Lacking power, Syria eyes manufacturing

Syria plans to expand its  solar equipment industry as it seeks to address its

, even though its only solar power project may be bogged down.

A Syrian-Ukrainian joint venture will start producing equipment for solar thermal power generation in Syria in June, Bloomberg reported today, citing the Syrian energy minister, Qusay Kayali.

According to Bloomberg, Syria's ministry of industry and electricity have set up the joint venture with an unidentified closely held Ukranian company. The enterprise would mainly produce power units for water pumps and street lighting.

Earlier this month, the Syrian state news agency SANA said

to establish a joint venture to produce equipment for renewable energy including solar power with US$4 million (Dh14.7m) of seed capital. The production facilities would be located near Damascus, the Syrian capital.

"The joint company between the General Organisation for Engineering Industries (GOEI) and the Turkish Barak Company will recruit 100 specialist workers and produce nearly 24,000 slar energy sets annuually," Naser al Sheikh, the director general of the government-owned GOEI, told reporters in Damascus.

Syria's state-owned General Company for Metal Works and Mechanical Industries already produces solar hot-water systems. Recently it dropped their price as part of a government programme to promote the domestic use of renewable energy, the

said on its website.

Syria is aiming to produce 5 per cent of its energy from from renewable sources by 2011, but has made

with a wind farm development announced in 2006 and a solar power joint venture for which the government signed a preliminary deal in 2008, according to local news reports.

The country seems to be making better progress, however, with gas-fired power development.

Adding to the line up of thermal power projects in Syria, Qatar Elecricity and Water Corporation and Syrian-Qatari Holding this week

a $1 billion joint venture to develop two 450 megawatt gas-fired power plants at Syrian locations.

Gas to fuel the plants will be supplied under long-term contract by Syria's petroleum and mineral resources ministry.

last week that Syria's gas reserves and production were expected to increase following the recent discovery of "a number of important gas fields". It said that gas production in Syria stood at 25 million cubic metres (883 million cubic feet) per day.

The country's oil production, however, has declined in recent years.