Jump to content

Solar power in Israel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photovoltaic arrays at the Israel National Solar Energy Center
The Negev Desert is home to the Israeli solar research industry, in particular the National Solar Energy Center and the Arava Valley, the sunniest region of Israel

The use of solar energy began in Israel in the 1950s with the development by Levi Yissar of a solar water heater to address the energy shortages that plagued the new country.[1] By 1967 around 5% of water of households were solar heated and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold.[1] With the 1970s oil crisis, Harry Zvi Tabor developed the prototype of the solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes.[2] There are over 1.3 million solar water heaters installed as a result of mandatory solar water heating regulations.

Israeli engineers have been at the cutting edge of solar energy technology[3] and its solar companies work on projects around the world.[4] However, even though Israeli engineers have been involved in both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power, the earliest Israeli companies which have become market leaders in their respective fields have all been involved in concentrated solar power. Some notable examples of this are BrightSource, Solel and Brenmiller Energy which all deal with utility scale projects. Additionally, Herzliya based SolarEdge has become a market leader in inverters for non-utility scale photovoltaic solar power.

In 2009, Israel found natural gas reserves within their exclusive economic zone which may reduce urgency of solar development. Solar technology in Israel has advanced to the point where it is almost cost-competitive with fossil fuels.[2] The high annual incidence of sunshine in the Negev Desert has spurred an internationally renowned solar research and development industry.[5] At the end of 2008, a feed-in tariff scheme was approved which has led to many residential and commercial solar energy power station projects.

Israel's objective in 2011 was to produce 10% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2020,[6] and officials from Cabinet and The Electricity Authority gave the goal in 2023 to produce 30% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2030.[7][8][9]

History and development

[edit]
Solar potential of Israel
Israel renewable electricity production by source

In 1949, the prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, offered Harry Zvi Tabor a job on the 'physics and engineering desk' of the Research Council of Israel, which he accepted. He created an Israeli national laboratory and created standards amongst the different measurements in use in the country, primarily British, Ottoman and metric.[10][11] Once the laboratory was established, he focused on solar energy for research and development.

Solar energy was particularly attractive because of the abundance and strength in Israel of the sun's rays and Israel's geographic latitude location is on the 30th parallel north, where the annual incident solar irradiance is 2000 kWh per m2.[5] Second, Israel lacks oil, and the conflicts with its neighbors made the procurement of a stable source of energy a national priority. In particular, it is argued that the best defense against missile attack felling the national power grid would be to build a distributed power network, which would mean solar fields of 25–50 megawatts across Israel.[12]

Early in the 1950s, Tabor began to examine why solar installations were inefficient. He eventually devised 'selective black surfaces', which his team at the National Physical Laboratory modified using nickel and chrome methods to blacken metals. These surfaces, which became known as Tabor surfaces, are particularly effective at trapping heat for use in solar water heaters.[13]

Tabor and French immigrant Lucien Bronicki developed a small solar power unit, the Organic Rankine cycle turbine, for use by developing countries with problematic power grids.[11][14] It was designed to neutralize the maintenance issues of reciprocating engines so it had only one moving part, the rotor. A 3 kWe prototype was exhibited at the 1961 United Nations Conference on New Sources of Energy in Rome, but it failed to find commercial success.[14]

Citing lack of land for ground solar PV parks, Israel mandated in 2023 that all newly constructed commercial buildings install rooftop photovoltaic solar panels.[15][16][17]

Photovoltaics Cumulative Capacity (MW)[18]
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
0.9 1.0 1.3 1.8 3.0 24.5 69.9 190 237 481 731 780[19] 905.6[20] 1005[21] 1450[22] 1916[23] 2248[24] 3656[25] 4750[26]

Dead Sea solar pond

[edit]

In 1965, Lucien Bronicki established Ormat Industries to commercialize the Organic Rankine cycle turbine concept. In the 1970s and 1980s Ormat built and operated one of the world's first power stations to produce electricity from solar energy, at Ein Bokek, near the southern part of the Dead Sea in Israel.[27]

