Every semester, I return to a familiar question while addressing my students: What will power the world when fossil fuels are no longer available? It is a question that moves beyond classroom curiosity. For students in physics, it represents a challenge they will be called upon to answer in real life.

From our laboratories to the underserved communities on the fringes of our cities, the urgency for clean and dependable energy is not abstract. It is immediate and deeply felt. In Pakistan, we are caught between rising demand for electricity and increasing instability in supply. The limitations of conventional fuel sources and the environmental damage they cause are now impossible to ignore. The time to act has already arrived.

The global energy scenario is transforming. Clean energy is no longer an experimental field. In fact it is central to sustainable development. The pressure to shift away from fossil fuels is driven by rising fuel costs, the threats of climate change, and the desperate need to........

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