Solar power brings a brighter future
Muhammad Dahman’s children study day and night. He has two sons at university, a third in high school, and a daughter also going through the Gaza education system.
Dahman, 46, is proud of his children but their study routine was once a source of anxiety. In Gaza, where electricity is at a premium, more homework meant more money.
On top of the 200 shekels (Dh206) the journalist paid each month to connect to Gaza’s weak power grid, he shelled out at least another 200 shekels a month for a generator to keep the lights on at night.
In April, when the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel in a dispute between Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, Dahman decided enough was enough.
The next month, on a friend’s advice, he spent about Dh7,350 – which he is still paying off – on four solar panels on the roof next to his nephew’s pigeon coop.
The panels provide the electricity Dahman’s family uses during the day, and charges the batteries they use at night.
Now, he says, the family has a “new life”. Not only does he have enough electricity to meet all their needs, his home has become a hangout for cousins wanting to cool off or recharge their mobile phones.
Sitting in his fan-cooled living room, Dahman says it was a relief to no longer depend on the Gaza Strip grid. He believes that solar energy is the way of the future for the territory.
That solar energy is better for the environment is of secondary concern to him. “I just want light.”
Most Gazans cannot afford solar energy, but for the upper and middle classes in the embattled strip it is becoming an option as the local energy system crumbles. The UN Development Programme is installing solar panels in schools and hospitals in Gaza.
Last month, the Israeli government further reduced its energy supply to the territory at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, which blamed Hamas for failing to repay the energy costs. Now, Gazans receive just four hours of electricity every 24 hours.
Not far from Dahman’s home on a busy Gaza City thoroughfare, a solar company has put panels on display on the pavement outside its shop.
Inside, Tareq Darwish,
25, the Oceanic Company’s accountant, says that sales of the Indian-made panels, which must pass through Israel to reach Gaza, have almost tripled in the past 10 weeks.
From selling 15 panels a month, the company is now selling up to 50. With more retailers selling them, prices have gone down from 1,000 shekels a panel to 600 or 700.
It is still not cheap. Mr Darwish says he cannot afford the product he is selling but he tells customers that solar panels are a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to generators, which can be deadly if misused.
Gazans have died from generator fires and carbon monoxide poisoning after keeping their units indoors.
Business owners in Gaza are also looking to solar energy. In the northern part of Gaza City, the tall metal roof of Al Nour petrol station is topped by tilted solar panels drinking up the sun.
It is part of a large complex
owned by the Abu Qamer family, which includes a popular 24-hour grocery store known all over the northern Gaza Strip for its large refrigerators full of perishable items such as hummus and labneh cheese, and a 12-unit apartment building housing more than 100 members of the family.
Family patriarch Fateh Abu Qamer, now in his 60s, invested US$52,000 (Dh191,000) in 90 solar panels and 30 batteries to power the complex last July.
In the past, the two businesses would barely bring in enough money to cover the costs of electricity, Mr Abu Qamer said. But he expects to make back what he spent on the solar panels and batteries in two years.
Others in the area have taken note and one of Mr Abu Qamer’s neighbours has already followed. Mr Abu Qamer welcomes neighbours who need to charge their mobile phones and even hooked up one neighbour’s electric-powered water supply, he said. In the Gaza heat, the Abu Qamer grocery store is a welcome oasis of cool in the locality.
“The most important thing is to keep the services running,” Mr Qamer says.
In Gaza today, that is no small feat.