Pakistan’s solar revolution leans on workers toiling in extreme heat

Abdul Rehman used to clean solar panels on Karachi’s rooftops during the hottest part of the day. But working through last year’s sweltering summers left the 33-year-old dizzy and severely dehydrated.

“It was one of the worst experiences. I felt I would faint,” Rehman tells Dialogue Earth. “It taught me a lesson: I will have to take care of myself because no one else will.”

Pakistan has been experiencing a solar boom, easing the immediate impacts of the war in Southwest Asia. By February 2026, the country had avoided over USD 12 billion in oil and gas imports and is poised to save another USD 6.3 billion by the end of the year, according to analysis by the Secure Energy Project.

Nearly a fifth of all Pakistani households currently use solar energy in some capacity, according to a recent report by energy think-tanks Ember and Renewables First. It shows that the country’s total electricity demand growth, 21% in just two years, was met entirely by new distributed solar generation, accelerating the country’s electrification and bringing it close to the global average.

This solar revolution rests on the shoulders of the workers who install, maintain and clean the shiny panels. They often carry out this invisible labour in extreme heat without safety measures.

“While everyone who has been a part of the solarisation in Pakistan has benefitted from it, the labour working on this green energy revolution have not, with no rights and meagre wages,” Farooq Tariq, a human rights advocate and president of the Haqooq Khalq Party, tells Dialogue Earth.

Customers with installed panels expect them to be cleaned in the day, Rehman says, adding that he has been pushing back against these demands. “I have now started telling people that I want to come anywhere between 4pm and 12am – not during daytime.”

But Rehman is an outlier. Most young men who clean solar panels in the city are “migrant workers rushing to big cities in search of work” and willing to take up jobs at any time of day, says Tariq.

“I see most of them going to wash solar panels at 12pm to 2pm, the peak heat time. That’s so dangerous,” Rehman says, adjusting the black cap he wears to work. “But what option do they have? They must earn for their families.”

A lack of safety

Pakistan’s distributed solar industry has created an estimated 300,000 direct and 200,000 indirect jobs between fiscal years 2017-2025, with the majority concentrated in engineering, procurement and construction services, according to a white paper by Renewables First.

However, there is little data on the number of manual workers and installation technicians as they often come from the informal sector, says Zehra Khan, a Pakistani trade unionist, activist and general secretary of the Home Based Women Workers’ Federation.

While training for potential solar technicians is no longer rare in the country, many programme catalogues Dialogue Earth saw focused largely on equipment safety and not safety measures, especially against heat.

Pakistan’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 2018 does not explicitly mention heat-stress, though it broadly covers workplace hazards and risks to workers’ health, safety and welfare.

But according to Tariq, implementation is lacking. “Health and safety measures practically don’t exist for solar technicians and cleaners.”

Ad-hoc work

In Pakistan, some solar panel cleaners are contracted by companies who assign them slots, while others are household maintenance staff who double up.

Muhammad Asif, 32, moved from South Punjab to work in a household in south Karachi’s affluent Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood. Before he started cleaning solar panels for his employer, he was told to observe and help the professional cleaner that came once a month. Now that his employer has bought a high-pressure washer, Asif cleans the panels himself.

“My employers are careful about the heat, so they make sure that I do it after 5pm. I keep a big handkerchief with me, and if it’s hot even in the evening, I dampen it and keep it on my head,” he tells Dialogue Earth.

In Karachi, contracted solar panel cleaners are typically assigned time slots between 9am and 6pm, and it takes an hour on average to clean a household’s panels, says Ali, an employee of Karachi-based solar panel cleaning company Solar Sweep. This means some cleaning slots fall within peak heat hours.

Ali Habib, CEO of Punjab-based environmental consultancy Sama Verte, the parent company of Shama Solar, which specialises in end-to-end solar photovoltaic services, notes that the company has “guidelines to not clean the solar panels during the day when it is hot, as at that time … the sun is bright and we get maximum production of solar energy”.

Since solar panel workers are also at risk of electric shocks, Shama Solar encourages workers to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as boots and helmets. The headgear helps to protect against heat, Habib says.

