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KARACHI — On the sun-baked concrete rooftops of Pakistan’s sprawling urban centers, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Nearly a fifth of all Pakistani households now draw their power from the sun, driving a massive distributed solar boom that has successfully bypassed geopolitical energy crunches and saved the nation billions of dollars in fossil fuel imports.
Yet, step out onto those same blazing rooftops at noon, and you will find a starkly different reality.
While homeowners rejoice over plunging electricity bills and a cleaner grid, the workers who install, maintain, and scrub the gleaming photovoltaic arrays are locked in a daily battle with a brutal, life-threatening environment. Operating in temperatures that push the human body to its absolute limits, these men form the invisible, unprotected foundation of Pakistan's renewable energy future.
The Cost of the Midday Sun
For 33-year-old Abdul Rehman, the memories of scrubbing solar panels in Karachi’s searing summer heat remain visceral.
“It was one of the worst experiences. I felt I would faint,” Rehman recalls. Working through the peak heat left him severely dizzy and dehydrated, teaching him a harsh lesson: "I will have to take care of myself because no one else will."
Driven by custom and convenience, many property owners demand that panel maintenance take place during broad daylight when solar output is at its peak. This forces informal cleaners—often migrant workers rushing to big cities in desperate search of a livelihood—onto blazing rooftops between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
"I see most of them going to wash solar panels at the peak heat time. That’s so dangerous," Rehman says, adjusting his cap. "लेकिन क्या करें? [What can they do?] They must earn for their families."
While Pakistan’s distributed solar industry has generated hundreds of thousands of jobs since 2017, the vast majority of manual workers and installation technicians operate within the informal sector. Their labor is physically demanding and hazardous, yet formal safety nets are practically non-existent.
A Double-Edged Blade: Heat and Metal
The dangers facing solar workers extend far beyond atmospheric temperatures.
When installation and maintenance crews climb onto roofs, they are met with reflective glare and searing hardware. Solar panel frames are built primarily of aluminum—a metal that rapidly absorbs solar radiation.
"The frames and structures of the solar panels get very heated up, and the hands of the technicians can get burnt," explains Nadeem Nawaz, a project manager at Shama Solar. "But it is also too hot to wear the thick safety gloves."
Compounding the immediate risks of thermal burns, electrical shocks, and acute heat stroke are severe long-term health hazards. Medical experts warn that intense, chronic exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation—magnified by the rays bouncing off light-colored concrete rooftops—accumulates over time, causing irreversible DNA damage.
"Over time, these changes increase the risk of developing skin cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma," notes Dr. Maryum Nouman, head of medical oncology at the Dow Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre in Karachi.
According to World Health Organization and International Labour Organization estimates, nearly a third of all non-melanoma skin cancer deaths globally are directly linked to occupational sun exposure. In Pakistan, solar technicians face this exact peril daily, largely without UV-rated sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats, or specialized cooling gear.
Searching for Protection in the Shadows
Labor advocates argue that the systemic neglect of solar workers highlights a glaring blind spot in national policy.
"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," says Farooq Tariq, president of the Haqooq Khalq Party.
Zehra Khan, general secretary of the Home Based Women Workers’ Federation, echoes this frustration, emphasizing that because these workers are largely unrecorded, they lack any formal mechanism to claim compensation for heat illness or workplace injuries.
Despite these grim conditions, cautious glimmers of hope are beginning to emerge. Pakistan recently approved a comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Code of Practice for the construction sector. Endorsed by the International Labour Organization, the new code features explicit provisions for electrical systems—including solar infrastructure—and sets legally binding standards for managing environmental hazards, equipment safety, and heat stress.
For pioneers like Abdul Rehman, who now firmly refuses daytime cleaning slots in favor of late-afternoon and nighttime hours, the shift cannot come soon enough. But until enforcement catches up with policy, thousands of workers will continue to brave the inferno, keeping Pakistan’s green energy dream alive under the harshest of skies.
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