Dave Jones

Conventional wisdom says rooftop solar meets **existing** electricity demand. What if rooftop solar actually **increases** electricity demand, improving living standards + driving economic growth? This is exactly what our analysis of Pakistan's solar boom shows. Let's dig in🧵

Electric cars are taking off quickly in Latin America— Five years ago, almost no one in Latin America bought an electric car. Today, the situation is different: electric cars now make up a meaningful and fast-growing share of new car sales. The chart shows this trend across several of the region’s largest car markets, alongside the US for comparison. The data tracks the share of new passenger cars sold that are electric, which includes both fully battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids. In five years, Colombia went from nearly zero to 10%, catching up to the US. In other countries in the region, adoption took off a bit later, but is now rising fast, too. Mexico, for example, went from 2% to 7% in a single year (2024–2025). An important part of this reflects policies. Many Latin American countries, like Colombia, offer tax breaks and other incentives for buying electric cars. (This Data Insight was written by @EOrtizOspina.)

Pakistan's solar boom coincided with a 21% rise in electricity in 2 years. All of the 21% rise in electricity demand was met with distributed solar - actually grid electricity fell 3% in the last 2 years...

And with that, solar will continue to bring real human and economic improvements. Read the full report here: ember-energy.org/latest-insight…

Pakistan’s per capita energy use is less than a quarter of the global average, so its future electrification story is less about electrifying the current energy system, and more about how much energy growth is from electricity.

Conventional wisdom says rooftop solar meets **existing** electricity demand. What if rooftop solar actually **increases** electricity demand, improving living standards + driving economic growth? This is exactly what our analysis of Pakistan's solar boom shows. Let's dig in🧵