Can Green Energy Beat Lebanon’s ‘Generator Mafias?’

In the Lebanese town of Zahle, hundreds of solar panels glitter atop red-tiled roofs and spread across the grassy foothills beneath the Bekaa Valley’s snow-capped peaks. Glancing around, one might think this chronically power-starved Mediterranean country is on the cusp of a green energy revolution.

But Zahle is the only town in the country with a reliable source of power. Just outside the city limits, the panels disappear. Here, as with most of the country, jumbles of wire strung between electrical poles and buildings blot the sky, connecting shops and homes to massive, semi-legal diesel engines run by some of Lebanon’s most notorious characters, often referred to as the “generator mafias.”