In Mira Daher’s dwelling nation of Lebanon, the nationwide grid gives energy for only some hours a day. The nation’s state-owned vitality supplier, Electrical energy of Lebanon (EDL), has lengthy struggled to fulfill demand, and a crippling financial disaster that started in 2019 has worsened the scenario. Most residents now depend on privately owned diesel-powered mills for the majority of their vitality wants.
However in recent times, the quickly falling price of photo voltaic panels has given Lebanese companies and households a compelling various, and the nation has seen a increase in non-public solar-power installations. Whole put in photo voltaic capability jumped practically eightfold between 2020 and 2022 to greater than 870 megawatts, primarily because of off-grid rooftop installations.
Daher, head of tendering on the renewable-energy firm Earth Applied sciences, in Antelias, Lebanon, has performed an necessary half on this ongoing revolution. She is accountable for bidding for brand new photo voltaic tasks, drawing up designs, and making certain that they’re accurately applied on-site.
“I benefit from the selection and the problem of managing numerous tasks, every with its personal distinctive necessities and technical hurdles,” she says. “And realizing that my efforts additionally contribute to a sustainable future for Lebanon fills me with delight and motivates me lots.”
An Early Mentor
Daher grew up within the southern Lebanese metropolis of Saida (additionally referred to as Sidon) the place her father labored as {an electrical} engineer within the building sector. His work helped to encourage her curiosity in know-how at a younger age, she says. When she was making use of for college, he inspired her to review electrical engineering too.
“My first mentor was my father,” says Daher. “He elevated my curiosity and keenness for know-how and engineering, and once I watched him work and clear up advanced issues, that motivated me to observe in his footsteps.”
In 2016, she enrolled at Beirut Arab College to review electrical and electronics engineering. When she graduated in 2019, Daher says, the nation’s photo voltaic increase was simply taking off, which prompted her to pursue a grasp’s diploma in energy and vitality, with a specialization in solar energy, on the American College of Beirut.
“My thesis targeting the vitality scenario in Lebanon and explored potential options to extend the reliance on renewable sources,” she says. “5 – 6 years in the past, photo voltaic methods had excessive prices. However at present the fee [has] decreased lots due to new applied sciences, and since there’s loads of manufacturing of photo voltaic panels in China.”
Coming into the Workforce
After graduating in 2021, Daher began a job as a solar-energy engineer on the Beirut-based solar-power firm Mashriq Vitality, the place she was liable for growing designs and bids for brand new photo voltaic installations, just like her present position. It was a steep studying curve, Daher says, as a result of she needed to rapidly choose up enterprise abilities, together with monetary modeling and contract negotiations. She additionally discovered to cope with the practicalities of constructing giant photo voltaic developments, similar to web site constraints and laws. In 2022, she joined Earth Applied sciences as a photo voltaic venture design engineer.
Varied organizations, together with Lebanese authorities and nongovernmental businesses such because the United Nations, request bids for solar energy installations they wish to construct—a course of referred to as tendering. Daher’s principal accountability is to arrange and submit bids for these tasks, however she additionally supervises their implementation.
Daher’s position requires her to keep up a broad base of data concerning the photo voltaic tasks she oversees.Mira Daher
“I oversee your complete venture cycle, from figuring out and managing tenders to designing, pricing, and implementing photo voltaic tasks throughout residential, industrial, business, and utility sectors,” she says.
Step one within the course of is to go to the proposed set up web site to find out the place photo voltaic panels ought to be positioned primarily based on the panorama and native climate situations. As soon as that is accomplished, Daher and her workforce provide you with a design for the plant. This entails determining what sorts of photo voltaic panels, inverters, and batteries will match the funds and methods to wire all of the elements collectively.
The workforce runs simulations of the proposed plant to make sure that the design meets the shopper’s wants. Daher is then liable for negotiating with the shopper to be sure that the proposal fulfills their technical and budgetary necessities. As soon as the shopper has accepted the design, different groups oversee building of the plant, although Daher says she makes occasional web site visits to make sure the design is being applied accurately.
Daher’s position requires her to have a strong understanding of all of the elements that go right into a photo voltaic plant, from the completely different manufacturers of energy electronics to the civil engineering required to construct supporting constructions for photo voltaic panels. “It’s important to know the whole lot concerning the venture,” she says.
Photo voltaic Energy for Improvement
Earth Applied sciences operates throughout the Center East and Africa, however Daher says many of the photo voltaic installations she works on are in Lebanon. Among the most fascinating have been development-focused tasks funded by the U.N.
Daher led the U.N.-funded set up of photo voltaic panels at 9 hospitals, in addition to a venture that makes use of solar energy to pump water to individuals in distant components of the nation. Extra just lately, she has began work on a photo voltaic and battery set up for avenue lighting within the city of Bourj Hammoud, which is able to permit outlets to remain open later and assist to spice up the native economic system. The tasks she has overseen usually price round US $700,000 to $800,000.
However securing funding for renewable tasks is an ongoing problem in Lebanon, says Daher, given the unsure financial scenario. Extra just lately, the nation was additionally rocked by the battle between Israel and the Lebanon-based paramilitary group Hezbollah. This resulted in widespread bombing of Beirut, the capital, and the nation’s southern areas final October and November.
“The 2 months of battle have been extremely difficult,” says Daher. “The surroundings was unsafe and full of uncertainty, leaving us consistently anxious about what the longer term held.”
Security issues compelled her to relocate from her dwelling in Beirut to a village referred to as Ain El Jdideh. This meant she needed to drive about an hour and a half on unsafe roads to get to work. A number of of the key tasks she was engaged on have been additionally halted as they have been within the areas that bore the brunt of the battle. One U.N.-funded venture she labored on in Ansar, in southern Lebanon, was knocked offline when an adjoining constructing was destroyed.
“Regardless of these hardships, we persevered, and I’m grateful that the warfare has ended, permitting us to regain some stability and safety,” says Daher.
A Difficult However Fulfilling Profession
Regardless of these difficulties, Daher stays optimistic about the way forward for renewable vitality in Lebanon, and she or he says it may be a deeply rewarding profession. Breaking into the trade requires a powerful instructional basis, although, so she recommends first pursuing a level centered on energy methods and renewable applied sciences.
The vitality sector is a male-dominated discipline, says Daher, which may make it troublesome for girls to search out their footing. “I’ve usually encountered biases, stereotypes that may make it tougher to be taken significantly, or to have my voice heard,” she provides. “Overcoming these obstacles requires resilience, confidence, and a dedication to demonstrating my experience and capabilities.”
It additionally requires a dedication to continuous studying, as a result of continued advances being made in solar-power know-how. “It’s essential to remain updated,” she says. “This discipline is all the time evolving. Each day, you’ll be able to see loads of new applied sciences.”
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