Renewable Energy Sources in Lebanon

[sebastianhanna]

hey guys, did any of you ever consider or support any renewable energy plans in Lebanon, i personally think hydroelectric is the way to go, i mean with tihdith sadd il 2ar3awn, we could supply the electricity for the whole beqaa valley, and in the days of Camill Chamoun, Ibrahim Abd Il Aal wrote a detailed plan for a hydroelectric station in the Litani river
The litani river could supply Lebanon with 66 percent of the electricity we use now, think about it, Abd il Aal's daughters, who are in the US now, gave a lecture at my school when I was still in Zahle and said that when the war started, everything was delayed and no one ever talked about it again
Dont forget, we always have solar that could do really well on the rooftops in beirut for free water heating, and wind energy on the mountains
Does anyone know if geothermal could work in Lebanon, and where

[sebastianhanna]

come on guys! don't we all know by now that with climate and rising CO2 emissions, lebanon has to start taking precautions like renewable energy, reforestration, coastal reserves, preservation of ecosystems...
tell me your idea on renewable energy in lebanon

[Raficoo]

its a nice and effective idea which generally should be implied to reduce CO2 emissions ..but man.. this is Lebanon.. i mean goddam... we don't even have 24/7 electricity or high-tech Electronics/systems or and not alot of people respect the rules for Mothernature(littering, burning, etc...). First fix the Politics, open the minds, then fix the world

[Mich©]

Originally Posted by sebastianhanna

hey guys, did any of you ever consider or support any renewable energy plans in Lebanon, i personally think hydroelectric is the way to go, i mean with tihdith sadd il 2ar3awn, we could supply the electricity for the whole beqaa valley, and in the days of Camill Chamoun, Ibrahim Abd Il Aal wrote a detailed plan for a hydroelectric station in the Litani river
The litani river could supply Lebanon with 66 percent of the electricity we use now, think about it, Abd il Aal's daughters, who are in the US now, gave a lecture at my school when I was still in Zahle and said that when the war started, everything was delayed and no one ever talked about it again
Dont forget, we always have solar that could do really well on the rooftops in beirut for free water heating, and wind energy on the mountains
Does anyone know if geothermal could work in Lebanon, and where

Don't we need electricity as a first step?

[Qwiw]

Hydroelectricity, solar water heaters, wind turbines...those are way more cost-effective than any other way of producing electricity/energy and more important, it is helping Lebanon to be independent vis-à-vis other countries/suppliers of fuel/gas.

This independence is more important than any other (even ecological) consideration.

[sebastianhanna]

Originally Posted by Raficoo

its a nice and effective idea which generally should be implied to reduce CO2 emissions ..but man.. this is Lebanon.. i mean goddam... we don't even have 24/7 electricity or high-tech Electronics/systems or and not alot of people respect the rules for Mothernature(littering, burning, etc...). First fix the Politics, open the minds, then fix the world

i always thought of this thing that we dont even have electricity, but that is the solution
there so many examples of developping countries that worked their way up through sustainable dev.
i mean think of this we dont have enough fuel to burn in zahrani and zouk, but the solution is a lot cheaper, few wind turbines (whic r really cheap)on the lebanese mountains, the beqaa could easily work on solar(we have good solar companies in rawche sin el fil...)installation of solar panels:im sure any european country would be more than ready to help
oh and hydroelectric is already in al qir3awm, it just needs to be expanded, and we could extend hydropower stations in litani

[sebastianhanna]

Originally Posted by Mich©

Don't we need electricity as a first step?

im sure hdroelectric is the way to go in lebanon, we're one of the most nations that has water per capita
but the problem is there is no decent watershed management, meaning all the snow melts into the polluted sea

[Qwiw]

The solar water heater doesn't cost much and the payback (on investment) is effective after 5 years in Lebanon. I don't know why Lebanese hesitate so much when considering renewable energies.

[Qwiw]

Originally Posted by sebastianhanna

im sure hdroelectric is the way to go in lebanon, we're one of the most nations that has water per capita
but the problem is there is no decent watershed management, meaning all the snow melts into the polluted sea

It's possible to provide until 15% of our electricity needs via hydropower, don't expect more. Water must also be used for irrigation,etc... not only for electricity.

[sarhay]

Originally Posted by Qwiw

It's possible to provide until 15% of our electricity needs via hydropower, don't expect more. Water must also be used for irrigation,etc... not only for electricity.

In addition, the below article is interesting when it comes to consumer need of energy. Imagine how can you paint your house with paint and wall papers that could absorb solar energy and transfer it into electric energy.
Enjoy! this article was from Innovationen, Forschung, Wissenschaft: Der innovations-report mit aktuelle Meldungen, News, Berichte, Innovationen aus Forschung, Wissenschaft und Industrie
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Solar cells might one day be produced by the roll, as cheaply and easily as wallpaper. Scientists in Arizona are using screen-printing, a technique developed for patterning fabrics, to produce plastic solar cells1.

The technique is another step towards the general availability of solar power from flexible devices on plastic sheets or glass panels. The basic materials of a photovoltaic cell are inexpensive, but combining them into a working device is currently costly. This limits our exploitation of the sun’s potential to provide clean energy.

The organic cells manufactured by Ghassan Jabbour and colleagues at the University of Arizona in Tucson have about a quarter of the efficiency of commercial silicon devices (which turn 10-20 per cent of light energy into electricity). But, being cheap to produce, they can make up in quantity what they lack in quality.

In conventional screen-printing, a taut piece of fabric, patterned by masking some areas with substances such as wax that repel colouring agents, is covered with ink or dye. The screen is then held horizontally over the object to be printed, and a rubber blade is swept across the back, pressing the coloured surface down to produce an image.

Jabbour’s group print very flat, very thin cells onto glass in a similar way. First, they coat the glass with a transparent, electrically conducting material that acts as one of the solar cell’s electrodes. On top of this, they lay down a thin film of a polymer, which helps to gather current from the photovoltaic material.

Finally, they deposit a blend of two organic compounds that convert light into electricity. One, a carbon-based molecule called a fullerene, produces charged particles that carry an electrical current when light shines onto the molecules. The other, a polymer, ferries the current to electrodes on the top and bottom of the cell.

Under blue light, these screen-printed solar cells have an efficiency of 4.3 per cent. They are probably less efficient for white sunlight, so there is work to be done before the devices are good enough for commercial use.

Organic solar cells were first reported last year by Bell Labs in the United States2. hese latest screen-printed cells are based on prototypes made by team member Sean Shaheen and colleagues earlier this year3.