Lebanon is soliciting bids for the installation of an 8 MW solar power plant
It will help expand the capacity of an existing 1 MW PV project along the Beirut River
The Ministry of Energy and Water plans to fund the project on its own budget
The Lebanon Ministry of Energy and Water has launched a tender to expand its 1 MW solar power plant along the Beirut River to be expanded with the addition of an 8 MW PV project. The country’s Energy Minister Walid Fayad reportedly called it the country’s largest solar energy project to date.
The current 1 MW project on site has been producing power efficiently, according to the minister who was quoted by the National News Agency as saying that the 8 MW addition will be funded by the ministry’s budget.
Details of the tender announced on September 11, 2024, are available on the country’s public procurement platform. The last date to submit bids is October 23, 2024.
According to the 2020 Solar PV Status Report for Lebanon by the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) dated 2022, at the end of 2020, the country’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 90 MW (see Lebanon’s Total Installed Solar Capacity Close To 90 MW).
Lebanon’s total installed solar PV capacity at the end of 2023 was 1,005 MW according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which mostly comes from distributed generation systems.
Rooftop solar is particularly helpful here since the grid supply is uncertain with the national utility Electricité du Liban (EDL) out of fuel. In August 2024, EDL had reportedly exhausted all its fuel stock, leading to massive outages across the nation.
The country targets to achieve a 30% share of renewable energy in its energy consumption by 2030 which it aims to increase to 55%.