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July 13, 2006
With Lebanon's annual energy consumption requirements expected to spike
by almost 50 percent over the next decade - and no decrease in sight for
the price of crude oil - the Energy and Water Ministry has shifted
its focus to the private sector to solve part of the country's energy
crisis. The Energy and Water Minister Mohammad Fneish, took the first
concrete step, however small, toward the goal of reducing the country's
dependence on imported oil and gas-based fuel Tuesday by launching an
awareness-building media campaign to promote the use of renewable energy
alternatives - specifically solar thermal power for indoor climate
control and water heating - among the private sector. After the new
advertising campaign - complete with print, television, and radio
advertisements conceived by Saatchi and Saatchi - was unveiled to the
public, Fneish outlined the progress on the technical, legal, and
institutional aspects of his solar power program - created in
coordination with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - that
will hopefully take a bite out the country's fuel bill, though he did
not give a deadline for the project's completion.
"Using solar energy to heat water will allow us to reduce energy
consumption by 10 percent overall and reduce household energy
expenditures by 25 to 30 percent," Fneish told reporters at the
ministry. "We are also looking into mechanisms to finance solar power
and drafting specifications and criteria for solar energy products," he
added. The initiative comes at a time when even oil-rich Gulf states
have started to invest in solar-thermal power generation as an
environmentally sustainable and cost-effective energy option said the
UNDP resident representative in a speech.
"Solar thermal technology is available, simple, and uncomplicated to
install. It also does not require a high level of investment, only
awareness, maturity and will to change," said Mona Hammam, who noted
that the success of the campaign depends on the cooperation of the media
and the private sector. To this end the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB)
began offering loans to industrialists and homeowners to buy solar
thermal water-heating systems - at 8 percent interest with a three-year
repayment schedule - about three months ago. Since the program began,
LCB has underwritten over 400 private-sector loans - ranging from
$6,000-$10,000, depending on the liter capacity - to facilitate the
purchase of solar thermal products, said LCB's marketing manager, Elie Azar.
"Installing a solar thermal heating system will cut client's electricity
bill by one third, and after three years he probably won't have to pay
for electricity at all," said Azar, who hopes that other financial
institutions will eventually follow suit. "The more banks that offer
this type of deal, the more the client's expenses and the government's
debt [from electricity consumption] gets reduced. Also it will help the
local economy and give plumbers work." Though the awareness campaign is
a necessary step, one UNDP energy engineer told The Daily Star that it
is only one aspect of a solar thermal strategy that remains incomplete
at this point.
"The ultimate aim is to introduce financial and technical incentives in
about six months," said Pierre al-Khoury. Performance contracting is one
incentive scheme the UNDP hopes to introduce. The cost of installing a
solar thermal heating system is initially shouldered by the consulting
firm contracted to advise companies on implementing energy-efficient
solutions. The beneficiary eventually pays for the system out of the
savings to the energy bill. "The awareness campaign is a step in the
right direction, but to be honest we asked the ministry to wait until we
finished developing a set of solar-thermal quality standards until they
launched the campaign," said Khoury.
He is worried that the initial success of the campaign may ultimately
backfire on the long-term viability of a renewable energy strategy. In
the absence of a unified set of criteria to evaluate a product,
consumers might buy the cheapest and least effective solar-thermal water
heaters on the market.
The Daily Star, July 2006 |
