Lebanon’s failing state forces unplanned shift to solar power

Lebanon’s failing state forces unplanned shift to solar power

Customers buying dairy products used to make Lebanese shopkeeper Sabah Hashem nervous.

Over the spring the fridges at his mini-market were usually off for more than half the day: electricity from the state-run utility had trickled to a near halt and the operator of his back-up generator was rationing supplies as diesel costs rose.

“I had to open yoghurt in front of customers before selling it to them to make sure it hadn’t soured,” 39-year-old Hashem said at his shop in Hasbaya al-Metn, a village 20km east of Beirut. “I was up all night worrying I’d make my customers sick — you can’t run a business like that.”

As another summer without power loomed, Hashem had had enough. He pooled his savings and borrowed cash from a friend living abroad to install a 2kW solar energy system on the roof of his shop — enough to power the lights and two fridges 24 hours a day. It cost $3,700 but the outlay was worth it: “Now I sleep easy.”

Lebanon is mired in an economic crisis that has seen the Lebanese pound lose more than 95 per cent of its value against the dollar since October 2019. The rising costs of fuel imports, exacerbated