Lebanese solar energy scams hold back push for green power

A solar panel installation is pictured on top of a building in Khaldeh, Lebanon. Decades of financial mismanagement and corruption among Lebanon’s elite have plunged the country into a deep economic crisis that has eaten away at the currency’s value and left the national infrastructure – including power generation – in chaos. — Reuters

BEIRUT: When a door-to-door salesman offered Mazen Kanaan the chance to escape Lebanon’s regular energy blackouts and soaring electricity bills by installing a cheap solar panel on his home in the capital Beirut, Kanaan jumped at the opportunity.

Within a fortnight the panel failed, and the salesman stopped answering his calls.