The only power station in the Gaza Strip has been operating for two months. Located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, on 16 April it shut down all its systems in the absence of fuel to make it work.
This has caused the Gazans to have lost 60 megawatts (Mw) of power, which is about a third of the 210 Mw of which they used to have daily. As a result, the average citizen has seen how the power supply of the general network was reduced, from the 6-8 hours they received before, to just 4 daily now.
To alleviate this energy deficit, the Gazathians use generators. The smallest one consumes a litter of gasoline – which costs 6 shekels (1.50 euros) every hour – so the vast majority of Gaza citizens can not afford that price. This is extrapolated to small farmers and cattle breeders, who also need to use more expensive generators to operate their agricultural holdings, and often also without the financial capacity to cope with those extra costs (electricity from the general grid is obviously cheaper than the produced by the generators).
The United Nations recently warned that the energy crisis in the Gaza Strip is severely affecting drinking water supply, wastewater treatment and health services, leading to a progressive reduction in the capacity of hospitals and clinics.
The recently completed project, implemented by FPSC with the UAWC and financed by the AECID in the Gaza Strip, is a pioneer in applying solar energy to small livestock farms, specifically 33 farms for the production of chickens and eggs.
Through this project, these 33 farms cover all their electricity needs by providing night light (for laying hens), cooling in summer and heating in winter. The project has had a second component of rehabilitation of 7 agricultural wells, which also help ensure water supply and alleviate food insecurity.
On May 24, a workshop was held as a culmination of the project, which showed the results obtained and extracted the corresponding conclusions. On the other hand, the UAWC promoted to the different actors – ministries, international organizations, agencies of the UN, international and local NGOs – the massive installation of renewable energies together with the simultaneous development of the necessary infrastructure to make them ecologically sustainable, i.e. respectful of the environment and public health (i.e. the construction of a processing plant of batteries and other residues that may be derived from renewable energies).
Ninety per cent of the beneficiaries of well rehabilitation believe that their resilience capacity has increased in the context of the structural humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and have returned to production levels similar to those prior to the 2014 war.
Over 95% of poultry producers (6% of them are women) recommend the use of renewable energy to other farmers after project implementation.