh a year earlier, according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) 2026.
Despite the record nuclear output, Pakistan’s rapidly expanding solar sector grew at a much faster pace. Solar electricity generation reached an estimated 36.3 TWh during 2025, overtaking nuclear power for the first time by a substantial margin.
The report suggested that even this solar figure could significantly underestimate actual generation because a large amount of privately installed solar capacity remains outside the formal electricity system.
Pakistan Operates Six Nuclear Reactors
Pakistan currently has six operational nuclear reactors with a combined generating capacity of 3,262 megawatts.
The operating fleet includes the Kanupp-2 and Kanupp-3 Hualong One reactors near Karachi and four 300MW-class reactors at the Chashma Nuclear Power Generating Station. All six operating units were constructed by the China National Nuclear Corporation.
Pakistan’s original 90MW Kanupp-1 CANDU reactor was shut down in 2021 after operating for around five decades.
The Chashma site currently has four operational reactors — C-1 through C-4 — with a combined capacity of 1,230MW.
Another 1,000MW Hualong One reactor, C-5, is under construction at Chashma. Although the agreement for the project dates to 2017, formal construction took more than seven years to begin.
The first concrete for the reactor building’s base slab was poured on December 30, 2024. The project is expected to be completed by 2030 and is currently China’s only nuclear power project under construction abroad, according to the report.
Nuclear Power Costs Reflect Debt Repayments
Citing the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26, the WNISR highlighted the significance of debt repayments in the overall cost of nuclear electricity.
Much of this debt is associated with the relatively new K-2 and K-3 reactors, which entered service in 2022 and 2023.
The report noted that their 12-year debt repayment period represents only about one-fifth of the reactors’ estimated 60-year economic lifespan.
Solar Expansion Reshapes Pakistan’s Electricity Market
While nuclear generation has reached a historic high, Pakistan’s solar expansion is transforming the country’s power sector even more rapidly.
The report said an apparent decline in electricity consumption from the public grid, despite economic growth, could partly be explained by the proliferation of privately installed photovoltaic systems.
Many of these installations are unregistered and allow households and businesses to generate and consume their own electricity without that power appearing in official grid statistics.
Between the beginning of 2017 and the middle of 2026, Pakistan imported more than 58 gigawatts of solar panels from China.
Remarkably, around 40GW — approximately 69pc of the total — arrived during just two and a half years between 2024 and mid-2026.
The scale of these imports has made Pakistan the world’s second-largest single-country destination for Chinese solar panels, behind the Netherlands, which also serves as a distribution hub for the wider European market.
The report observed that Pakistan deployed roughly twice as much solar capacity within five years as France installed over an entire decade.
Solar Overtakes Nuclear Power
Pakistan became China’s largest customer for solar panels in 2025, reflecting the extraordinary speed at which households, businesses and industries have adopted photovoltaic technology.
By the summer of 2025, solar had emerged as Pakistan’s single largest source of electricity, according to the report.
The figures illustrate two parallel developments in Pakistan’s energy landscape: nuclear generation has reached its highest level on record, while the much faster expansion of distributed solar power is fundamentally altering how electricity is produced and consumed across the country.
