13 ms·

In Lebanon, solar power is booming

214 points by miohtama 4y ago

bobthepanda 4y ago
A summary: * due to political instability and mismanagement the economy is unstable and unable to support fuel imports for the grid * the same economic instability makes it hard for private actors to import fuel for generators as well * Solar doesn’t require ongoing imports of fuel priced in foreign currency
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
wara23arish 4y ago
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 etc.. Is there a precedent for this happening in the US, i think insulin is way cheaper in mexico but I dont hear stories about it being smuggled to the states
- narism 4y ago
  > i think insulin is way cheaper in mexico but I dont hear stories about it being smuggled to the states Plenty of cases like this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/06/this-couple-goes-mexico-buy-low-cost-insulin-strangers-who-need-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/06/this-cou...
- Spooky23 4y ago
  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.
- from 4y ago
  > Abbott Labs recently obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting numerous pharmacies, wholesalers, and other distributors from importing or otherwise using in the U.S. Abbott’s FreeStyle® blood glucose test strips that are intended for sale internationally. Chief Judge Amon of the Eastern District of New York found that Abbott is likely to succeed on the merits of its Lanham Act claim that consumers will likely be confused by the sale of “gray market” FreeStyle test strips in the U.S. https://www.healthcarelawinsights.com/2015/11/court-strips-importation-and-sale-of-gray-market-glucose-test-strips-in-u-s/ https://www.healthcarelawinsights.com/2015/11/court-strips-i... Actual prescription drugs being imported wholesale is rare because the penalties are pretty high for that. There is a somewhat related "diverted drugs" industry which is basically where people who get HIV medications for free from the government/insurance sell for them like 5 cents on the dollar for cash only for those to be resold a bunch of times to "wholesalers" before ultimately ending up in a pharmacy again - these kinds of sketchy secondary wholesalers are where counterfeits/illegally imported drugs would probably end up though. Nothing on the scale of what happens in Lebanon but if you read https://www.drugchannels.net https://www.drugchannels.net / the WSJ it shows up every now and then.
- contingencies 4y ago
  I’ve heard a few stories of panels not being installed properly and flying off roofs and hitting cars below. Wind loading is often very large. Structural engineers are aware of this, the general population isn't.
Havoc 4y ago
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
- mc32 4y ago
  Seems somewhat similar to the situation where cellphones/handiphones took off in infrastructure poor regions quicker than in many advanced economies?
  - downrightmike 4y ago
    That a pretty common thing, the last to modernize have more modern tech. Kind of like skipping levels in CIV. Interesting to think that the USA is bring back and build out nanoscale chip fabs, speculation is that we will be at this nanoscale for a long time.
  - throwawayacc3 4y ago
    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.
    - Scoundreller 4y ago
      > 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.
- rdevsrex 4y ago
  Ideally, municipalities in SA would be poised to create municipal solar farms a la municipal broadband. But if you can't get the energy to the consumer because of theft, then only people who can afford it and have space can use it.
anonu 4y ago
Even when there is limited space, people find a way: https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/vyulqc/top_notch_lebanese_solar_power_engineering_when/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/vyulqc/top_notch_l...
RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
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.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- grugagag 4y ago
  Yes but it also says about solar being a solution, maybe to a shitty problem, yet it works better than the previous situation
- klyrs 4y ago
  Hey, it's better than burning coal. The thing I would celebrate here is that the technology is cheap enough and available enough to enable people to work around their government's failings.
- usrusr 4y ago
  What you write is certainly not wrong, but it's also not the complete picture: unlike their contemporaries in non-failed states, those people learn electricity usage patterns that are adapted to supply. And that will also transfer well from the insular home battery to a grid with supply-dependent pricing, something which will come to every grid sooner or later. Grid addicts like us will be much less capable of adapting to that change, we will pay while those better at adapting enjoy the spoils of efficiency they deserve. To them, our inability will look like the trouble car-addicts who have never experienced walkability have with adapting to increasing fuel prices.
DoreenMichele 4y ago
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.
- pmezard 4y ago
  > what with France rationing power this winter Said like that it sounds like rolling blackout and the state enforcing energy consumption at gun point. There was a lot of noise because the government planned some of these things. But in practice it meant reducing the temperature of public swimming pools a bit, reducing/shutting down public lighting deep in the night, reducing temperatures in office building by one or two degrees. I would even say this "stressor" will be beneficial, at least at a local level. The real downside is the increased energy bill for people. Finally, a large part of this issue is self-inflicted as a failure to plan power plants maintenance.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    From what I gather, it's not just France. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine the price of gas and electric power in the European Union has gone up enormously. https://jacquesmattheij.com/drastically-reducing-our-powerbill/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/drastically-reducing-our-powerbi...
    - Roark66 4y ago
