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PNN · 2017-01-30
Omar Shaban, director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, warned against the continued neglect of renewable energy amid Gaza’s electricity crisis, saying it threatens social peace and stability. Dr. Maher Al-Tabba, Director of Public Relations and Media at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the responsible Palestinian authorities had failed to manage the energy file for ten years and that citizens had paid about $1.5 billion for costly electricity alternatives, enough to build six solar power stations. The conference recommendations called for lifting taxes on renewable energy imports, implementing strategic alternative energy projects, adopting supportive legislation, and encouraging banks and the private sector to finance and invest in renewable energy.
Omar Shaban, director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, warned against the continued neglect of renewable energy amid Gaza’s electricity crisis, saying it threatens social peace and stability. Dr. Maher Al-Tabba, Director of Public Relations and Media at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry,…
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## PNN in Pictures: Participants in a PalThink Conference Call for a Turn to Renewable Energy to Solve the Electricity Crisis in the Gaza Strip
Gaza / PNN / Omar Shaban, Director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, warned against the continued neglect of renewable energy amid the electricity crisis that threatens civil peace and stability.
Dr. Maher al-Tabba’, Director of Public Relations and Media at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, considered that the responsible Palestinian authorities had failed to manage the energy file over the course of ten years, and that citizens had paid the price of costly electricity alternatives out of their own sustenance, amounting to about one and a half billion dollars—a sum sufficient to establish six solar power generation stations producing more than 1,000 megawatts. Al-Tabba’ gave the example that one residential building paid more than a quarter of a million dollars for diesel during the years of the crisis, while a residential tower spent 96,000 shekels during the past year 2016 on diesel to generate electricity.
The recommendations also called on the government to remove taxes on imports related to renewable energy and its systems, to activate oversight of specifications and standards for renewable energy systems, and to allow the import of the newest and best of them.
The recommendations also call for the Energy Authority to implement strategic projects that rely on alternative energy, and to support citizens’ adoption of it through organized and supported projects in the medium and long term, stressing the necessity of the participation of financial institutions and banks in supporting commercial and personal renewable energy projects through soft loans.
The recommendations also included putting in place legislation that serves renewable energy projects and approving sufficient space above buildings and institutions to accommodate solar energy systems, in addition to obligating all new housing projects to rely on renewable energy and establishing structures that help achieve this.
The recommendations affirmed the need to encourage the private sector to invest in renewable energy, produce it, and recycle its waste in a manner that guarantees environmental safety, while implementing community awareness campaigns to promote a culture of using and relying on renewable energy, correcting false information about it, and providing guidance and direction for dealing with it in a proper and effective manner.
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