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Could rooftop solar beat your generator bill? Work out the rough size, cost, yearly saving and payback — plain arithmetic, no sales pitch.
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Pays back in ~2.4–4 years
what rooftop solar with a battery could cost to pay off against the generator bill
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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 2026-03-01. It changes every month — enter your own for a closer answer.
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 battery is the part that wears out
Do you have the roof?
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.
Solar yield: PVGIS, European Commission Joint Research Centre (© European Union) — PVGIS.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.