Qatar’s offer to build 3 power plants to alleviate Lebanon’s electricity crisis is blocked

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s political class, oil companies and private electricity providers have blocked gas-rich Qatar’s offer to build three renewable energy plants to ease the crisis-stricken country’s decades-long electricity crisis, Lebanon’s interim economy minister said Thursday .

Lebanon’s electricity crisis has worsened following the country’s historic economic collapse that began in October 2019. Power outages often last most of the day, leaving many people reliant on expensive private diesel-powered generators and increasing pollution levels.

Although many people have installed solar energy systems in their homes in the last three years, most only use them to supplement energy when the generator is turned off. Cost and space issues in urban areas also limit the use of solar energy.

Qatar has proposed building three power plants with a capacity of 450 megawatts in 2023 – about 25% of the small country’s needs – and Doha has not received a response from Lebanon since then, interim Economy Minister Amin Salam said.

Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayyad responded at a press conference held shortly afterwards that Qatar had only offered to build one 100-megawatt power plant, which would be a joint venture between the private and public sectors and not a gift as “some say.”

Salam said that after Qatar received no response from Lebanon on its offer, Doha offered to start with a 100 MW plant.

Lebanon’s political class, which has ruled the country since the end of the 1975–1990 civil war, is largely blamed for widespread corruption and mismanagement that led to the country’s worst economic crisis in modern history. Five years after the crisis began, the Lebanese government has not implemented the workers-level agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund in 2022 and has opposed any reforms, including: in the electricity sector.

People currently receive an average of four hours of electricity a day from a state-owned company that has cost the government more than $40 billion over the past three decades due to chronic budget shortfalls.

“There is a country in darkness that we want to shine a light on,” Salam told reporters in Beirut, saying that during his last trip to Qatar in April, officials from the gas-rich country asked him about the January 2023 offer.

“Qatar’s leaders are offering help to Lebanon, so we must respond to this offer and deliver results,” Salam said. He said that if political leaders were serious about easing the electricity crisis, they would call for emergency government and parliamentary sessions to approve the decision.

He blamed “cartels and mafia” that include oil companies and 7,200 private energy producers who are profiting hugely from the electricity crisis.

“We don’t want to inhale poison anymore. We inhale poison every day,” Salam said.

“Political squabbles are blocking everything in the country,” Salam said, referring to the lack of reforms and failed attempts to elect a president since President Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022.

Lebanon has not built a new power plant in decades. Numerous plans for new ones have run aground due to factionalism of politicians and conflicting patronage interests. The few aging heavy oil plants have long since ceased to be able to meet demand.