Lebanon and United Nations to Develop Solar Energy Projects

Lebanon’s Energy Ministry plans to work with the UN’s regional development project, UNDP to use solar energy for both heating and energy in various parts of the country, reports the UPI.

The UN agency currently has at least 25 development projects ongoing in Lebanon, with at least two of them involving solar energy.

We’ve already reported that solar energy is being developed in Lebanon for powering the country’s Alfa mobile phone service company as well as for providing electricity at a new student center at the American University of Beirut which received an award for “green” architecture. The new student center, called the Charles Hostler Student Center, now receives most of its electricity from solar panels to catch the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity.

Lebanese Water and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil announced plans to work on solar projects through the Lebanese Center for Preserving Energy, Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported. The Center was established in 2007 by the Lebanese government in cooperation with the UNDP for the purpose of dealing exclusively with issues related to awareness on energy conservation and renewable energies.

Besides solar energy, Lebanon currently has a number of environmental projects in operation, including ones to prevent forest fires as well as ones to save and preserve the country’s national symbol, its stately cedar trees. There are also projects dealing with preserving the country’s Mediterranean coastline despite plans by developers to construct a Disneyland Dubai-like artificial island project, which will be designed to be shaped like giant cedar trees (like Palm Island in Dubai) and cost more than $8 billion to build.

Lebanon has still not fully recovered from the 2006 war with Israel, which severely damaged a large oil refinery near Beirut, causing serious oil spills. And perhaps opting for projects involving solar energy will help to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, which has caused a lot of pollution. It’s surely a better idea than building an extravaganza of artificial islands, which will cause serious damage to the country’s coastline.

Photo: Jesse Fox
::UPI, Lebansese Daily Star