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This is awesome. The real loser in all of this is Lebanon. 30 years after the end of the civil war there, and 24-hour electricity is a pipe dream. People still
by anonu 6y ago
This is awesome. The real loser in all of this is Lebanon. 30 years after the end of the civil war there, and 24-hour electricity is a pipe dream. People still rely on neighborhood generators that contribute to the already bad pollution.
- marshmallow_12 6y agoLebanon is in an awful state. they seem to be little more than a satellite of Iran via Hezbollah. I haven't heard anything about them since that terrible explosion in Beirut. i hope they get sorted out soon.
- baybal2 6y agoHow it is? It's a majority christian country!
- anonu 6y agoUsing a 1932 census. Let's get real...
- ceejayoz 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon#Government_and_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon#Government_and_politic... > Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy that includes confessionalism, in which high-ranking offices are reserved for members of specific religious groups. The President, for example, has to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker of the Parliament a Shi’a Muslim, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eastern Orthodox. > Lebanon's national legislature is the unicameral Parliament of Lebanon. Its 128 seats are divided equally between Christians and Muslims, proportionately between the 18 different denominations and proportionately between its 26 regions.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoThis is the country with multiple cabinet ministers from Hezbollah. Perhaps "how" is through these and similar vehicles.
- marshmallow_12 6y agohttps://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/lebanon-in-crisis/ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/lebanon-in-crisis/ it seems the UK government is also worried that Iran/Hezbolla are too powerful in Lebanon. that's just from a quick search.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoI'm not sure where you heard that from exactly, but their unique confessionally-sharded politics mean claims like that often won't be deeply scrutinized within Lebanon. They won’t conduct a new census to check, multiple Muslim groups claim that they have the majority, and most observers who aren’t constrained by Lebanese politics think it’s closer to 30% Christian.
- anonu 6y agoYou got downvoted by others - maybe because your comment isn't super additive to the conversation. But the general sentiment is right. They have a strong control over the country no matter which way you look at it. They build parallel infrastructures to that of the state: different phone systems, power systems, healthcare, etc... so they are shielded from the corruption and complacency that happens in the government - all while contributing to it.
- marshmallow_12 6y ago-maybe because your comment isn't super additive to the conversation. You are correct, but i felt i should draw attention to an issue i think is extremely serious. Also, there is the possibility to explore that Hezbollah may sabotage the project.
- solosoyokaze 6y agoDo you feel the same desire to point out Israel’s war crimes and genocide? That is a serious issue that needs attention. Especially because they are in large part funded by the US.
- adventured 6y agoIsrael isn't particularly funded by the US. They receive a small amount of money from the US, as do about 100 other nations around the world, including several prominent nations that have historically disliked Israel (see: Egypt, Pakistan). Israel is now one of the most prosperous nations in world history. Their GDP per capita will soon be among the highest of any nation. They passed Japan, Britain and France recently on that metric; next they'll pass Canada and Germany. They're entirely free-standing economically at this point and do not require US funding (even though the US will obviously continue to have deep economic ties with Israel, including militarily).
- solosoyokaze 6y agoThe US gives Israel billions of dollars every year: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–United_States_relations https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–United_States_relatio...
- anovikov 6y agoThat's what happens to people who piss Israel too much.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sandworm101 6y ago>> rely on neighborhood generators I often wonder if places like this are where real green energy revolution will start. Perhaps the greatest motivation for off-grid solar is not having access to a grid in the first place. The first targets in many wars are the power plants, plants fed by fossil fuel deliveries. A country powered by widespread small "gridless" solar power solutions would be very resilient in a crisis, much more difficult a target in a war. Maybe Lebanon can move forward without a reliable national grid.
- pgt 6y agoThis is becoming true in South Africa due to the unreliable power supply from state-owned Eskom.
- sandworm101 6y agoI'm seeing it on the other side of the economic spectrum: rich people building vacation houses on green fields. Other than Texas, North America has a very dependable grid. But if your new house is more than a couple hundred meters from that grid an overkill solar solution will probably be cheaper than connection cost. So new vacation homes in the woods/mountains/coastline are installing solar for purely economic reasons.
- Qwertious 6y ago> But if your new house is more than a couple hundred meters from that grid an overkill solar solution will probably be cheaper than connection cost. If this becomes a thing without charging non-users a flat fee for the electricity grid, then the grid will fall into a death spiral as renewables+storage become cheaper - namely, fewer people using the grid will increase the relative cost for each remaining user, encouraging them to go off-grid which further increases the relative cost of grid-attachment.
