Due to the damage to the electricity sector in Syria during the more than nine-year-long war, solar power has emerged as a promising project to offer clean energy and support the government electricity grids in the country.
Several projects have been implemented in the northwestern province of Tartous and the southern province of Sweida by investors who seek to invest in solar power to support the government's electricity grids and to achieve financial benefit.
The government has offered facilitation for investors, who import the solar panels and install them in certain areas close to government electricity stations.
Investors sign a 25-year-long contract with the electricity authorities and get paid for the energy generated by the solar panels from the government every two months.
Nidal Qarmousheh, assistant electricity minister, told Xinhua that the direct losses in the electricity sector during the Syrian war are estimated at 2,040 billion Syrian pounds (1.632 billion U.S. dollars) from the beginning of the crisis in 2011 until the end of 2018.
He said the indirect losses are estimated at 3,262 billion Syrian pounds.
The Western sanctions have had negative repercussions on the electricity projects as they led to the halting of the banking relations with international banks and the reluctance of insurance companies to deal with Syrian institutions, Qarmousheh said.
The electricity ministry has put a strategic plan for implementing renewable energy projects until 2030. This plan includes encouraging projects to be benefited from renewable energy through granting facilitations and motives for investors, the official remarked.
He said the number of solar energy projects that have connected with the electricity grid has so far exceeded 50 with a capacity of 11,522 megawatts.
It is true that the power generated from the solar power is still far from covering all the country's needs, but investors said it's the beginning of a new era where clean energy is becoming a promising field of investment.
In Sweida, Samer Elwan, an investor whose company was established in 2015, told Xinhua that his company has established six projects to generate electricity from solar power, noting that the future is for renewable energy.
"This investment is successful one hundred percent for two main reasons: the first is the free initial material, which is the sun, and the second is that the government buys the electricity from the investors," he said.
Elwan acknowledged that the Syrian crisis was the driving force behind establishing solar power investments in the country.
"The crisis has been a main and important reason, which pushed us to think of the importance of alternative energy," he said.
In another area in Sweida, Median Ayyoub, an investor, had canceled his job in the United Arab Emirates and returned to his town to invest in solar power.
He told Xinhua that he wanted to invest the money he got from his job abroad into a project that would achieve a public benefit and a personal interest.
"In the circumstances we are living through, I have found that the best thing is to invest in the solar energy to support the government's electricity grid and at the same time it brings financial benefit to me as an investor," he said.
He noted that the project would return the share capital in five years.
Ayyoub said the project relies on solar power for production without extra expenses except for the initial expenses of the solar plates and their installation.
"The project study indicates that the project will return the share capital in five years so the project is economically viable and is beneficial for the investor," he remarked.
For his side, Eiad Khalil, an energy engineer in Tartous province, told Xinhua that the need for solar power emerged when the damage befell the electricity sector in Syria amid high demand for electricity. He added that such a situation has encouraged investors to deal with the solar power in addition to the facilitation the government has provided for the investors.
"We are witnessing an increase in the demand for electricity in the country so from this point. Some investors started investing in generating electricity through the solar energy, which is clean energy," he said.
Khalil noted that solar power projects support electricity security in the country and also bring benefit to those working in this field.
"Such projects support power security in the country and decrease the consumption of electricity as it supports the country with clean electrical energy. On the other hand, such projects are for investments and benefit all the workers," Khalil said.
Editor: Galia
