Renewable energy is an attractive source of energy that provide clean and sustainable source of energy. One of the most common sources of renewable energy is solar energy which is capable to meet most the challenges that fronting the world. It provides people with safe and environmentally friendly energy.
Photovoltaic, PV, is the basic element in the solar power system. It harvests solar irradiance to produce clean electrical energy. It decreases the green house emission and the dependency on traditional fossil fuel. Solar energy system is the full system that capture the light, converted to electrical energy, and distributed to the user. It consists of solar panels (PV connected in parallel and series), inverter, battery pack, and charge controller[1]. Other secondary equipment is solar array mounting racks, array DC disconnect, power meter, utility meter, kilowatt meter and backup generator. There exist in the marker various types of solar systems for residential use depending on various features including grid connection, type of material and battery. The solar system might be connected to the grid, stand alone or hybrid system [2].
The energy sector has a vital input in development of the economy in many societies [3]. Especially in Gaza Strip which about 75% of its energy needs are imported, i.e., 66.6% from Israel and 8.5% from Egypt. While the remining 25% off energy are generated locally by the unique Palestinian power plant. Table 1 summarizes the quantity of imported energy and its average consumer prices in Gaza Strip according to the type of energy [4]. Gaza Strip receive 120 MW from Israel, 37MW if all lines worked from Egypt and approximately 80 MW (which is usually less than its full capacity of 120 MW) from the local power plant [5]. However, local power plant currently and Israeli line can provide Gaza by only 54MW and 70MW respectively out of their full capacity due to the political situation in Gaza Strip. Additionally, the electricity demands depend on the season, e.g., in summer and winter seasons the energy consumption reaches 440 MW and decreases to 380 MW for the rest of the year. By simple math, it is easy to notice that most of the year electricity deficit varies between 220 to 280 MW through the year [5] .
Table 1
Quantity and consumer prices of imported energy in Gaza Strip.
| |
Electricity
|
Gasoline
|
Diesel
|
Kerosene
|
LPG
|
Bitumen
|
Oils and lubricants
|
Wood and Charcoal
|
|
Quantity
|
1,024,120 MWh
|
53,999 m3
|
239,707 m3
|
150 m3
|
59,915 ton
|
748 ton
|
25 ton
|
427 ton
|
|
Price[4]
|
0.56 NIS/kWh
|
5.75 NIS/L
|
5.09 NIS/L
|
5.79 NIS/L
|
61.0 NIS/kg
|
1.8 NIS/kg
|
10.0 NIS/kg
|
1.0 NIS/kg
|
In a recent report by Palestinian investment promotion agency (PIPA) , the prices of electricity for different customers in Gaza Strip is given in Table 2. Table 2 show that the price of energy is a Parden for any investment.
Table 2
Average Electricity Prices in Gaza Governorate ($)
| |
Household
|
Commercial
|
Industry
|
Agricultural
|
|
Fixed Fee
|
2.9
|
5.8
|
5.8
|
5.8
|
|
Price per kilowatt
|
0.14
|
0.17
|
0.17
|
0.17
|
Palestine is located in a strategic place crossing the road to three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. Gaza Strip lays on the southeast cost of Mediterranean Sea for around 41 km long in the south of Palestine (Fig. 1). Its width varies from 6 km to around 12 km and its total area is 365 km2. It lies on Longitude 34°26′ east and Latitude 31° 10′ north of the equator. Gaza Strip is highly populated area. By end of 2020, 2.1 million persons live in Gaza as issued by Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) with annual growth rate of 2.7% making it one of the highest populated density in the world. Gaza Strip has Mediterranean climate of hot summers with 300 sunshine days, and cool rainy short winters. It has annual global horizontal irradiance (GHI) above 2000 kWh/m2 as in Fig. 1. The continuous increase of population with low water and fossil fuel resources make Gaza Strip a harsh environment to live in. The electricity crises started in 2006 when the local power plant has been destroyed by Israeli attack causing a 61% electricity deficiency. As a result, two million inhabitants live as little as 3 to 4 hours/day of electricity, forcing locals to search for alternatives including electric generators and solar energy in particular to power houses, hospitals and schools [5]. The problem is increased due to the tension between local political parties in Palestine over custom tax revenue.
Accordingly, the electricity deficiency in Gaza Strip is consider a major problem that affects badly the local economy, social welfare and consequently the living level of Gazans. Gazans are desperate to adopt different energy sources because of the situation in which they live. Thus, it is important to make a thorough study of the benefit use of this system and its applicability in peoples’ lives.
