By Maya Ghanem
The first time I visited my mother’s home country, Lebanon, I watched an electricity plant explode, pops echoing as ginormous sparks flew out of a cement building. Although I didn't realize it at the time, this was only one example of the malfunction and intermittence of Lebanon's energy framework. In fact, power outages were frequent. From 1975 to 1990, the Lebanese Civil War obliterated the country's energy infrastructure. Decades later, the resulting instability is still prevalent. After 15 years of war and damage, the Lebanese government attempted to rehabilitate the nation’s energy production and usage through the Power Sector Master Plan. This plan enacted the Electricite Du Liban (EDL), a governmental organization under the Ministry of Energy and Water responsible for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Lebanon. Today, EDL monopolizes Lebanese energy, controlling 90 percent of the country’s electrical base. Although EDL’s establishment did make significant strides in restoring Lebanon’s electrical plan, it insufficiently addresses the energy needs of the country’s residents. To this day, demand continues to exceed supply, and blackouts are common. Some cities go 13 hours without power in a day.
To compensate for these inadequacies, citizens arrange for self-generation options, accounting for 30 percent of Lebanon’s energy output. For example, those in a single home can purchase a diesel generator, neighbors in a single block can collectively purchase a larger generator to then share, or individual households can subscribe to neighborhood-level informal energy. When I lived with my aunt in Lebanon 2014, I experienced self-generation for what it really was: unreliable. Whenever the power ran out in our apartment, my aunt would ask that I run to the basement and look for a gray box attached to a wall, the switch for our family’s individual generator. I would flip the switch on and off for a few minutes, hoping that the household device could power the lights in our apartment three stories above.
Clearly, the Lebanese people make substantial efforts to make up for the formal yet deficient energy infrastructure. Though the limitations of that framework prove problematic for its citizens, they may also present an opportunity for regrowth. Both the significant role of self-generation and the outdated nature of Lebanese power production could mean that Lebanon is a promising ground for a decentralized, renewable energy structure involving local start-ups.
The mere popularity of self-generation foreshadows an easier transition to a regionalized energy system, where households produce electricity by and for themselves. The lack of legal enforcement concerning self-generation and Informal Electricity Providers (IEPs) suggests that the Lebanese government is not largely opposed to a distributed electrical base, especially considering that larger IEPs require substantial investment in infrastructure. Although self-generation is illegal, the government legitimizes its presence and that of IEPs through the Ministry of Water and Energy quarterly tariffs.
Many factors indicate that residents would be willing to support a decentralizing energy production. For instance, because consumers often pay electrical bills to both the EDL and their self-generation providers, they pay double the price of a typical energy company fee. Decentralized, renewable energy start-ups, which are traditionally considered too expensive, would be more economically competitive given consumers already pay hefty bills. Moreover, communal relationships and positive politics about electrical distribution are encouraging. In 2018, Dr. Dana Abi Ghanem interviewed local Lebanese residents on their relationships with informal and self-generating providers. She found overwhelming sentiments of loyalty and companionship between owners and local providers:
“We’ve been with this provider for as long as he’s been here, as soon as he got a generator. We’ve never switched. I don’t like to switch. Some people here have switched to an ‘outsider’, I mean why? If a person born and bred in your neighbourhood is providing this service, why would we switch to an outsider? I don’t like it. I am very principled.”
Such a friendly landscape is optimal for regional energy start-ups -- ones that involve an equal and personal relationship between the user and provider. With such loyalties, current local providers should work with renewable energy companies to be trained and well-versed in sustainable technologies. Existing self-generation providers can then partner with companies to establish local renewable energy start-ups. These efforts would provide a more suitable alternative to direct intervention of foreign businesses.
Decentralizing energy infrastructure also addresses related injustice issues. Poorer Lebanese populations are subject to corrupt IEPs and electrical theft from foreign entities due to inadequate personal capital to invest in a self-generator. Some generators release harmful pollutants, posing environmental health risks given links to elevated chances of cancer and respiratory illness. These types of generators are common in poorer suburbs. For rural regions, water pumps are intrinsically linked to energy, as a loss in power means a loss in water access. Redesigning a sustainable, distributed energy plan tailored to local communities would mitigate these energy-caused inequities.
The EDL’s archaic energy production presents an opportunity to recreate a new system embracing sustainable technologies. EDL’s six thermal plants demonstrate how outdated the process is. Although four of the plants were designed to operate on natural gas, all of the thermal plants use oil. Since supplying oil to natural gas thermal plants reduces energy efficiency, the Ministry of Energy and Water should revamp its electrical system by substituting the six thermal plants for other technology. The thermal plants require considerable maintenance or replacement. Two of the thermal plants will retire in 2021, and the other two are expected to retire between 2025 and 2030. The expected demise of these plants provides a chance to try different sources or invest in start-ups.
Lebanon's geography also proves more than adequate for establishing renewable processes. Its mountainous ranges are ideal for hydropower and its average solar irradiance of 5.01 kWh/m²/day is promising for the widespread implementation of solar energy. Compounded with the reality that Lebanon does not have natural reserves of fossil fuels and imports 98 percent of its energy resources, the shift to sustainable energy is crucial for its economy, environment, and population health.
However, due to economic challenges and a lack of government support and technical training, the presence of renewable energy has been limited; fossil fuel energy still accounts for about 96 percent of output. The government created the Lebanese Center for Energy Conversion and the National Energy and Renewable Energy Account in an effort to facilitate a transition to sustainable energy, but these organizations need to be further incorporated in government.
Currently, Lebanon faces economic disaster. Because the country depends on depleting foreign investments, the shortage of US dollars and the deflation of the Lebanese lira become a deadly combination, economically-speaking. The Lebanese people could benefit greatly by shifting to an economy based on exports, rather than one dependent on imports and foreign investments. Funding local renewable energy start-ups would be instrumental in such a shift. Lebanon can take advantage of its favorable geography to produce and export an excess amount of energy. Instead of imposing sanctions, the United States should invest in local businesses and start-ups that can economically empower the people -- potentially at the expense of a corrupt government.
A dire need for changes in Lebanese energy infrastructure exists. Further research must be done on the political, economic, and technological aspects of energy in Lebanon. Namely, data must be collected for the availability of solar, water, biogas, and water resources. The Lebanese government should increase legislative and structural support for renewable energy, and universities should fund renewable energy research. Cultural awareness of the environmental and economic benefits of sustainable energy must rise -- regionally and globally. A decentralized, renewable energy system, powered by local start-ups, is a promising direction for effective energy reform.
References
Ghanem, D. A. (2018). Energy, the city and everyday life: Living with power outages in post-war Lebanon. Energy Research & Social Science, 36, 36–43. doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2017.11.012