      Indeed, here in Poland there have been state subsidies for replacing individual household heat sources from coal to gas(and heat pumps etc) for quite some time. This year a lot of people were scrambling to find those old coal burners and reinstall them in the heir homes again. You can actually smell a difference. I live in non-industrial North of the country basically in the country side. Nearest town has 5k people and even here when temperatures dropped I could smell shitty coal being burned when I went to town. I know the smell because I have a hobby forge and I use (good) coal sometimes. I have to say this is the first time in my life I could actually smell it in the air used by other people here. This is a heavily forested region and most people used wood as fuel. However with current prices and availability, coal (and shitty one too) is back. As for prices I can assure you it could've been much worse if not for the state subsidies that were put in place very quickly and the state bringing in coal on massive ships from abroad. I heat my house with wood pellets and a "smart" furnace that has very high efficiency. Also I have a benefit of good insulation. In previous years I would pay about $500 for a year's supply of fuel (this is just house heating, water for bathrooms is heated with electricity). This year I bought before the majority of the price increases hit and I paid $1200 (this is for 2.5 tons of the "premium" version of the stuff). Then I got $800 back from the state as heating subsidy. So overall it cost me less than in an usual year. Then there is the state sanctioned freeze on the price of gas for private people (not businesses) and same for electricity until you use up 2MWh.Imagine how bad it would be without it. Still this cost is well worth it.
aaron695 4y ago
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anonu 4y ago
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.
- lucretian 4y ago
  > 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. This is all true but it also did not help matters that Israel perpetually bombed power plants and related infrastructure in the country over the same period of time.
- jraby3 4y ago
  They do this in Israel too. The solar powered hot water heaters work wonderfully. However now with many more highrises being built they no longer are as popular and we are forced to use electric heaters.
  - dotancohen 4y ago
    Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more as a siphon of their earnings and resources than as a provider of services and order.
    - fnbr 4y ago
      > Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
g8oz 4y ago
Also see Syria: Syria’s Surprising Solar Boom: Sunlight Powers the Night in Rebel Idlib https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/syria-solar-power-idlib.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/syria-so...
10g1k 4y ago
But in Russia...
AtlasBarfed 4y ago
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.
- realworldperson 4y ago
  [dead]
- micromacrofoot 4y ago
  what’s the cheapest storage someone can get these days?
  - AtlasBarfed 4y ago
    I don't have a good answer today, but IMO it is coming. The advent of the sodium ion 150 wh/kg (CATL in mass production this year) should drop the price and increase availability without the Lithium supply issue. Also, LFP / LMFP will hit 200+ wh/kg this year in production (CATL as well, and others) ... needs lithium, but don't require cobalt or nickel as I understand it. The first world smug answer is that the second and third world will tolerate less reliability. They apparently already do, but they gain more control with the panels. Gravity based storage (flywheels or heck, pulleys) may be good enough for non-first-world expectations as well. Generally it won't work for first world expectations. Flywheels would probably be sufficient. The market should be huge though, in the billions of people. Again, a smug first world answer is that the "decarbonization" problem needs to be prioritized, so as much solar/wind/storage needs to be focused on the first world grids to get consumer transportation and power generation on BEVs and solar/wind as quickly as possible. But again I like to think that solar (home panels on roof) + wind (in the sense of a village megawatt turbine in a rural village) + personal BEVs (electric scooter, e-bike) + starlink terminal should be so empowering to a rural second/third world community. Heck, think about Australia, a "first world country" but basically a bunch of cities and very very rural surroundings. It has all the infrastructure / distance / spreadout issues that America has but on steroids. Now, I don't live there and don't know the terrain beyond the fact that it is grassland / desert in the middle of the country, and a lot of it. You know what that's perfect for? Solar and Wind. Australia could likely start to economically develop more of its interior without huge infrastructure projects like transmission lines and huge amounts of cell towers and the like: starlink for communications relays, some local 5g towers for distributing the bandwidth to villages, solar for homes, a village wind turbine for more "local grid" power, and that leaves: storage and uh... water. And roads. I really do view this as a very empowering opportunity for tribal and indigenous populations which almost always exist in minority political positions in central governments. What is the primary means of denial of opportunity and resources to these political minorities? Infrastructure. The fact that power and communications can be so effectively decentralized and locally controlled for wind / solar / battery / starlink is a fundamental game changer to these people. Look at our native american populations: the poverty in these communities (if they don't have the casino deal) is striking, and they are far away from centralized infrastructure. I'm not saying having your own wind/solar/starlink comms will solve all the problems, but it is empowering to a community and individual people that may live there. The tragedy of the strong Republican character of rural America is that the same thing effectively goes for almost all rural communities: cheaper and better power, cheaper and better communications, improve the appeal of moving urban and suburban workers to more remote rurals and