- OldHand2018 6y agoThe grid is already in trouble in places where it makes little economic sense to keep it reliable (rural regions, especially California/West Coast). The ex-Texas US grid is reliable because of economic reasons (especially industrial) and the Texas grid is not that reliable for economic reasons! If you leave the interstate system and drive the state and national highways, especially east of the Mississippi River, you'll see industrial facilities all over the place in small towns and cities, etc. They consume a lot of electricity, so it is in the national interest to have a good grid. West of the Mississippi: go read the Bershire Hathaway annual report from a few weeks ago. Warren Buffett spends quite a bit of space writing about how and why they are spending billions on the future of the grid.
- bjourne 6y agoWhy is it awesome? I don't think European countries should share energy grids with countries that does not respect human rights such as Israel and Russia.
- sandworm101 6y agoDepends on which way the power flows. Perhaps if Israel becomes depended on European electricity some of its more offensive behaviors can be moderated.
- marshmallow_12 6y agoProbably, everything you are wearing, plus your phone/computer, plus the petrol you put in your car come from countries that abuse human rights, such as china, Saudi Arabia etc.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoaside from simplicity in living, this is the second to top reason why i abandoned buying anything unless it is absolutely necessary...
- marshmallow_12 6y agoHave you checked under the furniture for the paper your password was written on? Do you even have furniture:)
- forgotmypw17 6y agonope, no furniture for about 5 years now
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoThat doesn't mean I (or the person you're replying to) agree with it. I mean I don't agree with US politics and their human rights violations, yet here I am, commenting on a US community on US-designed hardware and US-developed software. "We should improve society somewhat." "Yet you participate in society. Curious!"
- sjakobi 6y agoHow does Lebanon lose from this project?
- eschulz 6y agoThey don't directly lose from Greece, Cyprus, and Israel cooperating further with each other. However, they are missing out on something they need, and this shows how Lebanon is diplomatically struggling to cooperate with other nations in the region to help them improve their infrastructure. This is the ideal project for them to join and help the Lebanese people, but unfortunately it's just another potential missed opportunity.
- cblconfederate 6y agoLebanon could join in the future as could other countries, if this project goes through
- IG_Semmelweiss 6y agoThere is a reason for this. The first time I ever went to Beirut over 10 years ago, I asked a partner of a large Civil Engineering firm Me : "Why does the power go out all the time?" The response: "There is no political will to fix this." I didn't understand the reply. Surely there was immense value in economic development in doing this ? I drew parallels to being in South America, particularly Ecuador, who had the same issue back in the 90's. That caused so much economic loss. I understood the issue was rainfall swings drove hydro power outages. They finally built extra capacity, and now brownouts are a thing of the past. Everyone benefitted. But lebanon had no such luck. Why? I didn't understand the undertones of what was being told to me. But the answer was there. It is a political issue, but not a question of will. Its a question of money. The neighborhood generators now have cartel power over the generation of electricity. They have a vested interest in the government NOT producing cheap electricity for the masses. Anything that disrupts the status quo means their business is effectively over. Full 360: The market response to electricity production during civil war, gave lebanon electric resilience (via power generators)...but now with regulatory capture, the incentives are only to sustain the broken model.
- flak48 6y agoLack of will to disrupt the status quo is also the reason why many new builds in Indian cities like Bangalore/Hyderabad are forced to rely on the water tanker cartels instead of getting reliable piped water supply from the local municipal corporations. The icing on the cake is that water tanker cartels steal from the municipal water supply in the first place.
- imachine1980 6y agoas Argentinian , other south American country we have cities without energy next to power generation plants, and subsidizes for sector who don needed (residential downtown) but have political influence, i live in the richest and biggest cities of my country and i have subside transportation while,in the north who have a lot less resource pay the full tariffs only because my cities have more political influence in national elections.
- 6y ago
- ocschwar 6y agoIt is awesome. Any project that improves daily life for any part of the Middle East is a way to show the haters that the world isn't waiting for them to come around.
- jablala 6y agoI would also add 'The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' as a loser. Having to now take electricity from Turkey, further solidifying this horrible depending relationship.
- ddalex 6y agoThere is no meaningful separation between TRNC and proper Turkey government. TRNC is a puppet government, kind of the same way Crimea government, the one which decided to hold a "referendum" and "decided" to join Russia.