The plant used a technology known as the solar pond, a large-scale solar thermal energy collector with integral heat storage for supplying thermal energy. It was the largest operating solar pond ever built for electricity generation and operated until 1988. It had an area of 210,000 m2 and produced an electrical output of 5 MW.[28]

Solar water heaters

[edit]
Solar water heater on a rooftop in Jerusalem

During the period of austerity in Israel in the 1950s, there was a fuel shortage, and the government forbade heating water between 10 a.m. and 6 pm. As the situation worsened, engineer Levi Yissar proposed that instead of the construction of more electrical generation plants, homes should switch to solar water heaters. He built a prototype in his home, and in 1953 he started NerYah Company, Israel's first commercial manufacturer of solar water heaters.[1] By 1967 around one in twenty households heated its water with the sun and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold.[1] However, cheap oil from Iran and from oilfields captured in the Six-Day War made Israeli electricity cheaper and the demand for solar heaters dropped.[29] After the energy crisis in the 1970s, in 1980 the Israeli Knesset passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes except high towers with insufficient roof area. As a result, Israel was in 2007 the world leader in the use of solar energy per capita (3% of the primary national energy consumption).[30]

As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems, and Israel's National Infrastructure Ministry estimates that solar panels for water-heating satisfy 4% of the country's total energy demand.[2] Israel and Cyprus are the per-capita leaders in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them.[31] The Ministry of National Infrastructures estimates solar water heating saves Israel 2 million barrels (320,000 m3) of oil a year.[14]

Feed-in tariff

[edit]

On 2 June 2008, the Israeli Public Utility Authority approved a feed-in tariff for solar plants. The tariff is limited to a total installation of 50 MW during 7 years[clarification needed], whichever is reached first, with a maximum of 15 kWp installation for residential and a maximum of 50 kWp for commercial.[32] The National Infrastructures Ministry announced in December 2009 on expanding the feed-in tariff scheme to include medium-sized solar-power stations ranging from 50 kilowatts to 5 megawatts, though only one project had been approved by June 2010.

Educational and research facilities

[edit]

The Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP)

[edit]

Multidisciplinary scientists at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology are pooling resources at GTEP to advance the science behind solar power.

Nano science and solar energy

GTEP is working in the field of nano-energy.

  • Efrat Lifshitz discovered that nano-sized materials consisting of nanocrystal quantum dots can absorb sunlight not only in the visible range, as materials currently used in solar panels do, but also in the infrared and UV ranges. This makes them ideal in photovoltaic cells used to turn sunlight into electricity, promising much more efficient solar power.
  • Nir Tessler leads a group on organic photovoltaic material.
  • Gitti Frey specializes in organic electronics – plastic electronics that are functional electronically and optically. They emit light and can transmit electrical signals, or absorb light and generate energy such as electricity. Frey introduces whole new properties in this field, creating effective and useful self-organizing structures on the nano-scale. Frey is working on a solar cell to convert sunlight into electrical energy. She predicts this research will lead to solar-power systems that are cheaper, unbreakable, flexible, better-looking, and versatile.

National Solar Energy Center

[edit]
The world's largest solar energy dish is located at Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Center

The National Solar Energy Center was founded in 1987 by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, and is part of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.[33][34] In 2007, David Faiman, the center's director, announced that the center had entered into a project with Zenith Solar to create a home solar energy system that uses a 10-square meter reflector dish.[35] In testing, the concentrated solar technology proved to be up to five times more efficient than standard flat photovoltaic silicon panels, which would make it almost as cheap as oil and natural gas. A prototype ready for commercialization achieved a concentration of solar energy that was more than 1,000 times greater than that from standard flat panels.[2] According to Faiman, who led the Israeli team that developed the technology, 10% of Israel's population (1,000 megawatts) could live on the energy from 12 square kilometers of land.[36]

Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research

[edit]

The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research facility was founded by Amos Richmond, and its faculty is part of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. It has a solar energy research program that has assisted in the development of passive heating, involving the mitigation of extremes of heat and cold in the desert through efficient storage from day to nighttime. One research project is an inhabited adobe house with prisms that transmit heat during the day and can be rotated to allow the heat to discharge at night installed in the room.