improve their economic quandry of aging populations and population loss. At the same time, increase housing availability and affordability to more people by making the rural areas more accessible. Wow, that was meandering, but anyway, I think the focus on alternative energy is getting too far towards grid centric just because it is a bit cheaper on cost/kwhr. There should be strong focus on home / community solar/wind/battery storage and development. And home storage is a key aspect to it. IMO, it is largely solved technologically for the 1-2 days of storage with sodium ion batteries, you just need the scaling. Maybe you have a gas generator for really long periods, which isn't ideal for carbonization, but this is kind of like the hybrid car situation: use smaller batteries to maximize the available total battery supply across as many cars as possible to maximize the daily miles that are all-electric, but still have an ICE for long trips. That way you get 90% electrified miles, 10% for the extreme. We missed the boat on that in cars. That should have been policy enacted 15-20 years ago to get the ball rolling (five years after the prius and insight), now all the car companies are jumping to pure-BEV (because otherwise the CEO gets fired... see: VW, BMW, etc). We can still do the same with home storage: handle 70-90% of the load levelling with a 1-2 day battery, and the other 10-30% you use grid power or if that's not available, a gasoline or natural gas or diesel generator or fuel cell or whatever.
shriek 4y ago
It really does look like we need two forms of infrastructure in our society just like software, central and distributed. Atleast in the less developed parts of the world. I grew up in that part of the world too and our government completely failed to provide basic electricity and everyone resorted to either solar or generators.
Snoupy 4y ago
Same for Puerto Rico. Solar tech makes more sense every year for everyone, but places with bad utilities + more sunlight have a lower threshold.
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  also, generally anyone facing high imports of expensive fuel due to lack of domestic fuel, e.g. most islands like PR
Ericson2314 4y ago
When the eco-modernists say relying solely on intermittent renewables during electricity into a class-stratified privilege, this is what they mean.
- 8note 4y ago
  Where/when is electricity not a class stratified privilege? How do I use as much electricity as Elon musk does running the Twitter servers?
  - labster 4y ago
    > How do I use as much electricity as Elon musk does running the Twitter servers? Start your own cryptocoin and promote it. Then other people will spend megawatts of their own electricity to make you money. Er, make themselves money.
redtriumph 4y ago
I hail from a Tier 3 city in India [a]. Due to mismgmt. or exorbitant electricity prices, several folks would end up stealing electricity from the main line. Electricity distribution companies would keep on increasing prices to make up for lost revenue from stealing. On other hand, stealing kept on increasing. In recent years, huge chunk of public have pivoted to installing solar panels for water heater etc. When I was a kid, solar water heater was found only on upper middle and politician's home. Now it's very common. This is welcome progress and inadvertent good for environment since the real motivation is to free self from manipulation of electricity companies. a. Tier 1 would be state capitals, Tier 2 would be prominent cities in that state, Tier 3 would be rest of district headquarters.
- archon1410 4y ago
  >Footnote 1 I have never heard that before, cities like Ranchi can hardly be described as "Tier 1". The HRA classification given on the Wikipedia page[1] is much better guide to what my intuitions are on what people mean by tier 1-3. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cities#Current_classification https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit...
  - darkwater 4y ago
    > [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit... Finally someone starting from the bottom of the latin alphabet to categorize something that can grow over time (i.e. Delhi becomes even bigger, much more bigger than other X cities, it will move to a W category). Yes, I'm looking at you, European energy classes system and yours A+++++++++ classes.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - xiphias2 4y ago
      If you look at the previous classification it was A/B/C as well, they had to learn it.
TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
Tangentially related entry conservation-wise. I disabled our shower by forcing the taps shut with spanner, the tap washers I prefer are ok for this. Attached a shower head hose to the bath tap, so now all we have is a shower head you have to hold and mostly sit or squat to use it. This has eliminated certain individuals from emptying the hot water system while washing their hair, and my own tendency to use a fair bit of hot water while standing in the shower. Bit of a hack, YMMV.
- 8note 4y ago
  What are the actual savings though? Vs alternatives like using a flash boiler, or convincing your government to reduce the water that the agriculture industry can use, or adding a timer on the shower?
  - TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
    Halved our water heating bill. I don't care about water usage, it's extremely cheap here and highly recyclable. That's why I framed my comment with the energy conservation context.
    - shapefrog 4y ago
      A shower heat recovery system would be better, which seems like such low hanging energy saving I am unsure why it isnt more of a thing.
      - brewsmithy 4y ago
        There are a couple reasons waste heat recovery has not been adopted in the US anyway. The designs up to this point have been adaptations of industrial designs, not specific designs for residential use.
      - pja 4y ago
