Dr. Walid Fayad to the Parliament's Public Works, Transportation, Energy and Water Committee: "we will try to resolve the gaps in funding [for solar projects]"

Dr. Walid Fayad, Minister of Energy and Water, stated on Monday 8 November 2021 in the Parliament's Public Works, Transportation, Energy and Water Committee meeting that "among our programs is solar energy, as it complements the supply that we will provide to Electricité du Liban. Solar energy is more affordable for us: it is better for the environment and its cost is good. We have a program including 12 projects, each one of 15 megawatts of solar energy. These projects were submitted before I joined the Ministry [of Energy and Water], so I requested to have this file reviewed along with the procedures of submitting applications and evaluating bids until we reached 12 participants so far, in order to move forward. However, it is essential for us to have enough funding and guarantees that the private sector needs, and we will try to resolve the gaps in funding".

It is to be noted that the bidding process for the above-mentioned projects was launched back in January 2017 aiming at procuring up to 180 MW of solar PV farms equally distributed across the four main Lebanese regions: North, South, Mount Lebanon, and the Bekaa, based on a competitive bidding and negotiation procedure starting from the lowest received tariff.

Dr Fayad's statement above reiterates the Ministry's commitment to the success of the project.

More information on the project could be found here.