There is a double-skin greenhouse that uses copper sulfate solution as a heat screen during the day. The liquid, pumped between the two skins, protects the interior from ultraviolet rays, and collects heat. At night the liquid is recirculated, returning the heat to the greenhouse.

Weizmann Institute Solar Research Facilities Unit

[edit]

In addition to a solar reactor,[37] the solar research facilities of the Weizmann Institute of Science are among the most advanced laboratories in the world for concentrated solar energy research.[38] They have tested solar technology in the production of hydrogen fuel, which has been successfully trialled on a large scale.[39] Tareq Abu-Hamed, an Israeli scientist at the University of Minnesota, with colleagues Jacob Karni and Michael Epstein, head of the Solar Facility at Weizmann, were the developers of a new method to produce hydrogen fuel more cheaply, efficiently and safely while solving storage and transportation issues.[40]

Other innovations include harnessing sunlight for space communications and meteorological information; controlling light-dependent chemical reactions; and developing photodynamic cancer therapy.[41]

Solar power stations

[edit]

The Negev

[edit]
Solar troughs in the Negev

The Negev Desert and the surrounding area, including the Arava Valley, are the sunniest parts of Israel, and little of this land is arable, which is why it has become the center of the Israeli solar industry.[42] David Faiman thinks the energy needs of Israel's future could be met by building solar energy plants in the Negev. As director of Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center, he operates one of the largest solar dishes in the world.[43]

In May 2016, the 50 MW Zmorot Solar Park came online. The plant has a 207,000-panel solar park and took 18 months to construct.[44]

In the Rotem Industrial Complex outside of Dimona, Israel, more than 1,600 solar mirrors focus the sun's rays on a tower to heat a water boiler to create steam. BrightSource Industries (Israel), Ltd., uses the solar array to test new technology for the three new solar plants to be built in California for Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison.[45][46][47]

In 2020, a 120 MW solar power plant opened in Tze'elim, Israel's largest to date.[48] The solar park expected to generate more than 220 GWh annually.

In December 2021, it was announced that Shikun & Binui won a contract to build a 330 MW solar power plant near Dimona, which is expected to become Israel's largest upon its completion in 2023. The solar park will also house a 210 MW energy storage facility.[49][50]

In May 2023, the Israel Land Authority issued a tender to lease 11,331 hectares (28,000 acres) on land near Shaqib al-Salam between Highways 25 and 40 for a large-scale solar project.[51]

As of September 2023, Israel has two solar-plus-storage projects, with the first being the Arad Valley 1's 17-MW solar farm with an energy storage system of 31 MWh, and the second being Sde Nitzan's 23 MW of solar and 40 MWh of storage capacity project.[52]

In September 2023, solar farms extending 14,000 dunams, or 3,500 acres, near the Israel-Gaza border fence were proposed officially. The total cost of the project is over NIS 4 billion, and the proposal has the potential to produce over 2 GW of electricity.[53] An extensive solar park is also proposed for an underground data center near Eilat as of late 2023.[54]

Farming and kibbutzim

[edit]
Solar panels installed on residential housing in Israel

Israel's first solar power station opened in August 2008.[55] Moshe Tenne built the 50 KW plant on his Negev farm for NIS 1.3 million, and he expects to earn NIS 220,000 a year from selling excess electricity to the national power grid.[55] After the National Infrastructures Ministry announced it would expand its feed-in tariff scheme to include medium-sized solar-power stations ranging from 50 kilowatts to 5 megawatts, Sunday Solar Energy announced that it would invest $133 million in photovoltaic solar arrays for installation on kibbutzim.[56] In December 2008, the Sunday company announced that Kibbutz Reim in the western Negev would be the first community in the world to rely entirely on solar energy.[57] The Reim installation, costing NIS 60–100 million, would generate at least 2.5 megawatts during peak consumption. Excess energy would be sold to the Israel Electric Company. The investment is expected to pay for itself in 10 years, and the costs and revenues will be divided evenly between the kibbutz and Sunday.[57]

In April 2023, it was announced that energy company Teralight would be building one of Israel's largest solar parks, the Ta'anach PV project, in the Jezreel Valley, northern Israel. Ta'anakh solar will have 250  MW of installed capacity and 550 MWh of solar-plus-storage.[58] The 250 MW of installed capacity "is equal to 5.2% of Israel's green energy capacity and 1.2% of its overall electricity capacity." The new solar park can power over 60,000 Israeli households, assisting nearly 250,000 Israelis.[59]