        A neighbour has one of these. What surprised me was that it didn’t bother (as far as I could see) pulling the heat out of the waste water - it was setup to pull the heat out of the air in the bathroom. I guess this makes at least some sense though? A sizable proportion of the heat from shower water must go into water vapour that evaporates into the air as the droplets fall from shower head to floor drain. If you go into an unventilated room where someone has had a shower & you’ll find the air both very warm & very damp! Using a heat recovery system like this also means you don’t need to pull cold dry air into the bathroom from outside in order to avoid condensation problems - the heat recovery also pulls the water out of the air - so it saves a considerable amount of energy that way too. Whether these are enough to offset the installation cost I don’t know.
sadusdtp 4y ago
So basically, one can blame the entirety of the political class for how dire the situation in Lebanon is, but more so than others is a tiny schmuck that goes by the name of Gebran Bassil. You can enjoy him being roasted here: https://youtu.be/X4gt7jL0rP0?t=54 https://youtu.be/X4gt7jL0rP0?t=54
tchaffee 4y ago
This is one of the less obvious reasons solar will dominate. No grid or government to rely on. Russian gas and foreign wars no longer matter. And as battery technology improves it will be 24x7 independence.
- idoubtit 4y ago
  Solar and batteries are not a long term solution that will bring energy independence to everyone. It's not that simple. In western countries, and especially in the USA, people mostly want to live in a private house, with two or more cars. If those vehicles are electric (and that's the future we're pointed to), I think solar panels would provide a tiny share of the electricity required for this way of life. When living in a large city building, the energy required for each family is much smaller since cars are not needed and since heating etc is lower than in individual houses. In that case, solar panels are more useful, though not enough to be independent.
- belorn 4y ago
  Lebanon is located next middle east and north Africa. It has 10.72% arable land, water being a scarce resource, and dust storms being one of the natural hazards. The average number of days with rain for months between May and September is between 0 and 2. Solar is an obvious choice for that climate.
  - tchaffee 4y ago
    They are putting solar all over the UK. Today's panels are so efficient that cloudy weather is fine.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - belorn 4y ago
      The economics of that when you have to include storage is different than places with almost no cloudy weather. There isn't much interest to invest in solar + storage solutions without subsidizes. Solar/wind in combination with natural gas is very profitable in the UK as long the natural gas is cheap enough. Right now that is not the case so the cost of the energy grid in UK is extremely high, and much higher than in solar heavy countries located next to deserts that don't need to use natural gas to cover all those rainy and snowy days.
anovikov 4y ago
I hope we all won't have to live through the "green transition" in the similar way...
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  A bit too late for that, we picked the wrong road in the 80's and the debt is starting to come due... I expect the worst of it to be when (former) middle class residing in suburban sprawl realise they cannot afford a car any more : think yellow vests (aka "roundabout folks"), but worse.
  - anovikov 4y ago
    Oh on that one, there's no problem, gas powered cars are going to be extinct very soon so gasoline will be cheap for those still willing to use them due to low demand, and electric cars are already mainstream.
    - MichaelZuo 4y ago
      Won’t refineries just stop producing gasoline then?
      - anovikov 4y ago
        It will be hard because of how technology works. There is some leeway in re-tuning them to produce more % of one product and less of others, but it's limited.
timwaagh 4y ago
Of course it's cool that people can use solar in these kinds of environments like Afghanistan or now Lebanon, but at the same time I wonder: why do they pay so called anthropologists big bucks to live in upscale neighborhoods and gawk at people in difficult circumstances like it's a zoo. To me it seems a little disrespectful.
- DFHippie 4y ago
  To me it seems more respectful for anthropologists to study everyone, not just people in pre-literate communities.
butlerm 4y ago
Not sure what they are doing, but that web page is incredibly sluggish and requires an incredible amount of time to render and scroll for such a simple layout.
LatteLazy 4y ago
Solar is lovely and all but the far more concerning thing here is that 30 years on from it's civil war, Lebanon still does not have a functioning government. More and more places seem to be ending up in this state, both in places like Lebanon AND in the West (looking at you Texas, or here in the UK). It's nice that at least some people are finding ways to work around these failures. But let's not pretend that that is a viable solution. We should address the actual core issue here.
- wara23arish 4y ago
  The civil war never ended. The same factions just moved to politics. It also doesn’t help when political class is protected by foreign governments (USA & Iran) so change is unlikely also dangerous. Our problem is that we’re too diverse and fixated on religion. I worry about America if they continue fixating on identity politics with race and genders
- mschuster91 4y ago
  The actual core issue is piss-poor governance in politics, but in the US, UK and Lebanon the governments are entrenched in a way that it will require an actual revolution to get rid of them - and the only place of these where a revolution seems likely is Lebanon.
reacharavindh 4y ago
It is liberating to be able to produce one's own energy for residential needs. Can't wait for the energy storage technologies to catch up fast such that it becomes sensible to set up solar panels wherever possible, and wire them to a cheap enough battery storage such that the grid becomes a backup connection and solar + battery is the primary source. I have resisted the idea of Li-ion battery in the house because of fire risks and costs. If Na-ion battery tech or one of the many promising battery tech being talked about every week comes to life soon, I'd jump on it.
- antisthenes 4y ago
  > I have resisted the idea of Li-ion battery in the house because of fire risks and costs. The vast majority of battery backup solutions in 2022 and forward are LFP tech, which is much safer than cylindrical Li Ion cells.

