Bashar Humeid - Doha
While Israeli Occupation Controls Energy Production in Palestine - “Energy Independence First”
January 27, 2013
There is no freedom without a supporting infrastructure; this is the conclusion one will reach after listening to the Palestinian expert Dr. Riyad Hodali talking about the status of energy in the occupied Palestinian territories. The masterminds of the Oslo Accords once used the slogan “Gaza and Jericho First”, but this plan did not lead to the aspired independence, along with continuous settlement expansion, but also with years-long negligence by the Palestinian leadership of the notion of energy independence. In the alleys of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha we met Dr. Riyad Hodali, the Executive Director of the Palestinian Solar and Sustainable Energy Society (PSSES), who talked to us about PSSES’s point of view regarding the energy sector in Palestine.
Would you describe to us the current situation of electric energy potential in the occupied territories?
Today, the Israeli occupation controls 98% of the potential electric energy production in the West Bank, through the Israel Electric Corporation which was established in 1923. In earlier days, there were several Palestinian electricity producing companies which had to close due to the restrictive policies of the ongoing occupation. All along, Palestinian cities and villages were systematically connected to the Israeli grid. Practically speaking, the grid now supplying the Palestinian cities is a grid within the Israeli grid, and therefore we are still dependent on Israeli energy. This is a result of the Oslo Accords, and later the Paris Agreements, which did not give much authority to the Palestinians in the electricity production sector.
As Palestinians, we have a history of self-sufficiency especially in the First Intifada. Why weren’t there attempts to produce renewable energy on a local level, i.e. the villages and neighbourhoods?
The problem is that any electricity production station will have to have the licence from the Israelis. We’ve been trying to get those permits for two years now, and we still didn’t get them.. The Palestinian Authority can give permits for building energy stations within the Palestinian cities, but this is faced with the reality of high cost of living in cities, and a lack of space. The weak political will among Palestinian leaders in the past years also contributed to not realizing any of these projects. But recently, a step further was taken by issuing the new Palestinian legislation for renewable energy. Also, the declining production costs of the solar energy in the past years are a reason to be optimistic, particularly as it has become competitive to traditional methods of electricity production. The fact that the PA does not have control beyond the Palestinian cities continues to be an obstacle that any renewable energy projects have to face. This requires either pressure on Israel to approve such projects or genuine national independence.
But what about house roofs? Aren’t they enough to produce solar energy?
Frankly, the PA did not do enough in this regard. Officials promised to put an initiative into action that is based on offering incentives for those who want to produce energy on the top of their house and sell it through the existing electricity grid. The Energy Authority has indeed approved this, with a price higher than the selling price. There is also a pledge to provide easy loans to the inhabitants to encourage them to install photoelectric cells on top of their roofs. The PA has approved, in principal, a project targeting one thousand houses in different cities in the West Bank. We in PSSES, however, think that this ambition is not enough and we can proceed much quicker in this regard. One should not forget that the Palestinian cities rank the first worldwide in using solar heaters to heat water. This is a sector that can provide lots of job opportunities, and we think the same can apply to photoelectric cells to generate electricity.
Do you think our political situation will be positively affected if we developed the energy infrastructure in the Palestinian cities?
Today we’re talking about declaring the independence of Palestine and being recognized as a state. The first thing that Palestinians should focus on is ‘energy independence’ and disengagement with the Israelis. This, however, will not happen as long as there is Israeli control over the borders. Israel continues to emphasize that even if Palestine is recognized as a state, it will still maintain the control over borders. Frankly speaking, I don’t know where we’re heading to, but what I know is that energy independence necessitates depending on resources that are not imported through the borders, and by this I mean gas and oil. Therefore, the main choice should be all sorts of renewable energy.