PICTURE a country with 12-hour power outages every day. Such is the story of 144 million people in Pakistan that make up more than 65pc of its population. A nation that started out on energy sector reforms in 2007 alongside countries like Turkey and the Philippines now suffers up to $15 billion in losses to the economy while Turkey trumps an alternative highway of energy supply to Europe.

Our dependence on imported fuel to generate electricity did not sustain the shock of rising prices, and unsustainable government subsidies have thus far cost the exchequer more than $20bn among other problems.

Worsening crisis of recent years has given way to urgency among industrialists and stakeholders on diversifying the country’s energy mix. Solar power has emerged as a popular answer to the growing deficit. The Pakistan Economic Forum claims that if industry were to utilise a modest 17.1pc of today’s technological efficiency and 1pc of the 770 billion square metres in total available space, we could generate more than 300,000 MW of electricity. This is a game changer in times where current capacity deprives every 35 of 100 individuals.