214 points by miohtama 4y ago

A summary: * due to political instability and mismanagement the economy is unstable and unable to support fuel imports for the grid * the same economic instability makes it hard for private actors to import fuel for generators as well * Solar doesn’t require ongoing imports of fuel priced in foreign currency

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

wara23arish 4y ago

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 etc.. Is there a precedent for this happening in the US, i think insulin is way cheaper in mexico but I dont hear stories about it being smuggled to the states

narism 4y ago
> i think insulin is way cheaper in mexico but I dont hear stories about it being smuggled to the states Plenty of cases like this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/06/this-couple-goes-mexico-buy-low-cost-insulin-strangers-who-need-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/06/this-cou...
Spooky23 4y ago
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.
from 4y ago
> Abbott Labs recently obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting numerous pharmacies, wholesalers, and other distributors from importing or otherwise using in the U.S. Abbott’s FreeStyle® blood glucose test strips that are intended for sale internationally. Chief Judge Amon of the Eastern District of New York found that Abbott is likely to succeed on the merits of its Lanham Act claim that consumers will likely be confused by the sale of “gray market” FreeStyle test strips in the U.S. https://www.healthcarelawinsights.com/2015/11/court-strips-importation-and-sale-of-gray-market-glucose-test-strips-in-u-s/ https://www.healthcarelawinsights.com/2015/11/court-strips-i... Actual prescription drugs being imported wholesale is rare because the penalties are pretty high for that. There is a somewhat related "diverted drugs" industry which is basically where people who get HIV medications for free from the government/insurance sell for them like 5 cents on the dollar for cash only for those to be resold a bunch of times to "wholesalers" before ultimately ending up in a pharmacy again - these kinds of sketchy secondary wholesalers are where counterfeits/illegally imported drugs would probably end up though. Nothing on the scale of what happens in Lebanon but if you read https://www.drugchannels.net https://www.drugchannels.net / the WSJ it shows up every now and then.
contingencies 4y ago
I’ve heard a few stories of panels not being installed properly and flying off roofs and hitting cars below. Wind loading is often very large. Structural engineers are aware of this, the general population isn't.

Havoc 4y ago

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

mc32 4y ago
Seems somewhat similar to the situation where cellphones/handiphones took off in infrastructure poor regions quicker than in many advanced economies?
- downrightmike 4y ago
  That a pretty common thing, the last to modernize have more modern tech. Kind of like skipping levels in CIV. Interesting to think that the USA is bring back and build out nanoscale chip fabs, speculation is that we will be at this nanoscale for a long time.
- throwawayacc3 4y ago
  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.
  - Scoundreller 4y ago
    > 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.
rdevsrex 4y ago
Ideally, municipalities in SA would be poised to create municipal solar farms a la municipal broadband. But if you can't get the energy to the consumer because of theft, then only people who can afford it and have space can use it.

anonu 4y ago

Even when there is limited space, people find a way: https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/vyulqc/top_notch_lebanese_solar_power_engineering_when/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/vyulqc/top_notch_l...

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago

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.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
grugagag 4y ago
Yes but it also says about solar being a solution, maybe to a shitty problem, yet it works better than the previous situation
klyrs 4y ago
Hey, it's better than burning coal. The thing I would celebrate here is that the technology is cheap enough and available enough to enable people to work around their government's failings.
usrusr 4y ago
What you write is certainly not wrong, but it's also not the complete picture: unlike their contemporaries in non-failed states, those people learn electricity usage patterns that are adapted to supply. And that will also transfer well from the insular home battery to a grid with supply-dependent pricing, something which will come to every grid sooner or later. Grid addicts like us will be much less capable of adapting to that change, we will pay while those better at adapting enjoy the spoils of efficiency they deserve. To them, our inability will look like the trouble car-addicts who have never experienced walkability have with adapting to increasing fuel prices.

DoreenMichele 4y ago

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.

