Egypt

Upon arriving in Turkey or Israel, you quickly realize there is something different about nearly every roof in these countries: they all have solar hot water units.  Most amazing is that it does not seem to matter if the building is a small two-room house in a remote area or a massive apartment complex in downtown Istanbul.  Once I started to notice solar hot water units in Turkey, I began looking for them as we traveled throughout the Middle East. I found that the nearly universal presence of solar hot water units in Turkey and Israel contrasts strikingly with other Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, Jordan and the UAE, where I saw almost no solar hot water units.  Digging into the matter more, two overriding and linked factors seem to drive the difference between universal use of solar hot water and the complete absence of the technology:

• Policies that create financial incentives for households to invest in energy efficient technologies; and
• Wide availability of affordable, energy efficient technologies for consumers.

The lack of meaningful policies and financial incentives is at the root of the lack of the utilization of solar technologies in Egypt.  When I asked Ahmed Abdelrehim of CEDARE in Cairo about the absence of solar hot water units in Egypt, he answered without hesitation that the reason there is almost no solar hot water in Egypt, despite laws in the Mediterranean resort areas requiring it, is that electricity is subsidized.  This removes the financial incentive for households to invest in solar hot water systems because they have higher upfront costs.  The Egyptian electricity subsides are a way to help create a social safety net for the 32.4 million poor people in Egypt*.  And despite recent pressure from the World Bank to reduce the subsidy and increase peak-hour electricity costs, the political will is lacking for swift action.  As a result, more buildings are built without integrated solar technologies and Egyptian consumers continue to purchase inefficient electric hot water heaters.

Widespread availability of low-cost consumer solar systems is a major factor leading to increased use of solar hot water in Turkey and Israel.  In talking with people in both countries, I learned that high-end consumer solar systems were available for less than 800 Euros ($1,150).  And there are many solar options that cost even less.  After searching Lowes.com, Walmart.com and HomeDepot.com for “solar hot water” and returning zero relevant results, I am not surprised that the American consumer would think that installing a personal solar hot water system is a complicated and expensive proposition, and, even with the availability of a federal tax credit, for most Americans it is much more expensive.  I did a search for the cost of a residential unit in the US and found that units “… cost only $6,000 to $8,000 installed depending on the area.”  This was according to http://www.solarroofs.com.  Even with the tax credit, the low-end cost estimate is still $4,500 for a US household, significantly more than what Turkish consumers are paying for a high end system.  Low cost consumer units are available in the rest of the world, and with a change in the US energy policy to increase demand (and thus lower prices even further), I am confident that retailers such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Lowes would begin selling millions of them to US consumers.

So why is this such a critical issue for the US?  In Adam Werbach’s A Strategy for Sustainability, he illustrates the potential impact of “green” products such as TIDE® COLDWATER® Detergent.  He states, “…if every American changed to cold-water laundry, it would go a long way toward reaching the CO2 reduction commitment that the U.S. negotiators made (although never ratified by the Senate) in the Kyoto Protocol, the first global compact on climate change.”

While the efforts of companies like P&G are admirable and are making a significant difference, I take a different view from Werbach that is more consistent with a recent article in the Washington Post by Mike Tidwell.  Recently, I’ve come to believe that we cannot simply “small step” or consume enough “green” products to drive the quick and significant change we need to limit the impacts of catastrophic climate change.  We need meaningful policies that will quickly create the personal financial incentives for US households to change behavior and increase their own energy efficiency.  With the right incentives in place, the creativity of green entrepreneurs all over the world would be unleashed to meet the new demand for more sustainable and energy efficient technologies.  And if we do not have the political will at the national level, I am hopeful that there seems to be progress at the local level, as evidenced by the Conference of Mayors 77th Annual Meeting in Providence (RI).

Despite the less than stellar progress in Copenhagen over the last two weeks, I am hopeful that the US will make the necessary policy changes to become the leader in sustainable and energy efficient technologies that we have the potential to become.  I would hate to see countries like Turkey, Israel, Germany and even China (a leader in consumer solar hot water) eclipse us.

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