The government provides around 12 hours of electricity to the residents of Hazar Merd village, located 13 kilometres southwest of Sulaimani city. Most of the villagers depended on small generators to fill the gap but this did not work well. Therefore, they started turning to solar power four years ago.
Most of the houses have solar power and those who do not rely on their neighbours.
“The public electricity would go out at 4 o’clock in the morning, waking us immediately. Then, we had to start the generator,” Ako Talib from the village told Rudaw’s Peshawa Bakhtyar, adding that the generator often required repairs and gasoline and its sound irritated them.
He feels “relieved” now after installing solar powers which provide between 12-15 hours of power every day. Along with the public electricity, all 26 houses in the village enjoy 24-hour power.
Depending on amperes produced, solar panels in the Kurdistan Region cost between $2,000-4,000.
Hardi Bazyani is a company which sells solar panels in Sulaimani. He told Rudaw that demand on the system in villages is more compared to cities because, unlike cities, villages do not have huge generators that could provide electricity to all households.
