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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/beirut-beirut-lb/solar-vs-generator
(2 months ago)
Pays back in ~2.4–4 years
what rooftop solar with a battery could cost to pay off against the generator bill
Power from the private generator (the moteur) is one of the biggest bills in Beirut, and rooftop solar is now common. This works out, in plain arithmetic, whether solar could beat your generator bill — the rough size, cost, yearly saving and how long until it pays for itself. No sales pitch, nothing to sign, and nobody calls you.
Roughly, in US dollars — the private generator (moteur) bill, not the state EDL bill.
Pre-filled with the rate around 1 March 2026. It changes every month — enter your own for a closer answer.
4–2.4 years
Pays for itself in
1.6
Rough size to fit
kWp of panels
$1,020
Saved a year
off the generator bill
$2,450–$4,080
Rough cost to install
3,000 kWh
Power a year
you’d actually use about 2,550 kWh
A 1.6 kWp system (about $2,450–$4,080 to install) could cover roughly 85% of your generator bill — about $1,020 a year — and pay for itself in around 4–2.4 years.
This is plain arithmetic, not a quote. Real prices, your roof and how much sun it gets all vary — treat the numbers as a starting point and get a written quote before deciding.
Only the power you use yourself counts
The power your home and battery don't use is wasted. Lebanon passed a law in December 2023 that would let you sell extra solar back to the grid, but EDL has no working way to do it — so anything your roof makes beyond what you use is simply lost. That is why these numbers only count the power you would use yourself.
The battery is the part that wears out
The battery, not the panels, is the part that wears out. A lithium battery usually lasts around 10 years — and lead-acid far less in Lebanon's heat — so plan to replace it once or twice over the panels' 25-year life. The battery is also the most expensive part, which is why a system with storage costs much more per kilowatt than panels alone.
Do you have the roof?
Most people in Beirut rent or live in flats and don't control the roof. Rooftop solar here is usually a top-floor or whole-building arrangement — check who owns the roof, and whether neighbours would share the cost, before counting on these savings.
What a panel actually makes here, month by month
Every kilowatt-peak of panel on a roof in this town makes about 1,561 kWh per kWp a year, averaged over nearly two decades of satellite measurements at these coordinates.
The year is not flat. December is the low month and July the high one, and December makes only 58% of what July makes. Size a system on summer figures and the shortest days will still be on the generator — which is the single most useful thing to know before anyone signs for panels.
Month
Output
January
94 kWh per kWp
February
100 kWh per kWp
March
132 kWh per kWp
April
142 kWh per kWp
May
154 kWh per kWp
June
153 kWh per kWp
July
158 kWh per kWp
August
154 kWh per kWp
September
145 kWh per kWp
October
130 kWh per kWp
November
107 kWh per kWp
December
92 kWh per kWp
These figures are per kilowatt-peak installed, so multiply by the system size above. They assume a plain fixed roof array and already allow for cabling, inverter and dust losses.
Modelled by PVGIS from PVGIS-SARAH3 satellite irradiance over 2005–2023, with the surrounding terrain taken into account. It is a long-run average, not a forecast: a cloudy month will come in under it and a clear one over it.
The figures on this page come from PVGIS, the European Commission's solar model, read live for Beirut's own coordinates: about 1,560 units (kWh) a year for every kilowatt of panels on a plain south-facing roof, allowing for cabling, inverter and dust losses. That is deliberately below the 1,691 the Global Solar Atlas gives a perfectly angled roof — a real rooftop is dusty, often shaded and rarely at the ideal angle. If the model cannot be reached the calculator falls back to the same figure written into this page.
Generator rate (per kWh)
The generator rate is the legal monthly ceiling the Ministry of Energy and Water sets, and it moves with diesel prices — in early 2026 it ran from about $0.32 to $0.45 a unit (kWh). $0.40 is a middle figure; enter what your own operator charges for a closer answer.
The state grid (EDL) is the cheap part — but it's barely on
EDL charges about $0.10 for the first 100 units a month and $0.27 above that, in fresh dollars since the 2023 reform. But it runs only a few hours a day, so most of your electricity — and most of what solar would replace — is the far dearer generator power.
What people actually pay the generator
A 2023 survey found 72% of Beirut homes paying over $100 a month for the generator, with day-and-night service reaching about $320. That high price is exactly why solar pays back quickly here.
Prices have fallen a long way
The national energy centre (LCEC) put a turnkey solar system at about $1,000 per kilowatt in 2023, down from roughly $7,000 in 2011. A small home system with panels and a battery commonly runs $4,000–$5,000. LCEC.