What rooftop solar would cost, save and take to pay for itself against Khiam's generator bill — with what a panel actually makes here in January as well as in July.
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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/khiam-nabatieh-lb/solar-instead-of-the-generator
(2 months ago)
Pays back in ~1.9–3.2 years
what rooftop solar with a battery could cost to pay off against the generator bill
Households coming back to Khiam are buying electricity the same way the rest of Lebanon does — a private diesel generator subscription (ishtirak), at a price the Ministry of Energy and Water caps each month and diesel keeps pushing up. At the tariff in force here that is around half a US dollar for every unit of power, which is among the dearest electricity anybody pays anywhere.
That is the whole reason rooftop solar has spread across Lebanon since 2020, and it is why the arithmetic below comes out the way it does. Put in what you pay the generator each month and this works out the rough size of system that would cover it, what it would cost, what it would save, and how long before it has paid for itself. It also reads the long-run solar model for Khiam's own coordinates, so you can see what a panel makes here in January as well as in July — which is the number that decides whether a system is the right size or a disappointment.
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 May 2026. It changes every month — enter your own for a closer answer.
3.2–1.9 years
Pays for itself in
0.8
Rough size to fit
kWp of panels
$610
Saved a year
off the generator bill
$1,170–$1,940
Rough cost to install
1,385 kWh
Power a year
you’d actually use about 1,177 kWh
A 0.8 kWp system (about $1,170–$1,940 to install) could cover roughly 85% of your generator bill — about $610 a year — and pay for itself in around 3.2–1.9 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
Only the power your own home and battery use is worth anything. Lebanon passed a law in December 2023 that would let households sell surplus solar back to the grid, but EDL has no working way to do it — so anything the roof makes beyond what you use is simply lost. That is why these numbers count only the power you would use yourself, and why a battery changes the answer so much.
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 ten years, and lead-acid far less in this heat, so plan to replace it once or twice over the panels' twenty-five-year life. It is also the most expensive part of the system, which is why storage costs so much more per kilowatt than panels alone.
Do you have the roof?
In Khiam the roof question is not the one it is in Beirut. Much of the town was destroyed, so for many households the roof is being rebuilt — and if that is your situation, the cheapest moment to run the cabling, set the mounting and leave space for a battery is while the work is happening, not afterwards. If you are renting, or the building is shared, the roof is a decision for whoever owns it. And nothing on this page is a reason to go onto damaged ground or into an unchecked building: read the town's unexploded ordnance page first.
What a panel actually makes here, month by month
Every kilowatt-peak of panel on a roof in this town makes about 1,514 kWh per kWp a year, averaged over nearly two decades of satellite measurements at these coordinates.
The year is not flat. January is the low month and July the high one, and January makes only 54% 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
86 kWh per kWp
February
88 kWh per kWp
March
117 kWh per kWp
April
132 kWh per kWp
May
150 kWh per kWp
June
153 kWh per kWp
July
159 kWh per kWp
August
159 kWh per kWp
September
146 kWh per kWp
October
129 kWh per kWp
November
105 kWh per kWp
December
90 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 Khiam's own coordinates: roughly 1,500 units (kWh) a year for every kilowatt of panels on a plain south-facing roof, allowing for cabling, inverter and dust losses. It is a long-run average from nearly twenty years of satellite measurements, and it already accounts for the ridge lines around the town. A shaded, badly-angled or dusty roof makes less. 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. The May 2026 ceiling worked out at about 46,289 LBP a unit, which at the official 89,700 rate is roughly $0.52 — and a further 10% is allowed above 700 metres, which Khiam sits right on. Enter what your own operator actually charges for a closer answer; the town's Generator Bill Checker works the same tariff in Lebanese lira.
Why the payback here is so short
Payback is install cost per kilowatt divided by the generator rate times the yearly yield — nothing else. Because generator power in Lebanon costs around fifty US cents a unit, roughly five times what households in most countries pay, the same panels pay for themselves several times faster here than they would almost anywhere else. That is the arithmetic, and you can check every step of it on this page.
The state grid is barely a factor
Returning residents found no mains power at all, and EDL was still putting poles back up through 2025. Across Nabatieh governorate 82% of public electricity facilities were damaged. So unlike in a normal year, almost all of a Khiam household's electricity — and almost all of what solar would replace — is generator power at the generator price.
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. These are national figures — getting equipment and an installer to a border village may cost more, so treat the higher end of the range as the realistic one and get a written quote. LCEC.
Khiam is at about 700 metres, not 1,700
Two things on this platform depend on the town's altitude — the generator tariff's high-ground surcharge and how much sun a roof gets — and published figures for Khiam disagree wildly. The terrain model behind the solar figures on this page resolves the town centre at 700 metres, which matches the Marjeyoun plain edge and the 700–800 metre figure the Generator Bill Checker uses, and does not match the 1,700 metres that circulates online.