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Work out whether rooftop solar could beat your generator bill in Danniyeh — the rough size, cost, yearly saving and payback, in plain arithmetic with the highland generator rate. No sales pitch.
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When the state grid (EDL) is off — which in Danniyeh is most of the day, and worse during the announced daytime cutoffs — most homes run on a neighbourhood diesel generator subscription (ishtirak), priced by amperage and metered per kilowatt-hour. Rooftop solar is now common across Lebanon. This works out, in plain arithmetic, whether solar could beat your generator bill here — 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 2026-07-04. It changes every month — enter your own for a closer answer.
A 1.1 kWp system (about $1,640–$2,730 to install) could cover roughly 85% of your generator bill — about $610 a year — and pay for itself in around 4.5–2.7 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?
PVGIS (the EU's solar tool) puts an optimally-angled roof at these coordinates at about 1,450 units (kWh) a year for every kilowatt of panels, with normal system losses. A roof that isn't perfectly angled, gathers dust, or loses winter days to snow makes a little less — so this uses 1,400, the honest lower figure.
The generator rate is the monthly maximum the Ministry of Energy and Water sets, and it moves with diesel prices — it was around $0.31 a unit (kWh) in January 2026 and higher in spring. Because Danniyeh sits above 700 m, the generator may legally charge about 10% more than on the coast (see the Generator Bill Checker). $0.40 is a middle figure; enter what your own operator charges for a closer answer.
EDL, the cheap state power, reaches highland villages for only a few hours a day. Almost all your electricity — and almost all of what solar would replace — is the far costlier generator power, which is exactly why solar can pay back quickly here.
Above 700 m, the ministry lets the generator add about 10% to the per-kilowatt-hour rate, so power costs a little more here than down in Tripoli. Dearer power means solar pays for itself faster. The town's Generator Bill Checker shows this month's rate with the highland surcharge.
Lebanon's 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.
The cold, snowy months are when a highland home needs power most — for heating — and when the panels make the least: short days, a low sun, and snow sitting on the glass. Size a system for the winter you actually get, not the bright summer peak, or plan to lean on the generator through the worst weeks.
Pays back in ~2.7–4.5 years
what rooftop solar with a battery could cost to pay off against the generator bill