The main sources of renewable energy are solar energy, wind, biomass and geothermal. Solar energy is considered the most important of all system and highly applicable in Gaza Strip. In 2019, Nassara, Y. F., Alsadib, S. Y. present a study on implantation of solar energy in Gaza strip as replacement of fossil fuel [4]. They studied the possibility of using Photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating (CS) solar systems in Gaza Strip. They analyzing solar radiation data for five major cities in Gaza that has been collected for 15 years from 2000 to 2015 using System Advisor Model. They end up with strong recommendation to use solar energy to power Gaza Strip [4].
Wind energy is considered the second source of renewable energy that has high potential in Gaza Strip. Nassara, Y. F., Alsadib, S. Y. in 2018 [6] assessed using wind energy in three different places in Gaza Strip. They analyzed data collected for wind speed and its direction in 16 years (2000–2015). The result of their analysis unveiled that the best place for wind farm in Palestine is Rafah city in the southern part of Palestine on the border with Egypt. They explained that Rafah city has the highest wind energy and being at the border with Egypt smoothing the process of getting the needed equipment and experts with low cost of transportation and communications. Moreover, the low population density in Rafah City upsurges the economic viability of exploiting wind energy. It has been estimated that each wind turbine will produced 15,952 MWh; therefore, it requires 110 wind turbines to cover the shortage of 200 MW[6].
A specific project is done by instilling 5KW wind turbine on the top of residential buildings. At height of 10, wind turbine will annually produce 2695 KWh. This amount can be posted by going to higher building up to 120% at 70m. The electric energy obtained via wind system presents up to 84% of the annual output of an equivalent power rating photovoltaic energy system [7].
In addition to solar energy and wind energy, biomass plays an important source of energy as it may be found anywhere. It has major contribution to protect environment from hazardous exhaust gases when it is particularly used as fuel for vehicles. Biomass energy could be used for cooking, heating, electricity production, steam and liquid biofuels. Biomass energy shar of about 9–13% of the global energy source and around 8% of Palestinian energy source [8] .
Geothermal energy is the least explored energy in Palestine. In a study by Nabil Beithou N., Abu Al-Ganam Z. [9], the accessibility of geothermal energy as a source of energy and electricity in Palestine is discussed. Their results indicated that Gaza Strip and north Palestine southern of Tabariya Lake are high sources for geothermal energy. Moreover, the produced geothermal energy can be independently used to produce electrical power.
Implantation of renewable energy in particular solar energy in Gaza Strip started since 2012 when Ministry of Health used solar energy to power several clinics and hospitals, e.g., department of care cardiac surgery in Al-Shifa medical complex [10]. Ministry of Education and Higher Education followed same strategy and used solar energy to power schools and some administrative offices. The Ministry of equip and Higher Education and the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) in Palestine have a treaty to equip 500 public schools with solar energy system [11]. Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Interior also started to adopt solar system for their departments. Other local institutes, e.g. municipalities, universities, and houses are also started using solar energy system. Gaza Electricity Distribution Corporation (GEDCO) encouraged people to use solar system to power their homes by selling their customers with installment systems [12].
In the last years, several researchers conducted several studies to handle the issue of applying solar energy systems in Palestine and in Gaza Strip in particular. Nassar, Y. F. and Alsadi, S. Y. studied and assisted the energy situation in Gaza Strip and accordingly they suggested four solutions for the electricity crisis in Gaza [4]. In their study they perform an economical and environmental assessment to the four solutions to realize the one which attains the highest revenue. Later the same authors gave an assessment of the potential of solar energy in Gaza Strip in order to finish the suffering of Gazans due to lack of electricity [13]. They present an urgent solution by building PV systems on the roof of local houses that can produce 555 MW. Though the solution will cost more than the existing utility company feeding line, solar energy will minimize unemployment by providing new jobs and independency to Gazans on using imported fuel. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) The full capacity of energy to supply Gaza Strip as stated by the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO), is 550 MW of electricity.
Ismail et al. presented a survey of several installed projects or running for different types of renewable energy. Authors studied the visibility of these systems and their potential in providing stable energy for Palestine [14]. In a study performed in 2011, Aydi used a data from solar radiation survey for years (1989–2002) at the cost to investigate the possibility to adopt solar energy in Gaza Strip. His result show that it could be possible to locate possible places for solar power plant. However, for economic benefits more data is need to be able to do the simulation [15].
