Light at the End of the Panel: The Gaza Strip and the Interplay Between Geopolitical Conflict and Renewable Energy Transition

ABSTRACT

Renewable energy transition is one of the keys to mitigating climate change. While attention has been given to various economic, institutional, technological, and sociocultural barriers to this transition, it is unclear how acute interstate conflict shadowed by geopolitical forces shapes the deployment of renewables. The literature is split between those who speculate that conflict conditions discourage renewable energy proliferation and their critics. This ambiguity is surprising, since renewable energy is often suggested as a panacea for many conflict and post-conflict areas with dysfunctional centralised electricity systems. A systematic assessment of these competing hypotheses is challenging because of the absence of reliable data in fragile states and areas. This study is the first to use remote sensing to examine the temporal and spatial diffusion of renewables in the Gaza Strip against the backdrop of conflict conditions with Israel. It finds that Gaza has become a renewable energy leader despite conflict conditions exacerbated by deep poverty. The balance between discouraging and encouraging factors rests on different variables: the impact of the conflict on the free movement of labour, goods, and fuel, the intensity of the conflict, the role of economies of scale, opportunity costs, and alternative energy production costs.

KEYWORDS:

• Renewable energy
• conflict
• Gaza Strip
• energy transition
• remote sensing

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 There is extensive literature examining the connection between conflicts and domestic and foreign investment which views a stable and peaceful environment as conducive to investment. However, the reverse causal relations, i.e. whether or not investment promotes peaceful relations, is a matter of wide debate (Lee and McLaughlin 2012, Lee 2016).

2 For more, see http://blog.digitalglobe.com/industry/gbdx-for-sustainability-challenge-making-solar-count-automatically-identifying-renewable-energy-infrastructure/.

3 Differences between the two satellites affect the analysis of objects smaller than one metre in length and therefore did not impact our survey.

4 This was calculated according to the following assumptions: first, the territory of the Gaza Strip receives radiation of 1000 w\m (see Nassar and Alsadi 2019); and second, most RE sites were installed after 2016 when solar panel technology was considered to have an efficiency rate of 12–17 per cent (Imteaz and Ahsan 2018). We made a conservative estimation of only a 10 per cent efficiency rate, thus leading to the assumption that every ten square metres of surface panel constituted one installed kilowatt. We assumed that all panels had been installed properly, i.e. south facing and with no shadowing effect throughout the day.

5 Shabak reports do not provide an index for what constitutes an ‘incipient’ incident. It can be inferred that every rocket firing counts as a single incident. These reports also count political events (and consider them incidents) when they are perceived as security threats by the Israeli Army. This implies that a demonstration is viewed as a single event regardless of the number of people taking part.

6 This categorisation is based on the division of land use in the Gaza Strip published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

7 This data is based on Nassar and Alsadi’s (2019) study demonstrating that the price of KW of PV renewables is no different in the Gaza Strip than anywhere else.

8 This proxy was also cross-checked with an alternative proxy of monthly data on conflict-related casualties and injuries within the Gaza Strip, yielding similar results.

9 There are, nevertheless, some constraints on free movement, which discourage greater introduction of solar energy systems. The entry of acid batteries required for energy storage is prohibited (though smuggling takes place), allowing access to only lithium batteries, which are not considered a security threat but are less efficient (Fahey 2019).

10 However, there is criticism of both the effectiveness and the stringency of state policy instruments applied by many countries, and the low rate of their implementation (Jordan and Moore 2020, Roelfsema et al. 2020). These studies indicate that despite these polices, a significant potential for renewable transition remains untapped (IRENA et al. 2019b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Itay Fischhendler

Itay Fischhendler is a Full Professor, Geography Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests focus on environmental conflict resolution, natural resources governance, and decision-making under conditions of political and environmental uncertainties. He is a leading scholar on transboundary water institutions and Middle Eastern water policy and has published extensity in leading public policy, conflict resolution, peace studies, geography, ecological economics, and environmental journals. Itay is now engaged in research related to the politics of energy infrastructure and energy diplomacy, including energy sanctions.

Lior Herman

Lior Herman is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on energy politics and geopolitics, energy diplomacym international political economy, international trade and trade in services, sanctions, regionalism and governance. He leads the Hebrew University’s interdisciplinary research group on energy politics and geopolitics and chairs the graduate program on international political economy. His recent book (co-authored with Gadi Heimann) ‘Israel’s Path to Europe’ discusses Israel-EEC relations from 1957 to 1975 and the negotiations to conclude a preferential trade agreement. (Routledge 2019).

Lioz David

Lioz David, MA in Geography (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2020). Current research interests include: Geo-information and remote sensing.