by Dana Halawi

BEIRUT, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Samer el-Rayess, a 30-year-old bank employee, has recently borrowed 5,000 U.S. dollars from his uncle in the United States to buy a solar panel system that could power the oxygen machine that his father badly needed.

The young man could not rely on power supply from Lebanon's state electricity or private generators, which is limited to only a few hours a day.

"I had no choice but to install a solar power system as my father suffers from a lung disease and may die if he does not use his oxygen machine for 12 to 15 hours a day," Rayess told Xinhua.

Electricity shortage in Lebanon has been a chronic problem, exacerbated by the lack of U.S. dollars which limits the country's capacity to import fuel for power stations. As a result, Lebanese households bear daily intermittent blackouts that last for around 20 hours a day.

Moreover, the prices of services provided by private generators increased tremendously after the central bank decided to remove subsidies on diesel, leaving many households in darkness.

"My salary is equivalent to no more than 300 U.S. dollars a month given the collapse of the local currency, and I had to pay around 140 U.S. dollars a month for nine hours of electricity a day from private generators, which was disastrous for me," Rayess said.

An increasing number of Lebanese have resorted to solar energy amid fears of further power cuts as Lebanon's central bank reserves stand at 11 billion U.S. dollars only, which means the import of fuel products may come to a complete halt in the near future.

Muhieddine Habli, owner of ActiveX IT solutions, an information technology company that sells solar panels and other IT services, told Xinhua that demand for solar panel systems skyrocketed over the past six months amid the uncertain financial situation.

"An increasing number of people got rid of their private generator memberships in favor of solar panels," Habli told Xinhua.

Habli said a 20-ampere solar panel system using four batteries can provide around five hours of power supply during the night and an eight-battery system can provide electricity all night long.

"Despite the high cost of solar panel systems, which can range between 4,000 and 5,000 U.S. dollars, people have been borrowing money from relatives to invest in such solutions," Habli added.

The increase in demand for solar power systems prompted Lebanon's Housing Bank to launch a solar energy loan offering 75 million Lebanese pounds (about 2500 U.S. dollars) for each household with a 4.99 percent interest rate for 30 years. Enditem

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