Solar Power, the Great Man Made River and the Environment

I was pleasantly surprised to read about the announcement of the projected building of solar plants along the Great Man Made River (GMMR) in Libya to guarantee the availability of water to towns and counteract the massive crippling power cuts we have been experiencing due to quasi a decade of civil war.

This is a  USAID project with a number of  international partners  namely UNSMIL  and UNDP plus one Libyan partner:  the Libyan Local Investment and Development Fund.

Being a cheerleader for entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods and having experience in development project, I think it's a great  initiative and much needed step to encourage renewable energy which will rightly create jobs.  

So I was wondering who are the companies that will install these panels and accompanying equipment. Are they local businesses ? Because we do have a growing number of Libyan business people who operate in this sector due to the growing market in Libya as a result of increased power cuts (long story maybe another post).  Different businesses/jobs would rise from these plants and provide the opportunity for the Libyan engineers to gain more experience and income. Or will this be given to a foreign company ? I have not seen the tender announcements yet but it would be awesome to see Libyans do this. Keeping fingers crossed.

The other thing that crossed my mind, is the land public or private? if private will it be purchased or will the owners get royalties? So many questions running in my head. 

Now the high-school environment buff in me, one of those people we used to call 'tree huggers' a lifetime ago got thinking if we made the necessary environment impact studies or will that be included in the terms of reference for whoever will be carrying out the recce mission? I have recently been reading about  India's experience as one of the largest investors in renewable energy. Apparently sometimes  large scale solar projects could create more problems than they solve.😕

[[Four of the top five investments in renewable energy in 2019 were in India. “In second place came the US, down 8% at $797 million, and Europe was third, climbing 14% to $443 million,”]]

This part had me particularly worried in water starved Libya :

[[Large solar power plants require between 7,000 and 20,000 litres of water per megawatt per wash--an average water tanker has 5,000 litres capacity, and a wash is needed at least twice a year. And since they are mostly located in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, they add to the water stress of local regions. Requiring an average of five acres per megawatt, solar power plants are also land-intensive sources of energy, said experts.]]

I am not an engineer or technical expert on  solar panels so it all could be very easy, but I wonder if the Libyan environmental laws have been modernised after 2011? 

The GMMR is vital to  Libyans so I hope it has all been worked out well. Would love to hear more about it.

From Wikipedia