ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - While the demand for rooftop solar systems has risen in the Kurdistan Region, disruptions in supply chains from China following the US-Iran war have resulted in soaring prices and longer delivery times, pushing more households to shoulder the higher cost of reducing their reliance on the national grid.
"Solar energy is as essential as bread and water, every home should install it,” Rekan Hassan, a resident in Sha Omer village near Erbil province, told Rudaw's Payam Sarbast, as a team of engineers installed a 10-panel system to generate around 25 amperes of electricity daily.
“I plan to bring down the double-pole circuit breaker and shut off the national grid connection, using it only for 2 to 3 hours a day just to charge the batteries. That’s all, otherwise, we no longer need it. This takes the pressure off both the government and us."
Hassan is one of many residents in the Kurdistan Region who are installing solar panels to reduce their reliance on the national grid.
The shift reflects a broader trend across the Kurdistan Region, where frequent electricity shortages and rising generator costs are driving households toward renewable energy despite the increasing upfront expense. Iraq has also pledged to expand solar power as part of efforts to diversify energy sources, reduce gas flaring, and lower carbon emissions.
Installing Hassan's system, including 10 solar panels, an inverter, and a lithium battery, costs around $4,000, according to electrical engineer Marwan Hussein, who tells Rudaw the same system would have cost around $3,000 prior to the US-Iran war.
"The price per watt from China used to be between six and eight cents. Now it is between 12 and 14 cents," Hussein said, adding that shipping costs have also risen significantly.
China supplies more than 95 percent of the Kurdistan Region's solar equipment, according to industry officials. Suppliers cite price increases of around 35 percent since the Iran conflict due to disruptions in shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Instead of traveling through Hormuz to Iraq's Umm Qasr port, many shipments are now rerouted through Jordan's port of Aqaba before traveling 340 miles overland into Iraq’s Trebil crossing and onwards to the Kurdistan Region, which adds $4,000 to shipping costs per container.
Alternatively, containers also travel through the Suez Canal to the Port of Mersin, in Turkey. Goods from Mersin must pass through Syria into Mosul via the Rabia border crossing before reaching the Kurdistan Region, at an added expense of $5,500 per container.
Goods from Turkey are prohibited from passing through the Kurdistan Region’s Ibrahim Khalil border crossing due to the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) system.
Hawkar Hamed, owner of a solar equipment company, told Rudaw the price of a 620-watt solar panel has risen from $67 before the conflict to around $100, while lithium batteries have increased from $500 to $670.
"Before the war, containers from China arrived within 40 to 50 days," Hamed said. "Now, sometimes they do not arrive for four months."
The rising costs come as Chinese manufacturers continue expanding into Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
LONGi, one of the world's largest solar panel producers, told Rudaw's Mahdi Faraj on Tuesday that it is investing in products specifically designed to withstand Iraq's extreme heat and dust, describing the country as one of its fastest-growing markets.
China announced a new directive requiring domestic companies to innovate panel and battery manufacturing by April of next year, or face a two percent tax on solar panels and a four percent tax on batteries.
The upcoming regulations are expected to drive the prices of solar equipment in the Kurdistan Region even higher.
