Lebanon's health sector races toward solar power amid electricity cuts

Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Lebanon faced a heart-wrenching dilemma in late June: The hospital needed to let its backup power generator rest to keep it from breaking down but dozens of patients in intensive care could die if the power went out.

The generator had already been running for more than 35 hours straight — twice as long as it should — because of Lebanon’s chronically unreliable Electricite du Liban, the country’s main power grid. EDL kicked in for a few hours that day — which temporarily averted the crisis.

“We have more than 70 people in our ICU [intensive care unit], and they rely on machines to stay alive,” Dr. Firass Abiad, manager and CEO at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, told Devex in his office. “We were lucky to get a few hours of state electricity at the time, but we were very close to a crisis.” 

Doctors and aid workers are flagging the urgent need to invest in solar power as electricity cuts and fuel shortages put critical pressure on Lebanon’s battered health care sector. The crisis is one result of what the World Bank calls one of the worst economic crises in modern history. In the capital of Beirut, state electricity is at best available for a few hours a day due to the bankrupt EDL, which is responsible for about 40% of the cash-strapped country’s debt.

Depleted foreign reserves have also caused the local currency to lose more than 90% of its value on the black market in less than two years, spawning rampant inflation and acute fuel shortages.

With fuel needed to power generators, the crisis threatens to interrupt medical services and even shutter hospitals and clinics across the country. Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital, is rationing electricity and has turned off air conditioning, despite the summer heat to save fuel.

Experts project the situation to worsen — an unimaginable prospect considering most of the country already lives in darkness for hours a day, while queues at gasoline stations extend for miles without any guarantee of getting fuel.

But a year after the massive explosion at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people — a disaster widely blamed on Lebanese authorities — political negligence, intransigence, and corruption have paralyzed rival political factions from forming a government to tackle the crisis.

Aid groups are now turning to solar power to make medical services more reliable and sustainable in the long term, United Nations agencies and international NGOs told Devex. Despite its sunny weather and chronic power shortages, Lebanon lags far behind other countries in the region on solar power and other renewable energy sources.

The U.N. Development Programme is spearheading the largest solar initiative. In cooperation with Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, the agency is installing solar panels in 10 public hospitals, with the aim of removing them entirely from the EDL grid and significantly reducing their dependence on generators. It’s expected to cost up to $1.7 million. Four hospitals are slated to be completed by December, and the rest by the spring of 2022.

Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which is included in the project, is last in line because, as the largest facility, it requires the most work.

“These projects take time. We need to do the procurements, and find the contracts, but the dire situation in the country means that everything takes more time,” said Hassan Harajli, UNDP’s energy program adviser in Beirut. The agency will release a report this fall which will recommend strategies for the medical sector to cut electricity costs and increase sources of reliable energy.

But with fuel depleting fast across the country, INGOs are racing to adopt their own solutions. Mohammad al-Jundi, logistics manager at Médecins Sans Frontières, said Lebanon’s moderate climate should encourage aid groups to invest in solar power, since it can provide round-the-clock electricity alongside their own generators.

“Solar power will be much better for the environment, while allowing us to preserve a thousand liters of diesel for about six months,” he said. “The problem today isn’t whether you have a generator. It’s whether you can purchase diesel to run it.”

Despite the benefits of solar power, the price is steep for Lebanon. Local companies told Jundi that installing solar power costs between $10,000 to $12,000 per medical clinic — a sum that is more than twice the annual salary of doctors in Lebanon today. Companies could also charge hospitals at least ten times more since they are larger facilities that require more energy, according to Harajli.

INGOs can afford the investment since they’re funded in U.S. dollars, yet private and public hospitals won’t be able to without donors. Many are already reeling from an acute shortage of medicines and an exodus of medical professionals.

Still, medical facilities are doing their best to cope. Most clinics prepared for the fuel crisis by storing diesel for months, with many still procuring from the black market whenever they can.

Aid workers from the International Medical Corps, which supports 52 primary health care centers in Lebanon, told Devex that UNICEF donated solar fridges to some clinics to keep vaccines cold — necessary to prevent them from spoiling — in case they need to cut back on fuel.

For centers left out of the program, IMC is contemplating giving them uninterruptible power supplies, which are battery devices that provide backup electricity for a couple of hours.

“For the long-term, we are keen to see what the [health ministry’s]’s strategy will be based on UNDP’s assessment,” said Anil Kangal, IMC’s deputy country director at Programs in Lebanon.

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, which is responsible for providing education and health care to about 207,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, has also resorted to solar fridges to preserve COVID-19 vaccines and uninterruptible power supplies to carry out x-rays

“We still need fuel to power our generators,” Hoda Samra, public information officer at UNRWA,  told Devex. “We are holding our breaths, because if we run out then there is nothing we can do.”

Samra added that the agency is considering adopting solar power on a wider scale. However, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s chronically underfunded budget makes it challenging to make the investment without compromising on its services.

Lebanese hospitals face even greater challenges. More and more facilities are urgently highlighting the need for backup electricity, including those that expect to have solar panels by next year thanks to UNDP.

But Harajli says patients in critical care might not be able to wait that long.

“Hospitals can’t afford a single blackout,” he said, with resignation. “Any power cut could mean a loss of life.”