Lebanon’s economic crisis is also an energy crisis. With hospitals struggling to keep the lights — and critical infrastructure — turned on, some see an opportunity for a major pivot to solar.
Reporting from Lebanon, Mat Nashed writes about an impossible choice that administrators at the country’s largest public hospital faced in late June. Rafik Hariri University Hospital’s backup generator had been running for 35 straight hours, and needed to be shut down in order to prevent it from breaking down. But with the national power grid not functioning, more than 70 patients in the intensive care unit would be at risk of lifesaving equipment failures.
The state power grid kicked in for a few hours, and the hospital barely avoided a major crisis. The hospital still has to ration its electricity though, including by turning the air conditioning off during the height of summer.
“Hospitals can’t afford a single blackout,” Hassan Harajli, UNDP’s energy program adviser in Beirut, tells Mat. “Any power cut could mean a loss of life.”
For that reason, there is a growing push among health care professionals and international organizations to invest in solar power as a more reliable source of energy. In cooperation with Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, UNDP is installing solar panels in 10 public hospitals. The goal is to remove them entirely from the chronically unreliable Electricité du Liban grid and with an alternative to the fuel-guzzling and environmentally polluting diesel generators.
But solar is expensive in a country whose currency has collapsed — with installation costing roughly twice as much as a doctor’s average salary. Dollar-funded international NGOs are currently some of the only ones who can afford solar panels, while patients in critical care need a fast and far-reaching solution.
Source: devex
