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In Lebanon, solar power is booming

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Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#11

Post by DoreenMichele »

Nearly half of Lebanon's national debt of $85 billion has been spent on the electricity sector and the state can now only provide 2 hours of electricity per day, thus the solar power boom.

A much more interesting piece than I expected, though I will note that some European countries have been hard hit in the energy sector of late as well, what with France rationing power this winter, for example.

Edit: Let me once again suggest we rely too much on generated electricity and should shoot for a return to passive solar design and daylighting to help stabilize the world economy.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#13

Post by anonu »

Basically, Lebanon had 30 years to figure out how to build basic infrastructure like a proper electrical grid and production (from 1990, the end of the civil war to present). Instead, crooks, thieves and fraudsters figured out how to bilk the nation of billions while leaving subpar services in their wake.

My parents have had solar thermal collectors for hot water on their roof in Lebanon for 3 decades now... other than a few days in winter when you need to use the electric heater, its been a near perfect fit for purpose.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#14

Post by throwawayacc3 »

mc32 wrote: post #7
Havoc wrote: post #5

Same for South Africa. Thanks to the grid being severely mismanaged upper middle class and beyond are installing home solar where possible to maintain some semblance of normalcy

Seems somewhat similar to the situation where cellphones/handiphones took off in infrastructure poor regions quicker than in many advanced economies?

In Africa for sure. People kept digging up phone lines and phone infrastructure to sell the copper. Service was always down, or spotty at best. Cell sites were easier to secure (they're defended like military installations, razor wire and all) from scavengers, and you need a lot less of them to service a large number of people.

Source: I've spent a lot of time in West Africa.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#16

Post by Scoundreller »

throwawayacc3 wrote: post #14
mc32 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems somewhat similar to the situation where cellphones/handiphones took off in infrastructure poor regions quicker than in many advanced economies?

In Africa for sure. People kept digging up phone lines and phone infrastructure to sell the copper. Service was always down, or spotty at best. Cell sites were easier to secure (they're defended like military installations, razor wire and all) from scavengers, and you need a lot less of them to service a large number of people. Source: I've spent a lot of time in West Africa.

> People kept digging up phone lines and phone infrastructure to sell the copper.

This became a bigger problem in South Africa with its reliable load shedding schedules.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#17

Post by grugagag »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10

This article kind of has the: “Obesity rates are plummeting as cancer rates increase” feel to it. Basically, a really shitty situation is driving something that you are seeing as good. Lebanon at this point is pretty close to a failed state. The solar power boom is basically the populace losing faith in the government to provide basic infrastructure.

Yes but it also says about solar being a solution, maybe to a shitty problem, yet it works better than the previous situation

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#18

Post by Spooky23 »

wara23arish wrote: post #4

I’ve heard a few stories of panels not being installed properly and flying off roofs and hitting cars below. Unfortunately most lebanese live in apartments, and if a resident or two already called dibs on the roof, you’re out of luck. Tangent, price of fuel/diesel used to be fixed by gov subsidies. Most of our (very tiny) amount of money left has been smuggled across the border to Syria. Same applies to bread, flour…

There was a whole industry that would dispense drugs in Canada and ship drugs via mail.

Alot of local government health plans started using it, but it is now illegal for most purposes.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#20

Post by AtlasBarfed »

Solar + cheap storage should be the new default for the entire second/ third world. Basically, you can't rely on your central corrupt government? Well, you don't have to!

With starlink the third world will have options for internet too. Now, starlink probably can't serve billions of people, but it can still be an option, especially for rural.

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