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A Multi-attribute Assessment of Electricity Supply Options in Lebanon

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Food-Energy-Water Nexus Resilience and Sustainable Development

Abstract

The lack of holistic decision-making assessments has been the main reason behind Lebanon’s persistent energy challenges for a long time. Increasing the capacity of renewable electricity generation as well as conventional power plants running on imported fuels has been proposed to ensure energy security in Lebanon. However, this approach does not necessarily consider Lebanon’s most persistent energy challenges and the potential impacts of selected technologies on Lebanon’s scarce land and water resources. Relying on a System of Systems (SoS) perspective and considering the Climate, Land, Energy, and Water (CLEW) nexus, this study is an effort to help overcome Lebanon’s energy sustainability challenges while reducing impacts on the country’s valuable natural, economic, and social resources. Two parallel but complementary frameworks are used. First, through Resource Efficiency Assessment (REA), the potential impacts of the electricity technologies on the nation’s environmental and economic resources are evaluated. Next, the Sustainability Performance Assessment (SPA) considers a number of criteria relative to the region’s economic, social, environmental, and technical energy challenges. Using the Aggregate Performance Index (API), the relative performance of each energy is calculated based on the results of REA and SPA. Results suggest that offshore wind, solar photovoltaics, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear, and hydropower technologies are the most desirable electricity generation options in Lebanon based on the assumptions and values used in this study.

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Caveat

Parts of this chapter have been reproduced from a master’s dissertation report of Romy Abou Farhat at Imperial College London.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Enea Consulting, Paris, France

    Romy Abou Farhat

  2. Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Maral Mahlooji, Ludovic Gaudard & Kaveh Madani

  3. United Nations Development Program, CEDRO Project, Beirut, Lebanon

    Jad El-Baba & Hassan Harajli

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Vahakn Kabakian

  5. Sustainable Energy Research Team (SERT), University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Vahakn Kabakian

  6. The MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Kaveh Madani

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  1. Romy Abou Farhat
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Correspondence to Kaveh Madani .

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  1. Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Somayeh Asadi

  2. Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo

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Farhat, R.A. et al. (2020). A Multi-attribute Assessment of Electricity Supply Options in Lebanon. In: Asadi, S., Mohammadi-Ivatloo, B. (eds) Food-Energy-Water Nexus Resilience and Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40052-1_1

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