Dear Elon Musk: Can You Pass by Lebanon on Your Way to Fix Australia’s Power Problems!
Elon Musk has promised to fix South Australia’s power network in 100 days or it’s free.
In a Twitter conversation with Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, The Tesla CEO upped the challenge when asked if he was able to deliver the 100-300MW battery storage farm in the mentioned time: Musk replied, 100 days or it’s free!
I guess the only way to solve the electricity problem in Lebanon is to challenge Elon Musk to do it in one day.
Dear Elon Musk:
We, the people of Lebanon, all 4.5M of us, have been struggling with power failures and blackouts since the end of the war in 1990. Of course, the addition of around 2M Syrian and Palestinian refugees to the overall population made the issue harder to solve, but they are not the main cause of the problem.
27 years, 12 Ministries, and more than $30 Billion later, were not enough to get Electricity Du Liban (EDL) to solve Lebanon’s electricity problem and get 24hrs power coverage for this tiny country of 10,452 km².
Lebanon pays over $2 billion annually to purchase fuel for EDL and the Lebanese citizen pays at least $300 dollars monthly to cover both electricity bills; to EDL and to the local neighborhood generator. These private generators provide around 900 MW or 38% of the electricity consumption in the country.
So, Mr. Musk, if you believe you can fix the power network of a 984,377 km² area in 100 days, then 10,452 km² can be easily fixed in a day. I guess you can understand our frustration after 27 years.
Sincerely,
A Lebanese Citizen
More details on the topic can be found in the below links:
Daily Star, World Bank, Gino’s Blog, Al-Monitor, Transparency-Lebanon