Iraq has long suffered through scorching summers that the country's national grid hasn't been able to keep up with. But it was only recently that Hiba al-Amiri's family started to seriously consider getting solar panels installed at home to compensate for the annual summer blackouts.
"In the war, Iranian gas was cut and for four days, we had no electricity," the Baghdad-based teacher told DW. Iran supplies up to 40% of the gas that Iraq needs to keep its power stations running, In March, Iran completely cut gas to Iraq after Israel attacked its gas fields.
"We were only using the generator," al-Amiri continued. "After that, a lot of our neighbors were also talking about this [solar]. Everybody is really starting to think about it seriously."
Installing solar panels in a private household costs somewhere between 5 and 10 million Iraqi dinars (around $3,800-$7,600/€3,200-€6,500), experts told DW. Al-Amiri said she and her brother are now saving money toward that goal, and hope to get a unit by next year.
There are estimated to be over 4.5 million generators around Iraq, but they are noisy, smelly and increasingly expensiveImage: Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa/picture alliance
