Alleviating the Impacts of Gaza's Energy Crisis on Population's Well-being through Sustainable Electricity Generating Technology

Summary

Home to nearly two million people including 1.4 million refugees, the blockaded Gaza Strip has long struggled with severe electricity shortages. According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this acute energy crisis is pushing Gaza Strip to the verge of disaster with serious implications on health, water and sanitation sectors.

Currently, only 38% of Gaza’s electricity needs are met, leading to people receiving less than 6 hrs per day and hospitals providing minimal services supporting only critical functions such as intensive care units. This electricity crisis coupled with the continuous conflict causes high levels of stress that affects people’s physical, mental health and well-being.

With Gazan and UK partners, this project aims to assess the impact of electricity shortage on the general population’s and refugees health and well-being and to co-develop a novel pilot plant to provide clean and affordable electricity using the abundant solar energy.

Project aims

The principal aims of this project are to understand:

  1. The spatial and time distribution of electricity in Gaza Strip and the effects of its shortage on the well-being of its population including the refugees in terms of physical and mental health, gender equality and social life.
  2. The experiences and the attitudes of the Gaza people towards the lack of availability of electricity in terms of the measures they use to cope with these severe conditions like using standalone generators, batteries, charging lights, candles and wood fires.
  3. The impact of such measures on their physical and mental health, gender equality, social life, economics and environment. For example, the pollution and noise associated with using standalone generators and the fire risk from candles and wood fires and the ability to maintain good personal hygiene.
  4. The currently available skills, materials, manufacturing capabilities, and environmental conditions in Gaza that will help to identify the best technological intervention.
  5. The potential impacts of the proposed technological intervention to provide clean, sustainable and affordable electricity on the population livelihoods in terms of health, social life, gender equality and economy.

Project Objectives

In order to achieve the above aims, the following objectives are identified:

  1. Using a comprehensive and methodological study, evaluate the spatial and time distribution of electricity in Gaza Strip.
  2. Survey and quantify the measures used to bridge the gap between household supply and demand for electricity and the impact of those measures on their well-being in terms of physical and mental health, environmental health and cost.
  3. Survey the everyday lives of Gaza’s general population and refugees and their living conditions. This will involve an intersectional approach to health and well-being which will focus on specific needs of the community, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable members like women, elderly and the disabled.
  4. Facilitate the development of co-produced, multidisciplinary research to inform public health provision and strengthen local and international capacity for implementing research designed to address challenges in public health delivery.
  5. Co-develop a new engineering solution with the community, to be used as pilot plant for producing electricity using solar energy.

Publications

Albaik. Ibrahim, Tozer. Gavin, Al-Dadah. Raya, and Mahmoud. Saad. Thermodynamic Modelling to Optimise the Performance of Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Systems. 8th Eur. Conf. Ren. Energy Sys. 24-25 August 2020, Istanbul, Turkey.

Alamri, Y.A.; Mahmoud, S.; Al-Dadah, R.; Sharma, S.; Roy, J.N.; Ding, Y. Optical Performance of Single Point-Focus Fresnel Lens Concentrator System for Multiple Multi-Junction Solar Cells—A Numerical Study. Energies 2021, 14, 4301. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en14144301.