In May 2023, the Israeli government announced it would be building four battery storage power station in the northern Gilboa region, making it one of Israel's largest energy storage projects to date.[60] The initial buildout will total 800 MW/3,200 MWh, and each of the four energy storage facilities will have 200 MW of capacity, and all four will have four hours of storage duration.[61][62]

Arava Power Company

[edit]
Ketura solar field, 2012

Ketura Sun is Israel's first commercial solar field. Built in early 2011 by the Arava Power Company on Kibbutz Ketura, Ketura Sun covers 8.1 hectares (20 acres) and is expected to produce green energy amounting to 4.95 megawatts. The field consists of 18,500 photovoltaic panels made by Suntech, which will produce about 9 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year.[63] In the following twenty years, the field should spare the production of some 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.[64] The field was inaugurated on 15 June 2011.[65]

On 22 May 2012, Arava Power Company announced that it had reached financial close on an additional 58.5 MW for 8 projects to be built in the Arava and the Negev valued at 780 million NIS or approximately $204 million.[66] APC President and Co-founder Yosef Abramowitz stated, "Our work is not yet done. Israel needs to adopt the European Union goal of 20 percent renewables by 2020 and this major milestone by Arava Power is proof positive that it can be reached. Furthermore, an injustice must be corrected by creating a special quota of solar fields for Bedouin land owners, who are locked out of the current solar program."[67]

Additionally, the Arava Power Company signed multiple agreements with Bedouin families in the Negev desert to build solar fields on approximately 37 hectares (92 acres) of land, with a production capability of up to 20 megawatts. APC has been lobbying the Israeli government to create separate solar caps for Bedouins.[68]

On 7 February 2012, Arava Power announced that it had received a license for the Tarabin Solar Field, the first solar field for the Bedouin community. Financing for the $30 million Tarabin installation is to be provided by OPIC – the Overseas Private Investment Corporation of the United States Government. Arava Power President Yosef Abramowitz sees solar power for the Bedouin as a positive example for Native Americans, First Nations, Aboriginals and others with historic land claims.[69]

Carmey Avdat Winery

[edit]

Sunday Solar Energy was commissioned to build a solar installation for the Carmey Avdat winery in the Negev Desert. The 50 kW peak installation covers the 200-square meter roof of the winery and provides 65 percent of its annual energy needs.[70]

Ashalim Power Station, on completion the tallest solar power tower in the world.

Kibbutz Samar

[edit]

The Aora's Solar "Flower" Tower is the world's first solar hybrid power plant, comprising 30 heliostat solar reflectors. The plant switches to natural gas-powered turbines after dark so that it can continue producing power 24 hours a day.[71]

Ramat Hovav solar field

[edit]

The Ramat Hovav solar field is 37.5 MW project near Ramat Hovav, operational since December 2014. The photovoltaic power plant is owned by Energix Renewable Energies Ltd It was built by the Belectric over a rehabilitated evaporation pond. The facility uses CdTe photovoltaic modules based on thin-film technology, manufactured by U.S. company First Solar, making it the country's largest PV power plant so far and one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East.[72]

Ashalim

[edit]

The Ashalim power station is a solar power station in the Negev desert near the kibbutz of Ashalim, (south of the district city of Be'er Sheva) in Israel. It had the tallest operating solar power tower in the world since 2019 but will be overtowered by a project in Dubai in late 2021.[73][74]

As of 2023, Ashalim has two photovoltaic (PV) facilities generating 70MW in total, two thermo-solar power fields generating 120MW, and a fifth 100 MW solar energy plant in planning, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.[75][76]

Finance and business

[edit]

