Israeli wind power looks set to grow rapidly

• 9 years ago (2015-02-02)
• Junior Isles

Middle East 311 Renewables 752

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Israel's wind capacity has stayed at 6 MW for years but looks set to grow rapidly, with 22 MW currently under construction and a further 3 GW under development.

The CEO of the Israeli Wind Energy Association, Gadi Hareli, said that this is a result of measures taken by the government over the last four years – which has included a new Feed-in Tariff (FiT) of up to 800 MW for turbines over 50 kW as well as two calls for proposals in 2013.

The government has recently granted conditional production licences for four projects totalling 461 MW, which they hope to get the final approvals for by the end of the year.

Afcon EB Wind Energy is also currently building two wind farms at Sirin (9.35 MW) and Glboa (11.9 MW), and another at Sirin (10 MW), which is still in the planning process.

Enlight Renewable Energy is also building two other projects: Emek Haruchot (169 MW) and Ruach Bereshit (130 MW); although the long awaited reopening of the 6 MW plant in the Golan Heights has been delayed yet again.

Gadi Hareli added that he thinks people will have more confidence in the sector once the first two to three projects are completed, but he also hopes that the World Wind Energy Conference, taking place in Jerusalem in October, will have a positive impact on the sector.