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28
Winter
2013
It was enough to make anyone turn their heels and leave.
But not
Albert Khoury ‘90
. It will take much more than the
notorious Lebanese red tape, the never-ending bureaucracy, the
endless procrastination to deter him from his idea.
And his idea is a quite brilliant one: install windmills in
Lebanon to generate much needed power in the country.
As luck would have it, testing showed that the region of
Akkar in northern Lebanon has high winds – more than enough
to generate electricity on a commercial scale. Moreover, the
windmills will create hundreds of desperately needed jobs in the
poverty stricken region. Thus, Hawa Akkar was born.
The $100 million project would guarantee from 60 to
100 megawatts (MW) of electricity which tidily fits into the
government plan, adopted in 2010, for Lebanon to generate 12
percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.
Research was conducted. Investors found. A large plot of
land in Akkar was secured - its residents heavily on board. It was
ideal.
There was one problem: ‘Someone’ in the government needs
to sign the papers allowing the project to proceed. For the past
five years, Khoury has been shuffling back and forth between
government departments to no avail.
He is stumped. “I don’t understand,” he said. “This is not
costing the government anything. We are giving hope and
jobs to so many people. We will provide electricity to the entire
country for much less cost, we are not hurting the environment,
so what’s the problem?”
As an expert in renewable energy and electricity distribution
utility, Khoury immediately saw a solution to the country’s
power cuts when he returned from abroad in 2000.
“I thought it would be interesting to promote energy in a way
which is not just environmentally friendly but is also sustainable,
economic and competitive,” he said. “At the moment we have
a very high cost of energy production that is inefficient and
badly managed.”
In other words, we are all suffering from the familiar power
cuts in the country, breathing in the pollution generated from
thousands of generators, and paying unnecessarily high utility
bills. In 2008, Khoury created a small team to research the
possibilities of using the country’s natural energy.
Many self-conducted and costly studies later, Khoury found
that Akkar has an outstanding Class I wind (according to wind
classification) which can produce 2000 MW of energy.
Armed with his studies he approached the government and
presented his case.
Presently, he explained, Lebanon produces 1500 MW of
electricity – well short of the needed 2500 MW - and experts
predict that in only a few years, the demand for electricity in the
country will reach 4000 MW.
Hawa Akkar, on the other hand, will contribute 60 MW of
electricity to the national power grid. Moreover, the cost of
energy in Lebanon at the moment is 22 cents per kilowatt
hour. A windmill project could generate power at 12 cents per
kilowatt hour. The savings to the Lebanese government? $48m.
Patted on the back, Khoury was told that unfortunately
Lebanon doesn’t have the necessary laws to support such a
subject.
Not easily deterred, Khoury threw himself into lobbying the
parliament. To make a long story short, the now exhausted
but determined
Khoury and his team,
managed to present the
constitutional argument
for private power
generation in parliament.
Studies and files were
submitted again.
This time he was told
that the project should be put out for tender and the successful
bidder would need to have a minimum turnover of $100
million, as well as experience of generating 20MW of wind
energy.
Again, Khoury was stumped. He had just established his
new company with rather modest means. Where would he get
$100m?
There was only one thing to do: seek it out. Khoury
began travelling to various countries seeking investors. After
several months, he managed to come back with two major
international partners: The Greece-based Construction
Contractors Company (CCC) and Chinese turbine manufacturer,
Goldwind.
Upon his return, Khoury boasted a whopping $7billion in
turnover and 16,000 megawatts of experience.
Surely, that was more than enough to spur the government
to sign the papers?
Apparently not.
Government officials declared an intention of forming a
ministerial committee.Khoury found himself back to square one.
“I have secured two of the biggest companies in the world,”
said Khoury. “They believe in us. The Chinese believe in us. The
CCC believes in us. We have 160,000 employees between these
two companies. Akkar believes in us. Why doesn’t the Lebanese
government get their act together and believe in us?”
The last straw for Khoury came last October with news of
the Australia-bound ship carrying dozens of impoverished
migrants from the Middle East that had just sunk off the coast
of Indonesia. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry had announced
that there were 68 Lebanese, including children, on board the
ill-fated vessel. Few survived.
Almost all came from Akkar fleeing the impoverished area.
Khoury was livid.
“These people didn’t have to die if the windmills were
working,” said Khoury angrily. “They wouldn’t need to leave
Akkar to look for employment outside. Hundreds of jobs are
waiting for them right here. There is hope right here in Akkar.
They didn’t have to emigrate. These people died for nothing.”
Judging by Khoury’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, he has
quite a big local and international following.
“This project is about hope,” he said. “It’s no longer my
dream alone. This is about saving our environment, saving our
government cash, providing cheap electricity to the country,
providing jobs to hundreds of poor people. This is about
Lebanon.”
To support Albert Khoury’s fight for HawaAkkar, go to:
http://www.hawaakkar.com/Home
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hawa-
Akkar/370035739676789?ref=hl
The Vision: Hawa Akkar