Former providers

[edit]
A Solel testing site in the Negev

Holdings and finance

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Petrotyranny by John C. Bacher, David Suzuki, published by Dundurn Press Ltd., 2000; Page 70 [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e At the Zenith of Solar Energy, Neal Sandler, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 26 March 2008.
  3. ^ Israel Pushes Solar Energy Technology, Linda Gradstein, NPR, 22 October 2007.
  4. ^ Looking to the sun, Tom Parry, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 15 August 2007.
  5. ^ a b Solar Energy in Israel, David Faiman for the Jewish Virtual Library.
  6. ^ Sheen, David (7 October 2011). "Born-again Ziontist revolutionizing solar energy field". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 24 December 2011.
  7. ^ Proctor, Darrell (3 May 2023). "Israel Adding Energy Storage to Support Grid Integration for Renewables". POWER Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  8. ^ "Ministry of Energy". GOV.IL. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  9. ^ "As power shortage looms for Israel, solutions lag". Globes. 5 September 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  10. ^ Bright ideas, Ehud Zion Waldoks, The Jerusalem Post, 1 October 2008.
  11. ^ a b Harry Zvi Tabor, Cleveland Cutler, Encyclopedia of the Earth, 2007.
  12. ^ The solar vote, Yosef I. Abramowitz and David Lehreer, Haaretz, 2 November 2008.
  13. ^ Infrared Technology Fundamentals, by Monroe Schlessinger, Irving J. Spiro; CRC Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8247-9259-6; reference is at page 68 [2]
  14. ^ a b c Israeli Section of the International Solar Energy Society Archived 11 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, edited by Gershon Grossman, Faculty of Mechanical Energy, Technion, Haifa; Final draft.
  15. ^ Rabinovitch, Ari (20 June 2023). "Lacking land, Israel to cover its rooftops with solar panels". Reuters. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  16. ^ Papadopoulos, Loukia (20 June 2023). "Israel to cover all new non-residential buildings with solar panels". interestingengineering.com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  17. ^ "Israel to Cover All New Non-Residential Buildings with Solar Panels". Financial World. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  18. ^ International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme
  19. ^ "Home".
  20. ^ "Home".
  21. ^ "Home".
  22. ^ "Israel poised for energy revolution as solar prices fall". Haaretz.
  23. ^ "IEA-PVPS Annual Report 2021" (PDF).
  24. ^ "IEA-PVPS Annual Report 2021" (PDF).
  25. ^ "IEA-PVPS Annual Report 2021" (PDF).
  26. ^ "PVPS Annual Report 2022 – Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Annual Report 2022" (PDF). PVPS. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  27. ^ Israel's 150-KW Solar Pond, Mother Earth News May/June 1980
  28. ^ Carl Nielson, Aliakbar Akbarzedeh, John Andrews, Humberto R Becerra L and Peter Golding, 'The History of Solar Pond Science & Technology', Proceedings of the International Solar Energy Society, 2005.
  29. ^ "Solar Thermal History".
  30. ^ The Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology — Publications — Solar energy for the production of heat Summary and recommendations of the 4th assembly of the energy forum at SNI Archived 6 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  31. ^ Del Chiaro, Bernadette; Telleen-Lawton, Timothy. "Solar Water Heating (How California Can Reduce Its Dependence on Natural Gas)" (PDF). Environment California Research and Policy Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  32. ^ Approved — Feed-in tariff in Israel Archived 3 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  33. ^ Ben Gurion National Solar Energy Center Archived 13 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ "Bright idea for solar energy | Geekheeb | Jewish Journal". Archived from the original on 4 December 2008.
  35. ^ Reflective mirrors seen raising solar potential, Ari Rabinovitch, Reuters, 10 August 2007.
  36. ^ Zenith Solar’s Light of a Thousand Suns Archived 24 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Green Prophet, 17 December 2007.
  37. ^ The Climate of Israel by Y. Goldreich, [3], Published by Springer, 2003, ISBN 978-0-306-47445-3
  38. ^ Jacob Karni and Michael Epstein, Weizmann Institute, July 2002.
  39. ^ Solar Energy Project at the Weizmann Institute Promises to Advance the Use of Hydrogen Fuel Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute, 6 August 2005.
  40. ^ Forget gas! Fill your tanks with water, Weizmann researcher says [permanent dead link], Nicky Blackburn, Jerusalem Post, 20 September 2006.
  41. ^ The Crystal Connection: Solar Lasers in Space [permanent dead link]
