Will “energy security” be included on the new government’s agenda?



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In 2003, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Water, former Representative Muhammad Qabbani, organized a series of seminars in the House of Representatives on energy and water (and the environment, by implication). At one such seminar, attended by EDL Director General Kamal Hayek and Director General of the Ministry of the Environment Burj Hatjian, the attending experts called for the need to adopt different strategies for energy and water and pay attention to Renewable energy sources and power generation from the force of natural running water and the sun and air, Hatjian sarcastically replied: “Why strategies? We have data and numbers, and we only need plans, investments and money ”. While Hayek pointed out that “Electricity France” had prepared a study that concluded that it makes no sense to invest in renewable energy in Lebanon, noting that an investor in the establishment of thermal power plants cannot be asked about the viability of the energy. Renewable!

During that period, there were very few voices calling for different energy policies and strategies and opposing surface dam policies. Therefore, successive governments have continued, in exaggerated investment policies, concentrating on the construction of thermal power plants and surface dams, thus increasing debts, without solving the problem of energy and water shortages!
On the occasion of the recent French “return” to Lebanon, we recall that France itself, which has long become used to being the first country in the world to depend on nuclear energy at a rate above 70% to produce electricity, faced in the summer of 2003 to an unprecedented rise in temperatures, accompanied by drought and shortages. In the water, what threatened nuclear reactors would explode as they needed water cooling. This sparked a lot of discussion at the time about the need to reconsider energy policies. This is a renewed global debate following the nuclear leakage disaster at the Japanese Fukushima reactor in 2011, when most countries adopting nuclear power production systems decided to reconsider their policies and stop building new reactors. Germany was, before that, the first nuclear country to announce the definitive abandonment of dependence on nuclear energy by the year 2022. It is true that many of these countries were betting on natural gas as an alternative rather than renewable energy, but the dependency ratios on these energies did not stop. The increase since then, especially with the continued decrease in costs and the development of technology that is classified as clean.
Lebanon, which is rich in renewable energy, has never been able to benefit from it, although, since Ottoman times, it began to depend on water for energy. In his book “Towards a Water Policy in Lebanon”, engineer Muhammad Fawaz points out that the energy production of water plants constituted 79% of the total electrical energy in Lebanon in 1969. It was possible to develop these hydroelectric technologies, which are the cheapest, cleanest, longest lasting and least maintenance free of all clean technologies, without the need to build large dams to generate them. Had it done so, it would have had to bet not only on increasing the energy mix from different sources, but also on renouncing unrealistic and costly electoral promises, such as ensuring electricity 24 for 24, and recognizing that it must live with the idea of ​​less adopting policies of technical and practical savings. Consumption, and controlling the increase in demand in various uses … which is a more efficient policy than increasing production through the establishment of thermal power plants. As it is not possible to bet on renewable energies to produce more than 30% of the energy due to the need for a lot of land and spaces to install solar panels or fans, and to improve transport networks and stop waste in them, the policies of conservation and energy efficiency are also the most effective, which can substitute for exploration. On cursed resources like oil and gas.

The energy production of hydroelectric plants constituted 79% of the total electrical energy in Lebanon in 1969

It should also be noted that the requirement to formulate strategies before plans was not detailed, since strategic thinking requires the adoption of specific principles (which have never been discussed before) and the comparison between them to determine priorities, action programs and plans. One of the most important of these principles is sustainability. This means betting on sustainable energies such as air, sun and water rather than betting on inevitably depleted energies, such as oil, gas and uranium, in addition to being cleaner, less expensive and polluting. The second basic principle is related to energy security, since although nuclear or oil thermal energy is incomparably more productive than other energy sources, its risks are also much greater, as well as the need to study the environmental impacts of any option , especially when depending on polluting thermal power plants. . Here it should be noted that adopting the dirtiest fuel for power generation, such as coal, could become the most expensive if the strict environmental conditions for such industries are met. According to recent comparative tables of the types of fuels used in power generation, coal, which is cheaper and more polluting, can become a more expensive fuel ($ 136 per megawatt-hour of average price), if taken into account. Account for all new environmental conditions.
This missing strategy also had to take into account the country’s economic situation, scientific development, the political and administrative level in it, the nature of governance and governance, and the level of corruption. For a country that cannot manage contamination from a simple oil spill while unloading vessels at its offshore facilities, how can it control dangerous leaks during exploration, extraction, or transportation from deep wells into a small, semi-enclosed sea like the Mediterranean? Furthermore, how can a bankrupt, politically and administratively corrupt country be entrusted with great options, forcing exploration and extraction companies and distributing shares?
French exploration exploration was ordered “Total”, in conjunction with the French president establishing the work program for the new government … Will sensitive issues such as “energy security” be on the agenda, or is it what was written in a series of laws that gave companies all the capabilities?

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