iloubnan - Italy supports the installation of 57 solar panels on building of public utility in Lebanon - May 26, 2011

The Minister of Environment, Mr. Mohammad Naji Rahhal, and the Ambassador of Italy to Lebanon, H.E. Giuseppe Morabito, presented today the 57 sites chosen for the installation of solar panels in the framework of the project “Climate Change Mitigation – Renewable Energy”, funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Italian Cooperation for a total amount of 1 Million Euros. 

The ceremony took place on May 26, at 11.00 a.m., at the premises of the Ministry of Environment (MOE) in the presence of Representatives of Ministry of Public Health and of Interior and Municipalities and numbers of beneficiaries.

The initiative, which is in line with the Ministerial Declaration and with MoE’s workplan for the years 2010-2012, aims at establishing a framework for cooperation to actively contribute to the implementation of a project fostering renewable energy and improving the role of the MOE in the Climate Change sector. The project comes to complement the wide array of activities that MoE has been actively pursuing during the last 2 years. Through specific technical assistance, the project will improve the competences of the MOE in the sector of renewable energy and will strengthen the overall national resilience in the field of energy management.

The initiative will provide over 900 Solar Water Heating Systems to be installed in 57 buildings of public utility distributed all over Lebanon, among which: 4 prisons, 14 orphanages, 2 family shelters, 2 retirement houses, 1 hospital and 33 red cross centers. This will have an immediate result in reducing energy demand by 677 MWh per year and decreasing CO2 emissions by over 540 tons per year. 

The Italian Ambassador Morabito stated that “among the several things we have done to harm our planet and finally ourselves, reinventing the wheel would be just another one, we need to rethink our world maximizing the use of resources directly available such as sun and wind among others and educating future generations for a more optimized and rational use of energy. The sun is free everywhere and for everybody therefore not connected to human’s weakness”

The Minister of Environment concluded the conference by stating that “the environment does not belong to us but rather belongs to the future generations. Our presence on earth has changed the face and space of the planet. We are in the era of unforeseeable surprises and transformations; if we seek change, we must begin by the man in the mirror”.