Because solar installations usually follow tight schedules, Shama Solar’s workers are encouraged to carry out indoor work, like wiring or installing invertors and batteries, in the day, and install solar panels in the evening, he adds.

Nadeem Nawaz, a project manager at Shama Solar, notes that solar installation work increases after April, “which means a lot more solar technicians are out on the roofs in the peak hot months. Workers do get sick and dehydrated in the heat and are rushed to nearby hospitals, or we give them a day off”.

But the atmospheric heat is not the only danger to solar workers. “The frames and structures of the solar panels are made of aluminium, so it gets very heated up, and hands of the technicians can get burnt, but it is also too hot to wear the thick safety gloves,” Nawaz notes, adding that some technicians refuse to wear safety gear due to the heat.

However, working at night is not practical, Nawaz says. “At night, extra lights are required, and visibility is limited which [makes it] unsafe.”

Long-term risks

Safety experts recommend specialised protective gear to deal with heat and direct sunlight.

French PPE provider Oteplace advises renewables workers to where kit including wide-brimmed hats, UV-rated sunglasses and special evaporative vests that can be soaked in water to aid cooling.

But most solar workers in Pakistan do not have access to such equipment, making them vulnerable to heat stress, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, according to doctors Dialogue Earth spoke to.

“Even death remains a real possibility,” says Asiya Shahab, a doctor who often sets up medical camps to provide care to the less affluent in Karachi and its suburbs.

Doctors also worry about the long-term impacts of UV exposure on solar technicians. “If solar panels are installed during the peak heat times when the sun is at its zenith, then it can lead to intense UV exposures, when the rays of the sun bounce off light-coloured roof tops,” says Shahab. She adds that the exposure can lead to sunburn in as little as 10 minutes, causing the drying and premature aging of the skin, as well as eye conditions such as cataracts, tissue growth in the eye and photokeratitis (eye sunburn).

Chronic exposure to UV radiation “is a well-established cause of skin cancer”, says Maryum Nouman, head of medical oncology at the Dow Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre in Karachi. “UV rays cause cumulative DNA damage and can lead to mutations in important tumour suppressor genes, while also impairing the skin’s local immune surveillance. Over time, these changes increase the risk of developing skin cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma,” she tells Dialogue Earth. “Individuals with prolonged occupational sun exposure including solar technicians… are at a higher risk.”

According to 2023 estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, nearly a third of deaths from non-melanoma skin cancer are caused by working under the sun.

A lack of redressal

Despite being highly vulnerable to heat stress, solar labourers are not spoken about at policy discussions and are not legally recognised, notes Khan. “There are no formal laws for the protection or well-being of labour[ers] working on solar energy.”

This means that if they suffer due to extreme heat or any other work hazards, they have no systems to get support for treatment, she adds. “There is no data available about their numbers and details, so how will they be a part of any policy discussions or labour accords?” says Khan. “And it is not just the panel installers and cleaners but all those working on the solar energy supply chain, for example those working on earthing.”

She adds that all such workers should be registered with social security organisations like the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI) or the Employees’ Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).

There is potentially hope on the horizon for increased heat safety for solar workers. Pakistan recently approved an Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Code of Practice for the construction sector, which sets legally binding standards to strengthen safety and health protections for workers in the industry. The International Labour Organization noted that the code is grounded in internationally recognised standards including its own code of practice on OSH in construction, which has a section on heat stress.

The new Pakistan code covers construction workers in the informal economy and could provide some support to solar installation workers in the long run. Rabia Razzaque, senior programmer officer for the International Labour Organization in Pakistan, confirmed that the new code encompasses “broad terms to cover all equipment of electrical systems”, including solar energy.

Key measures laid out in the code include fall protection, electrical safety, ergonomic handling of objects, PPE, and emergency preparedness to mitigate physical, electrical, chemical and environmental hazards. It also encompasses proper training, hazard assessments and adherence to OSH management systems.

Solar labourers “are invisible workers who need to be made visible”, says Khan.

This article originally appeared on Dialogue Earth and has been reproduced with permission