pmezard 4y ago
> what with France rationing power this winter Said like that it sounds like rolling blackout and the state enforcing energy consumption at gun point. There was a lot of noise because the government planned some of these things. But in practice it meant reducing the temperature of public swimming pools a bit, reducing/shutting down public lighting deep in the night, reducing temperatures in office building by one or two degrees. I would even say this "stressor" will be beneficial, at least at a local level. The real downside is the increased energy bill for people. Finally, a large part of this issue is self-inflicted as a failure to plan power plants maintenance.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  From what I gather, it's not just France. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine the price of gas and electric power in the European Union has gone up enormously. https://jacquesmattheij.com/drastically-reducing-our-powerbill/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/drastically-reducing-our-powerbi...
  - Roark66 4y ago
    Indeed, here in Poland there have been state subsidies for replacing individual household heat sources from coal to gas(and heat pumps etc) for quite some time. This year a lot of people were scrambling to find those old coal burners and reinstall them in the heir homes again. You can actually smell a difference. I live in non-industrial North of the country basically in the country side. Nearest town has 5k people and even here when temperatures dropped I could smell shitty coal being burned when I went to town. I know the smell because I have a hobby forge and I use (good) coal sometimes. I have to say this is the first time in my life I could actually smell it in the air used by other people here. This is a heavily forested region and most people used wood as fuel. However with current prices and availability, coal (and shitty one too) is back. As for prices I can assure you it could've been much worse if not for the state subsidies that were put in place very quickly and the state bringing in coal on massive ships from abroad. I heat my house with wood pellets and a "smart" furnace that has very high efficiency. Also I have a benefit of good insulation. In previous years I would pay about $500 for a year's supply of fuel (this is just house heating, water for bathrooms is heated with electricity). This year I bought before the majority of the price increases hit and I paid $1200 (this is for 2.5 tons of the "premium" version of the stuff). Then I got $800 back from the state as heating subsidy. So overall it cost me less than in an usual year. Then there is the state sanctioned freeze on the price of gas for private people (not businesses) and same for electricity until you use up 2MWh.Imagine how bad it would be without it. Still this cost is well worth it.

aaron695 4y ago

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anonu 4y ago

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.

lucretian 4y ago
> 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. This is all true but it also did not help matters that Israel perpetually bombed power plants and related infrastructure in the country over the same period of time.
jraby3 4y ago
They do this in Israel too. The solar powered hot water heaters work wonderfully. However now with many more highrises being built they no longer are as popular and we are forced to use electric heaters.
- dotancohen 4y ago
  Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more as a siphon of their earnings and resources than as a provider of services and order.
  - fnbr 4y ago
    > Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?

g8oz 4y ago

Also see Syria: Syria’s Surprising Solar Boom: Sunlight Powers the Night in Rebel Idlib https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/syria-solar-power-idlib.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/syria-so...

10g1k 4y ago

But in Russia...

AtlasBarfed 4y ago

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.

realworldperson 4y ago
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micromacrofoot 4y ago
what’s the cheapest storage someone can get these days?
- AtlasBarfed 4y ago
  I don't have a good answer today, but IMO it is coming. The advent of the sodium ion 150 wh/kg (CATL in mass production this year) should drop the price and increase availability without the Lithium supply issue. Also, LFP / LMFP will hit 200+ wh/kg this year in production (CATL as well, and others) ... needs lithium, but don't require cobalt or nickel as I understand it. The first world smug answer is that the second and third world will tolerate less reliability. They apparently already do, but they gain more control with the panels. Gravity based storage (flywheels or heck, pulleys) may be good enough for non-first-world expectations as well. Generally it won't work for first world expectations. Flywheels would probably be sufficient. The market should be huge though, in the billions of people. Again, a smug first world answer is that the "decarbonization" problem needs to be prioritized, so as much solar/wind/storage needs to be focused on the first world grids to get consumer transportation and power generation on BEVs and solar/wind as quickly as possible. But again I like to think that solar (home panels on roof) + wind (in the sense of a village megawatt turbine in a rural village) + personal BEVs (electric scooter, e-bike) + starlink terminal should be so empowering to a rural second/third world community. Heck, think about Australia, a "first world country" but basically a bunch of cities and very very rural surroundings. It has all the infrastructure / distance / spreadout issues that America has but on steroids. Now, I don't live there and don't know the terrain beyond the fact that it is grassland / desert in the middle of the country, and a lot of it. You know what that's perfect for? Solar and Wind. Australia could likely start to economically develop more of its interior without huge infrastructure projects like transmission lines and huge amounts of cell towers and the like: starlink for communications relays, some local 5g towers for distributing the bandwidth to villages, solar for homes, a village wind turbine for more "local grid" power, and that leaves: storage and uh... water. And roads. I really do view this as a very empowering opportunity for tribal and indigenous populations which almost always exist in minority political positions in central governments. What is the primary means of denial of opportunity and resources to these political minorities? Infrastructure. The fact that power and communications can be so effectively decentralized and locally controlled for wind / solar / battery / starlink is a fundamental game changer to these people. Look at our native american populations: the poverty in these communities (if they don't have the casino deal) is striking, and they are far away from centralized infrastructure. I'm not saying having your own wind/solar/starlink comms will solve all the problems, but it is empowering to a community and individual people that may live there. The tragedy of the strong Republican character of rural America is that the same thing effectively goes for almost all rural communities: cheaper and better power, cheaper and better communications, improve the appeal of moving urban and suburban workers to more remote rurals and improve their economic quandry of aging populations and population loss. At the same time, increase housing availability and affordability to more people by making the rural areas more accessible. Wow, that was meandering, but anyway, I think the focus on alternative energy is getting too far towards grid centric just because it is a bit cheaper on cost/kwhr. There should be strong focus on home / community solar/wind/battery storage and development. And home storage is a key aspect to it. IMO, it is largely solved technologically for the 1-2 days of storage with sodium ion batteries, you just need the scaling. Maybe you have a gas generator for really long periods, which isn't ideal for carbonization, but this is kind of like the hybrid car situation: use smaller batteries to maximize the available total battery supply across as many cars as possible to maximize the daily miles that are all-electric, but still have an ICE for long trips. That way you get 90% electrified miles, 10% for the extreme. We missed the boat on that in cars. That should have been policy enacted 15-20 years ago to get the ball rolling (five years after the prius and insight), now all the car companies are jumping to pure-BEV (because otherwise the CEO gets fired... see: VW, BMW, etc). We can still do the same with home storage: handle 70-90% of the load levelling with a 1-2 day battery, and the other 10-30% you use grid power or if that's not available, a gasoline or natural gas or diesel generator or fuel cell or whatever.

