Syria's solar boom is redefining Middle East's energy model

https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/energy/2026/07/06/syrias-solar-boom-is-redefining-middle-easts-energy-model/

by littlexsparkee • 14 days ago

83 18 14 days ago

thenationalnews.com

Stronico• 14 days ago

Non paywalled link https://archive.is/g7HNV

WhereIsTheTruth• 14 days ago

See, Iran?

All you had to do was westernize your economy, hand your infrastructure to global capital, and open your markets

Do that, and just like Syria, you'll become "partners"

amunozo2• 14 days ago

Aren't all these panels coming from China anyway? Iran could do this and keep its iron grip, no?

alephnerd2• 14 days ago

Aren't all these panels coming from China anyway

Turkiye not China in this case.

Turkiye has a large PV fabrication industry as well [0][1][2][3] and it's Turkish companies that are leading reconstruction with Qatari, Saudi, and Emirati capital [4].

The Turkish company selected for most of these projects (Kalyon Group) is also in the PV fabrication business [3] and Erdogan aligned.

[0] https://cw-enerji.com/en/cw-enerji-library/cw-enerji-one-of-...

[1] https://www.kivancsolar.com/en/corporate

[2] https://smartsolar.com.tr/en/hakkimizda.html

[3] https://kalyonpv.com/

[4] https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/suriyenin-enerji-sektorune-...

pjc50• 14 days ago

I don't think that's a reasonable description of Syria, which is more of a failed state.

But yes, generally westernizing works out better for all concerned.

xg15• 13 days ago

Well, it works out better for the West...

throw7384844• 14 days ago

Western solar panels come with subscription and remote kill switch.

Iran is trying to build grid on atomic powerplants, because solar is frankly not enough nor reliable!

epsters• 14 days ago

They may also want to replace the Supreme leader with a CIA, Al-Qaeeda, ISIS and Nusra-Front veteran to get taken off the State-Sponsor-of-Terror list.

Cyph0n• 14 days ago

Or intentionally repatriate colonial administrators who oversaw torture of misbehaving natives and place them in cushy government positions back in the metropole.

Or repeatedly elect ex-Irgun and Lehi terrorist leaders into the highest positions of government.

Or just Winston Churchill the hell out of it and be proud of your past crimes.

etc etc

vishnugupta• 14 days ago

Just checked out the Google map satellite view and no kidding! The solar panels are crazy! Highly recommend exploring it yourselves. Mind blowing.

moffkalast• 14 days ago

Yeah there's something on almost every roof in Damascus, and Google's imagery is usually fashionably 2-5 years out of date so it's probably even more now.

adrianN• 14 days ago

I wonder how they use balcony solar for blackouts. The systems I know shut themselves off if the grid goes down.

tibbydudeza• 14 days ago

We had to do the same here in South Africa - 2 hourly blackouts and innovative financing packages and cheap panels and inverters from China - you pay a monthly rent to own fee and they cover the maintenance.

Nearly every third house has panels, but we don't feed back to the grid - the idiotic local authority lost the plot here and wanted to charge an enormous fee for a feedback meter.

metalman• 13 days ago

The title would be better if it mentioned Pakistan, cleptocracy, broken institutions,and war lords and how PV appears to be the pragmatic response. But my own experience, going off grid in Nova Scotia 15 years ago,is that at first people would ask how much it cost, and then often start a bitter diatribe against the power company, but now people are going ahead getting pannels and living as they see fit, the same institutions here now too busy and remote to enforce the regulations to (SAFTEY! SAFTEY!), disuade that. Solar PV is inreadably fault tollerant for basic DC current off grid battery charging, and people are jimmy jamming any and all old used batteries for storage.The sense of agency derived from having stuff power up from home built systems the first time is a powerfull motivator to keep going.

senectus1• 10 days ago

this is going to be a very interesting study for modularized, distributed power grid in a war affected environment.

Its one of the reasons I think Its better than Nuclear power. Power stations make fantastic high value targets in war, and a quick easy way to cripple an enemy and permanently hamper their ability to operate into the future.

A society with solar (and maybe batteries) make for a target thats hard to cripple, and easy to repair and recover.

I feel like in war and natural disasters this as a seriously undervalued aspect

Syria's solar boom is redefining Middle East's energy model

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