• The Annual Nuclear Energy Report criticizes Chashma-5 for a high cost, precedence on renewable energy projects
• The report of the state of the world nuclear industry says that the nuclear nuclear with a solar patient in terms of efficiency, cost; It reveals that Pakistan’s renewable energy, including Hydro, rose to 15.2GW of 14.2GW in 2023
Islamabad: Pakistan’s net generation of nuclear energy touched a record of 21.7 Terawatt-Hours (TWH) in 2024, despite the fact that the general costs of electricity and inefficiencies reached a systematic inflection point, which forces consumers to change renewable energies, particularly solar, said the report of the state of the world nuclear industry (WNISR) 2025.
“Pakistan operates six nuclear reactors with a combined (net) capacity of 3.3 gigawatts (GW). The production of nuclear electricity has increased from 21.3TWH in 2023 to a new historical maximum of 21.7TWH (Net) in 2024,” he said, adding that Pakistan began to develop another 1200MW plant in December 2024 with the Chinese support.
The participation of electricity from nuclear centrals to the commercial network increased from the peak of 16.2pc in 2023 to a 17 % record in 2024, he said, adding that all operating reactors were built by the China Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). This includes two Hualong One (Kanupp-2 and Kanupp-3) reactors out of Karachi and four CNP-300 nuclear reactors in Chashma.
CNNC was also building another 1200 MW Hualong One reactor in Chashma (Unit 5). The agreement to build this reactor dates back to 2017, but it took more than seven years to progress at the beginning of formal construction, that is, the first concrete spill for the slab base of the construction of the reactor, which occurred on December 30, 2024. It is the only nuclear nuclear project in China abroad abroad abroad and represents the first beginning of non -Russian construction anywhere in the world in the last five years.
In January of this year, the National Authority for Electric Power Regulation published an estimated cost during the Night of RS966 billion ($ 3.4 billion) for the Chashma-5 project and the total cost (including financing and other costs) of RS1.125 billion ($ 4 billion). It is planned that the majority of the cost is covered by China’s credit so that the project begins the production by 2030, according to the report, adding that the project had been criticized for its high cost of energy and renewable energy projects to give way to it.
The report said that India had 21 nuclear energy operating reactors, with a total net generation capacity of 7.4GW, more than double that of Pakistan (3.3GW), and New Delhi planned to add another 100GW by 2047, an objective that cannot be met.
Renewable vs nuclear
Speaking about global trends, the report says that solar energy added hundreds of gigawatts worldwide, while nuclear remained irrelevant in market development in 2024. “As the storage passed an activation point, there are the first signs of a revolution behind the meter and low -income countries are beginning to jump,” he said.
In 2024, the total investment in non -hydraulic renewable electricity capacity reached a record of $ 728 billion, 21 times the global investment reported in nuclear energy. “Solar and wind power capabilities grew by 32 percent and 11 percent, respectively, which resulted in 565 GW of new combined capacity, more than 100 times the 5.4 GW of addition of net net capacity. Global wind and solar facilities generated 70 percent more electricity than nuclear plants.”
Not only this, such as the challenges of integrating nuclear energy into the energy system, new energy technologies interrupt markets and systems. PHOTOVOLTAICS directly produce electricity from solar radiation in harmless and thin semiconductive semiconductor unions, which allows increasing cost reductions and continuous performance increases. This is complemented by similar advances in power electronics and batteries.
Together, these new technologies are evolving towards a highly flexible fully electrified energy system with a decentralized control logic that exceeds fossil and nuclear traditional center -center systems. “Nuclear energy has more and more difficulty surviving in this context. 2024 has been a crucial year since battery storage costs have decreased by 40 %.”
As the facilities behind the subway continue to climb, their capacity is becoming increasingly important. This was recently illustrated in Pakistan, the report said.
The decrease of 10 percent in the demand for energy in the public network between 2022 and 2023, while the economy grew, can be partly explained by examining import statistics for photovoltaic panels. In 2024 alone, the imported solar generation capacity amounted to 22 GW (compared to 46 GW of mainly conventional capacity that operated on the public network in 2023), mainly adds to private facilities behind the meter.
“Chaotic development, intensified by the increase in public electricity prices and the unsatisfactory reliability of the network, is creating new opportunities but also causing social problems,” he said. He highlighted new challenges in transition management in emerging economies with an intense sun. “In the case of Pakistan, it seems that a combination of key cost trends has reached a systemic turning point,” the report said.
Pakistan’s renewable electricity capacity was 15.2GW in 2024, compared to 14.2GW in 2023 (while hydroelectric energy, with a total capacity of 11.5 GW, was the most important component of this capacity, solar energy is the fastest growing energy source. In 2024, the total capacity of solar energy was 1.4 GW, compared to 1.2GW at the end of 2023, while the wind constituted 1.8 GW, the same as the previous two years.
Posted in Dawn, September 25, 2025