shriek 4y ago

It really does look like we need two forms of infrastructure in our society just like software, central and distributed. Atleast in the less developed parts of the world. I grew up in that part of the world too and our government completely failed to provide basic electricity and everyone resorted to either solar or generators.

Snoupy 4y ago

Same for Puerto Rico. Solar tech makes more sense every year for everyone, but places with bad utilities + more sunlight have a lower threshold.

bobthepanda 4y ago
also, generally anyone facing high imports of expensive fuel due to lack of domestic fuel, e.g. most islands like PR

Ericson2314 4y ago

When the eco-modernists say relying solely on intermittent renewables during electricity into a class-stratified privilege, this is what they mean.

8note 4y ago
Where/when is electricity not a class stratified privilege? How do I use as much electricity as Elon musk does running the Twitter servers?
- labster 4y ago
  > How do I use as much electricity as Elon musk does running the Twitter servers? Start your own cryptocoin and promote it. Then other people will spend megawatts of their own electricity to make you money. Er, make themselves money.

redtriumph 4y ago

I hail from a Tier 3 city in India [a]. Due to mismgmt. or exorbitant electricity prices, several folks would end up stealing electricity from the main line. Electricity distribution companies would keep on increasing prices to make up for lost revenue from stealing. On other hand, stealing kept on increasing. In recent years, huge chunk of public have pivoted to installing solar panels for water heater etc. When I was a kid, solar water heater was found only on upper middle and politician's home. Now it's very common. This is welcome progress and inadvertent good for environment since the real motivation is to free self from manipulation of electricity companies. a. Tier 1 would be state capitals, Tier 2 would be prominent cities in that state, Tier 3 would be rest of district headquarters.

archon1410 4y ago
>Footnote 1 I have never heard that before, cities like Ranchi can hardly be described as "Tier 1". The HRA classification given on the Wikipedia page[1] is much better guide to what my intuitions are on what people mean by tier 1-3. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cities#Current_classification https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit...
- darkwater 4y ago
  > [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit... Finally someone starting from the bottom of the latin alphabet to categorize something that can grow over time (i.e. Delhi becomes even bigger, much more bigger than other X cities, it will move to a W category). Yes, I'm looking at you, European energy classes system and yours A+++++++++ classes.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - xiphias2 4y ago
    If you look at the previous classification it was A/B/C as well, they had to learn it.

TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago

Tangentially related entry conservation-wise. I disabled our shower by forcing the taps shut with spanner, the tap washers I prefer are ok for this. Attached a shower head hose to the bath tap, so now all we have is a shower head you have to hold and mostly sit or squat to use it. This has eliminated certain individuals from emptying the hot water system while washing their hair, and my own tendency to use a fair bit of hot water while standing in the shower. Bit of a hack, YMMV.

8note 4y ago
What are the actual savings though? Vs alternatives like using a flash boiler, or convincing your government to reduce the water that the agriculture industry can use, or adding a timer on the shower?
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  Halved our water heating bill. I don't care about water usage, it's extremely cheap here and highly recyclable. That's why I framed my comment with the energy conservation context.
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    A shower heat recovery system would be better, which seems like such low hanging energy saving I am unsure why it isnt more of a thing.
    - brewsmithy 4y ago
      There are a couple reasons waste heat recovery has not been adopted in the US anyway. The designs up to this point have been adaptations of industrial designs, not specific designs for residential use.
    - pja 4y ago
      A neighbour has one of these. What surprised me was that it didn’t bother (as far as I could see) pulling the heat out of the waste water - it was setup to pull the heat out of the air in the bathroom. I guess this makes at least some sense though? A sizable proportion of the heat from shower water must go into water vapour that evaporates into the air as the droplets fall from shower head to floor drain. If you go into an unventilated room where someone has had a shower & you’ll find the air both very warm & very damp! Using a heat recovery system like this also means you don’t need to pull cold dry air into the bathroom from outside in order to avoid condensation problems - the heat recovery also pulls the water out of the air - so it saves a considerable amount of energy that way too. Whether these are enough to offset the installation cost I don’t know.

