This is just barely “political” but I thought it was interesting …
Pakistan has unexpectedly become one of the world’s top importers of solar panels, importing 17 gigawatts’ worth in 2024 alone-more than doubling its intake from the previous year, according to the Global Electricity Review 2025 by UK-based think tank Ember.
This growth has occurred without sweeping government mandates or international green finance. Instead, it is being driven by a bottom-up surge in rooftop solar installations across households, small businesses and commercial users seeking relief from rising energy costs and chronic power outages,
So, one way to shift electricity to renewables is to have lousy grid systems. People and businesses find rooftop solar more reliable. I’ve always had a reliable grid, so this possibility never occurred to me.
The “political” angle is that I think the Chinese gov’t pushed solar so hard that they now have massive overproduction and prices (outside tariff land) have been cratering.
I was first struck by this same realization when hiking through the Annapurnas at the end of 1997. Solar panels were universal on the roofs of the Nepalese homes whereas they were still a novelty in Canada.
Went to the Hands Off protest this 4/19. It was nice. Probably 200+ people at my location and there were two or three other meeting locations in my city.
Had some middle fingers. A guy screaming “f**k you, libtards” with his little kid in the passenger seat. A few others who yelled things, many of which couldn’t really be made out. Some definitely positive and some negative. One guy who rolled coal.
Mostly, it was around 1,000 positive honks, cheers, and waves.
I was wearing a mask and a hood covering my hair, left my phone off in my car. Most people were visible, but it’s possible enough for Partner to face retaliation at work that I wasn’t risking it.
For future reference, don’t forget the sunglasses, as facial recognition algorithms rely heavily on shape of and dimensions around the eyes…and leaving the phone on at home is generally a better option.
I know a lawyer who is visibly Indian, yet an American-born American citizen, who was recently asked at dinner by a white male stranger if he is an “illegal”.
