Picture cropped originally taken from RitaKml

This idea was launched today by the Ministry of Energy and Water through the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (L.C.E.C). Rita has all the details on this project:

As shown in the first picture above, the idea behind the Beirut River Solar Snake is to cover the concrete structure, around 6 meter above river level, with solar panels and to generate, as a start, 1MW which will be linked to the grid via an inverter. The river will be covered with 20,000m2 of solar panel space in the first phase.

The final goal is to generate 10MW and in order to do so, 6.5km will be covered with solar panels. The money generated from phase 1 will be reinvested in the project to add add.

The maximum budget is set to a maximum of $4 million. But this cost is projected to decrease knowing that similar projects in Jordan cost around $2.3 million without taking into consideration the cost incurred by the structure.

Moreover, the French Embassy will provide Lebanon with a solar panel testing platform which will serve as a lab. This will also have educational purposes for all parties concerned including students. I see it as a mean to involve the population. The pre-qualification bid announcement for the Beirut River Solar Snake project will take place on 23 April 2013.

I don’t know much about solar farms but that’s the first time I hear about building one on top of a river. What happens if the river floods? How about the chemicals and garbage being thrown in the river? Doesn’t Nahr Beirut require maintenance? I don’t know much yet about this project but anything related to renewable energies is interesting so let’s hope it’s for the best.

Thank you Elie!