  42. ^ Head of Kibbutz Movement: We will not be discriminated against by the government Archived 13 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Ehud Zion Waldoks, Jerusalem Post, 10 March 2008.
  43. ^ Giant solar plants in Negev could power Israel's future, John Lettice, The Register, 25 January 2008
  44. ^ French PM Valls inaugurates Israel's latest—and largest—solar field, Jerusalem Post, 23 May 2016
  45. ^ Calif. solar power test begins — in Israeli desert, Associated Press, 12 June 2008. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
  46. ^ Israel site for California solar power test, Ari Rabinovitch, Reuters, 11 June 2008.
  47. ^ "Building Small Prototype Homes, an Israeli Solar Experiment". Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  48. ^ Keupp, Thomas (18 November 2019). "BELECTRIC and Solel Boneh complete Israel's largest solar plant". BELECTRIC. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  49. ^ "Shikun & Binui wins PPP tender for Israel's largest solar field". Globes. 12 June 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  50. ^ "Shikun & Binui to build Israel's largest solar energy field". Reuters. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  51. ^ Chandak, Pooja (31 May 2023). "Israel Land Authority Invites Bids For Solar Energy Production Facility In Naot Hovav". SolarQuarter. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  52. ^ "Enlight starts up its 2nd solar-plus-storage power plant in Israel". Renewablesnow.com. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  53. ^ "Israel plans solar farms along Gaza border". Globes. 27 September 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  54. ^ "Israel's biggest data center planned for disused Timna mine". Globes. 28 September 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  55. ^ a b Israel's first solar power station up and running in Negev, Avi Bar-Eli, Haaretz, 18 September 2008.
  56. ^ Sunday Solar powers Israeli kibbutzim Archived 24 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Cleantech.com news, 17 October 2008.
  57. ^ a b The first solar kibbutz, Amir Ben-David, Ynet, 22 December 2008.
  58. ^ Largue, Pamela (21 April 2023). "Israel's largest solar project launched". Power Engineering International. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  59. ^ "Israel launches largest solar project, to power 60,000+ households". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  60. ^ Colthorpe, Andy (3 May 2023). "Israeli government leads 800MW/3,200MWh BESS buildout, with energy storage strategy on the way". Energy Storage News. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  61. ^ Proctor, Darrell (3 May 2023). "Israel Adding Energy Storage to Support Grid Integration for Renewables". POWER Magazine. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  62. ^ "Israel planning 800-megawatt energy storage project". Reuters. 2 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  63. ^ "Ketura Sun Technical Figures". Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  64. ^ "Ketura Sun Environmental Figures". Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  65. ^ "Arava Power Company". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  66. ^ Roca, Marc (22 May 2012), Arava Closes Funding For $204 Million Israeli Solar Plants, Bloomberg L.P., retrieved 3 June 2012
  67. ^ Rabinovitch, Ari (22 May 2012), "Israel's Arava power to build eight solar fields", Reuters, retrieved 3 June 2012
  68. ^ Rinat, Zafrir (4 January 2011), "Solar panels prove a money-spinner for Bedouin in the Negev", Haaretz, retrieved 27 June 2011
  69. ^ Udasin, Sharon (8 February 2012), "Regulator approves first Beduin solar license", The Jerusalem Post, retrieved 29 February 2012
  70. ^ Day is Like Sunday Solar Energy [permanent dead link], 19 October 2009
  71. ^ First Hybrid Solar/Natural Gas Power Station Goes Online in Israel Archived 30 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine Popular Science Australia
  72. ^ "Ramat Hovav solar field began to supply power to the grid (in Hebrew)". 24 December 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
  73. ^ "World's tallest concentrated solar power tower".
  74. ^ "Dubai commissions world's tallest solar power tower". 15 June 2020.
  75. ^ Wrobel, Sharon. "Israel issues tender for fifth solar energy plant in the Negev desert". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  76. ^ Norman, Will (18 September 2023). "Israel issues tender for 100MW public-private partnership solar PV project". PV Tech. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  77. ^ dead link
  78. ^ China's Suncore represented by Barnea & Co. acquired the assets of Israel's Zenith Solar Archived 24 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Barnea & Co
[edit]