sadusdtp 4y ago

So basically, one can blame the entirety of the political class for how dire the situation in Lebanon is, but more so than others is a tiny schmuck that goes by the name of Gebran Bassil. You can enjoy him being roasted here: https://youtu.be/X4gt7jL0rP0?t=54 https://youtu.be/X4gt7jL0rP0?t=54

tchaffee 4y ago

This is one of the less obvious reasons solar will dominate. No grid or government to rely on. Russian gas and foreign wars no longer matter. And as battery technology improves it will be 24x7 independence.

idoubtit 4y ago
Solar and batteries are not a long term solution that will bring energy independence to everyone. It's not that simple. In western countries, and especially in the USA, people mostly want to live in a private house, with two or more cars. If those vehicles are electric (and that's the future we're pointed to), I think solar panels would provide a tiny share of the electricity required for this way of life. When living in a large city building, the energy required for each family is much smaller since cars are not needed and since heating etc is lower than in individual houses. In that case, solar panels are more useful, though not enough to be independent.
belorn 4y ago
Lebanon is located next middle east and north Africa. It has 10.72% arable land, water being a scarce resource, and dust storms being one of the natural hazards. The average number of days with rain for months between May and September is between 0 and 2. Solar is an obvious choice for that climate.
- tchaffee 4y ago
  They are putting solar all over the UK. Today's panels are so efficient that cloudy weather is fine.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - belorn 4y ago
    The economics of that when you have to include storage is different than places with almost no cloudy weather. There isn't much interest to invest in solar + storage solutions without subsidizes. Solar/wind in combination with natural gas is very profitable in the UK as long the natural gas is cheap enough. Right now that is not the case so the cost of the energy grid in UK is extremely high, and much higher than in solar heavy countries located next to deserts that don't need to use natural gas to cover all those rainy and snowy days.

anovikov 4y ago

I hope we all won't have to live through the "green transition" in the similar way...

BlueTemplar 4y ago
A bit too late for that, we picked the wrong road in the 80's and the debt is starting to come due... I expect the worst of it to be when (former) middle class residing in suburban sprawl realise they cannot afford a car any more : think yellow vests (aka "roundabout folks"), but worse.
- anovikov 4y ago
  Oh on that one, there's no problem, gas powered cars are going to be extinct very soon so gasoline will be cheap for those still willing to use them due to low demand, and electric cars are already mainstream.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    Won’t refineries just stop producing gasoline then?
    - anovikov 4y ago
      It will be hard because of how technology works. There is some leeway in re-tuning them to produce more % of one product and less of others, but it's limited.

timwaagh 4y ago

Of course it's cool that people can use solar in these kinds of environments like Afghanistan or now Lebanon, but at the same time I wonder: why do they pay so called anthropologists big bucks to live in upscale neighborhoods and gawk at people in difficult circumstances like it's a zoo. To me it seems a little disrespectful.

DFHippie 4y ago
To me it seems more respectful for anthropologists to study everyone, not just people in pre-literate communities.

butlerm 4y ago

Not sure what they are doing, but that web page is incredibly sluggish and requires an incredible amount of time to render and scroll for such a simple layout.

LatteLazy 4y ago

Solar is lovely and all but the far more concerning thing here is that 30 years on from it's civil war, Lebanon still does not have a functioning government. More and more places seem to be ending up in this state, both in places like Lebanon AND in the West (looking at you Texas, or here in the UK). It's nice that at least some people are finding ways to work around these failures. But let's not pretend that that is a viable solution. We should address the actual core issue here.

wara23arish 4y ago
The civil war never ended. The same factions just moved to politics. It also doesn’t help when political class is protected by foreign governments (USA & Iran) so change is unlikely also dangerous. Our problem is that we’re too diverse and fixated on religion. I worry about America if they continue fixating on identity politics with race and genders
mschuster91 4y ago
The actual core issue is piss-poor governance in politics, but in the US, UK and Lebanon the governments are entrenched in a way that it will require an actual revolution to get rid of them - and the only place of these where a revolution seems likely is Lebanon.

reacharavindh 4y ago

It is liberating to be able to produce one's own energy for residential needs. Can't wait for the energy storage technologies to catch up fast such that it becomes sensible to set up solar panels wherever possible, and wire them to a cheap enough battery storage such that the grid becomes a backup connection and solar + battery is the primary source. I have resisted the idea of Li-ion battery in the house because of fire risks and costs. If Na-ion battery tech or one of the many promising battery tech being talked about every week comes to life soon, I'd jump on it.

antisthenes 4y ago
> I have resisted the idea of Li-ion battery in the house because of fire risks and costs. The vast majority of battery backup solutions in 2022 and forward are LFP tech, which is much safer than cylindrical Li Ion cells.