Green energy solutions were supposed to rescue Pakistan’s farms. Instead, it’s supercharged pumping, emptied wells, and pushed the country’s most populous province towards a critical water emergency. So, while we continue to hear that our environment is at risk from man-made climate change, how can we ignore the irreparable damage being done to the very same environment green energy is supposed to save?

What’s Happening in Pakistan?
Farmers in Punjab – a region home to 128 million people – have rushed to replace diesel systems with solar-powered tube wells. But, while it’s now cheaper and more “environmentally friendly” to power irrigation, it’s turbo-charged a water shortage in the province. Irrigation runs longer and more often and cropping patterns are shifting towards thirstier staples, while groundwater levels in key districts continue to fall. With the increased opportunity generated by cheap “green” energy, new wells are appearing across villages, boreholes dig deeper, and water tables are on their way to extinction.
Punjab is the hardest hit region, but all around the country, most rural homes draw from groundwater. While the resources are being drained by solar panels though, it becomes more expensive and more difficult for families to access dwindling water supply, and salinity creeps up in the soils. So, while switching from diesel to solar power will sound like a victory on paper to most, its rushed adoption is affecting millions of people’s access to water.
A Warning to the World
This is not a small problem. Punjab is one of the largest subnational populations on the planet, and on its own would be the 11th most populous country in the world. This current green-powered crisis is a case study in how blindly encouraging renewable energy sources in the name of hitting targets can affect entire countries.
While countries are increasingly pushing farmers to use solar power, they should be learning from Pakistan who jumped on green energy sources before implementing any kind of policy on its usage. And it’s only taken a few years.
How It Happened
The main reason for its mass adoption was the dramatic reduction in price for solar panels. This has been driven by global demand – in the name of net zero policies and other international targets – and means more people can access the equipment at a lower cost. China dominates most of the supply chain for solar panels, and the price has come down as much as 80% in the past decade.
The second key factor in arriving at this crisis was the framing of solar irrigation as a win for emissions and farmer incomes by the government. Little or no attention went towards metering or limiting usage, so while the energy got cheaper, the Jevons paradox came into play – making energy cheaper or more accessible increases its usage rather than reducing it, increasing the strain.
And lastly, farmers are turning to thirstier crops that otherwise would not have made economic sense to produce. With grid or diesel power, every hour of pumping hurts farmers’ bottom line. So, with solar power costing extremely little in comparison, thirstier crops become financially viable. This, in fact, is a rebound effect that water managers have warned about for years.
In short, “progress” in the shape of increased efficiency and perceived environmental friendliness, has in fact made it all worse.
What We Need to be Asking
If green power encourages more extraction from natural resources by becoming widely implemented and lower cost, is it still a success in the real world?
Are leaders too focused on making “climate progress” that they are deliberately ignoring Punjab-style problems in other crowded, water-stressed regions?
The official narrative tells us that solar is always better. The evidence in this case though, is that cheaper, cleaner energy adopted by the masses can actually make life worse for millions of people in the long run – even if it ticks a box for the government in the meantime.
Final Thought
Pakistan’s solar push doesn’t tell us that green tech is an out-and-out failure, but rather it provides proof that cheaper, cleaner energy may really be a trap. With developing countries being encouraged by the developed nations to adopt environmentally friendly solutions, who is taking responsibility for outcomes such as this? If the solution implemented can cause long-term damage, is it really about the environment at all?
Punjab shows us how the climate narrative and the illusion of cheaper energy can instead plunge a nation into ecological debt. If leaders want truly green agriculture, they must align incentives with physical and realistic limits.
Join the Conversation
Does your country encourage solar-powered farming of any kind? What other “green solutions” have you seen implemented that damage the very thing they’re supposed to help? Add your thoughts below.
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Out here in California, they are now using solar panels for Apartments, and this will be the death of California if they don’t make the changes now. With houses and apartments using solar, this will take up all the energy, and will cause more outages. The grid cannot handle the big load
In this context the solution is independent power generation. Homes and apartment buildings generating a storing their own power with their own solar panels & battery banks.
Given the tendency of lithium batteries to catch on fire, the volume and extreme toxicity of the fumes & smoke produced when they burn, and the near impossibility of extinguishing lithium batteries once they begin to burn – older, bulkier batteries are a better choice, and may be cheaper.
Green energy is not cheaper. The illusion is created by the fact that the energy source, i.e. solar radiation, is free.
The expose article from March 4, 2025 discussed this issue.
https://expose-news.com/2025/03/04/solar-power-is-at-least-10-times-more-expensive/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup
According to full system numbers, solar power in Texas costs $413 per megawatt hour (“MWh”) of generation. Wind energy costs $291 per MWh. Nuclear power costs $122. Coal power costs $90. Natural gas power costs just $40. This is a huge difference in price between wind and solar energy and all other energy sources.
The distortion of power generation costs in Pakistan stems from subsidies designed to support investment in renewable energy sources. When the subsidy ends and the photovoltaic panels need to be replaced, there will be no more subsidies and farmers will be left without energy sources and with depleted water resources.
This disruption of the balance of nature is consistent with plans to limit the world’s population to 1 billion.
The factors limiting population identified by Thomas Malthus in the 19th century are: famine, disease and war. When he said this in the 19th century, he did not know that depopulation factors would also include the fight against co2, which is the gas of life that ensures vegetation, forcing the introduction of renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels, and Rockefeller medicine with vaccines. I am not talking about promoting euthanasia and abortion.
Well said comment, Jack. You are one of the few that understands what is really behind the geopolitical curtain.
It always makes sense to grow what naturally tends to thrive in any local area. In the long run, working with nature is the smartest approach.
When farming with nature, instead of trying to ‘out smart’ it, we can increase soil fertility and soil water holding capacity – while reducing soil erosion and flooding during heavy rains.
In dry areas, grasses mown by livestock that is moved across the land, as wild herds in those regions did, is often the best choice. When properly managed, this can restore and regenerate land damaged by crop farming and/or overgrazing when grasses & other forage plants are not allowed to recover and re-grow after being pruned by grazing animals.
North Dakota, in the northern U.S.A. is a long way from Punjab- but shares the challenge of getting very little rainfall. Gabe Brown shares how he stopped following conventional, industrial-style ag methods, improved yields, and profits on his farm in N.D. by combining livestock with crops – and working with nature:
‘Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A
Green energy is a scam.The Solar Panels are environmentally polluting and the cost of production outweighs the energy savings and CO2 is required to produce O2 and CO2 is Plant food which will Green the Planet and cool the temperature.
“Nearly One-Third Of EV Charging Attempts Fail, Report Finds”
Imagine if your car only worked 66% of the time you needed it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/nearly-one-third-ev-charging-attempts-fail-report-finds
Hi,
Interesting read, thanks for sharing.
G Calder