Syria's solar boom is redefining Middle East's energy model
63 points by littlexsparkee 3 hours ago | 15 comments

Stronico 3 hours ago
Non paywalled link https://archive.is/g7HNV
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dylan604 2 hours ago
The TFA link works fine for me, while your achive link is unviewable as it wants me to prove i'm human by scanning a QR code with my mobile device. Not sure who you're trying to help
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fhdkweig 2 hours ago
The original link did not work for me. It displayed the article for a couple of seconds and then popup said "register for free to continue reading this article." When I clicked on the popup's 'x', it redirected me to the front page.
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gregoriol 2 hours ago
It works for me, without a qr code
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wat10000 2 hours ago
Consider that other people have different experiences of things. The TFA link doesn't work for me (it appears to, but then it forces me to register to keep reading) and the archive link just required a standard captcha.
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TulliusCicero 2 hours ago
It helped me.
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vishnugupta 60 minutes ago
Just checked out the Google map satellite view and no kidding! The solar panels are crazy! Highly recommend exploring it yourselves. Mind blowing.
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moffkalast 14 minutes ago
Yeah there's something on almost every roof in Damascus, and Google's imagery is usually fashionably 2-5 years out of date so it's probably even more now.
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adrianN 30 minutes ago
I wonder how they use balcony solar for blackouts. The systems I know shut themselves off if the grid goes down.
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heyitsmedotjayb 3 hours ago
[flagged]
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WhereIsTheTruth 2 hours ago
See, Iran?

All you had to do was westernize your economy, hand your infrastructure to global capital, and open your markets

Do that, and just like Syria, you'll become "partners"

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amunozo 2 hours ago
Aren't all these panels coming from China anyway? Iran could do this and keep its iron grip, no?
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alephnerd 57 minutes ago
> Aren't all these panels coming from China anyway

Turkiye not China in this case. Turkiye has a large PV fabrication industry as well [0][1][2][3] and it's Turkish companies that are leading reconstruction with Qatari, Saudi, and Emirati capital [4].

The Turkish company selected for most of these projects (Kalyon Group) is also in the PV fabrication business and Erdogan aligned.

[0] - https://cw-enerji.com/en/cw-enerji-library/cw-enerji-one-of-...

[1] - https://www.kivancsolar.com/en/corporate

[2] - https://smartsolar.com.tr/en/hakkimizda.html

[3] - https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/05/08/kalyon-pv-begins-prod...

[4] - https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/ekonomi/suriyenin-enerji-sektorune-...

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WhereIsTheTruth 41 minutes ago
China is not the enemy

If we look at the events at a higher level:

- Israel used to destabilize

- China used to build

It's pretty consistent

And from what i recall, Iran doesn't really trust China as a partner

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pjc50 25 minutes ago
I don't think that's a reasonable description of Syria, which is more of a failed state.

But yes, generally westernizing works out better for all concerned.

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throw7384844 13 minutes ago
Western solar panels come with subscription and remote kill switch.

Iran is trying to build grid on atomic powerplants, because solar is frankly not enough nor reliable!

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