Hamed et al. (2013) revealed the types of renewable energy that can be implemented in Palestine which are solar, wind, biogas and geothermal. The study estimated that 36% of energy demand can be generated from wind and solar energy [16]. For study of renewable energy in Gaza Strip, Juaidi [17] gave a review of potential renewable energy and assures that main sources are wind and energy. That is a combination of wind and energy will help Gazans to get stable amount of energy and decrease its dependency on fossil fuel [7].
Some researchers [7, 15, 17–21] studied issues related to renewable energy in Palestine in general and in the Gaza Strip in particular. They studied the needs of the Gaza Strip of electricity and they recommend to use new sources of energy, i.e., solar, wind and sea wave energy. Other researchers (e.g. [22]) present new plans to construct solar power plants in the Gaza Strip. In 2014, PalThink for Strategic Studies published case study report titled “Renewable Energy in the Gaza Strip: Short, Mid, and Long Term concepts”. This report presented obstacles, challenges and recommendations provided by key participants of six workshops and round table discussions organized by PalThink and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for the project titled “Renewable Energy as a Sustainable Solution to the Electricity Crisis in Gaza Strip”[23]. Recommendations and approaches have been divided to short-term, medium and long-term concepts for their appropriate adoption by individuals at different levels of the decision-making process [23]. In 2016, researchers examined energy sector in Palestine and emphasized the use of renewable energy as promising replacement for fossil energy. The possible RE technologies are solar energy, wind energy, geothermal and/or biomass. Solar energy is already extensively utilized inside Gaza Strip for domestic water heating; however, it is not as widely used for electricity production[17].
The environmental impact of energy is an important factor to decide switching to renewable energy. It is found the cost of traditional distillated oil fuel to produce 110 MW power/ year is 735,475,000 [ILS/year] in Gaza Strip and the environmental damage cost is 445,069,320 [ILs/year]. However, using renewable energy will increase the quality of the environment, reducing the amount of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere by 484,250 kg/day [13]. Thus, involving the environmental damage cost into the economic calculations will increase the chances of competition in the energy market in favor of solar energy in Gaza-Strip [13].
In a recent work, the motivation for the local institutions to install solar energy is studied [24]. The authors presented three reasons for adopted solar energy system, which are the environmental factor, marketing value and solar system price. The institutions in the sample do not use solar energy as a full replacement. The main results of their study show that the local institutions used solar energy system to complement the current power system considering environmental value regardless to its cost. In addition, the attributes of the institutions have not affected the decision on adoption of solar system. Thus, authors recommend solar energy system to be used as a source of energy [24]. However, authors in their study did not consider other sectors in the local society, e.g., household, small shops, and hotels.
Table 3 present current type of solar energy systems used in different sectors. It can be seen that most domestic user use off-grid system. While industry use the solar system to lower cost of Fuel.
Table 3
Type and cost of solar energy systems used in all sectors
|
sectors
|
domestic
|
industrial
|
commercial
|
service
|
education
|
|
Type
|
Hybrid – Off grid system
|
Fuel Save Controller system
|
Fuel Save Controller system
|
Hybrid – On grid with Backup system
|
Hybrid – On grid with Backup system
|
|
Cost (USD $ /KWp)
|
2200
|
600
|
600
|
2500
|
2500
|
| 1 USD $=23.5 NIS [Source: https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert at 28 May 2021]. [Source: author collection at May 2021]. |
In [25], authors expand their work to include households. They used the employees for local hospital in Gaza as their population sample. This is due to the fact authors could not find a good reference to the list of people who installed solar system at their houses or they could have direct contact with owners of houses who installed solar system. They included the sample gender, job title and income to find the most effective attributes on the decision to adopt solar energy system among household owners. Results show that gender and job titles have no effect of the decision of adopting solar energy systems. However, income has a direct effect on the decision of adopting solar energy systems. Due to the important results presented in work [25]. Author extended their research work to including additional attributes; i.e. geographic region, type of house, and house ownership, which very important to investigate further the reasons behind installing the solar system in local Gazans’ houses. The results will help decision maker to spot the degree of acceptance among Gazans to install solar systems at their houses. Moreover, results will help policy makers to make major steps in energy market and in creating new power station to power Gaza Strip using solar energy.
[1] Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2017, Ramallah.
[2] 1 USD = 3.588 NIS [Source: https://m.sa.investing.com/currencies/usd-ils at 27/04/2018].
[3] Source: Palestinian investment promotion agency, https://bit.ly/3u0znxO
[4] Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2020, Ramallah https://rb.gy/nsmlfk
[5] https://rb.gy/nsmlfk