The Challenge

The Supreme Court of Pakistan — one of the country’s most important national institutions — was spending roughly PKR 1.5 to 2.0 million every month on grid electricity. That is public money: a recurring, rising cost paid out of the national exchequer, month after month, for power drawn from an increasingly expensive grid.

The Solution

Solar Citizen designed and installed a solar system for the Court, configured with net metering so that any surplus generated during the day is exported back to the grid for credit. As an AEDB C-2 certified installer, we handled the full project — engineering, installation, and the net-metering approval — to government standard, with Sol AI monitoring performance continuously.

How We Built It

Installing solar on a national institution of this stature carries requirements that simply don’t apply to a typical commercial project. Every design decision had to be approved through formal government channels. The building is an architectural landmark, so panel placement had to preserve the structure’s aesthetic integrity, and the electrical integration had to meet the institution’s uninterrupted-power requirement with zero tolerance for system-induced faults. The roof imposed its own constraints — load analysis, structural assessment and mounting design all had to account for the specifics of the building — while cable routing stayed discreet and compliant with the facility’s interior standards. All work was carried out in designated windows so court operations were never disrupted.

Our Engineering Approach

Our team began with a detailed structural and electrical survey, then designed the system from the ground up for this specific building — never adapted from a template.

• Custom mounting design — engineered for the roof structure, with load calculations validated against the building’s specifications.
• Optimized panel layout — placement that maximises generation while respecting the building’s aesthetics and avoiding shading from surrounding structures.
• Redundant DC/AC protection — designed to exceed standard requirements so the system isolates cleanly in any fault scenario, with no effect on the building’s existing electrical infrastructure.
• Full Sol AI integration — every string monitored individually, with performance tracked in real time and automated alerts on any deviation from expected output.

Protecting a 150-Year-Old Building

The Supreme Court building is more than 150 years old, and that history shaped the structural design as much as any electrical requirement. Rather than treat the roof as a generic mounting surface, we studied how the building was originally constructed — older masonry structures of this era carry their loads through exceptionally thick perimeter walls that effectively act as pillars. We engineered the array to work with that logic instead of against it. The weight of the mounting structure and its civil pads was deliberately spaced toward the outer region of the roof, nearer the load-bearing walls, and as much of the load as possible was distributed onto the adjoining buildings rather than the historic span itself. The result is a system that sits lightly on a national landmark — full daytime generation with minimal load on the original structure, preserving the building’s structural integrity for the next century.

24/7 Sol AI Monitoring

The system is monitored around the clock through Sol AI. The platform tracks generation at the string level, compares actual output against weather-adjusted projections, and flags anomalies automatically — so for an institution where reliability is non-negotiable, any performance issue is caught and addressed before it becomes a problem.

The Results

The monthly bill didn’t just fall — it was eliminated, and then reversed. The system now exports enough surplus that, on balance, the grid effectively owes the Supreme Court money rather than the other way around. Public funds that used to leave the exchequer every month now stay in public hands.

Why It Matters

This is a blueprint for every government institution in Pakistan. Energy independence for a national body isn’t just a cost saving — it’s a demonstration that public buildings can run on clean power and turn a recurring liability into a credit. Financing and net metering make the same outcome reachable for institutions and businesses nationwide.