The Electricity Authority of Israel has set a target of achieving at least 17 per cent of its electricity requirement from solar energy by 2030. The agency also has set a target of achieving 10 per cent of its total energy needs from solar energy by the year of 2020.

With a current figure of more than 10,000 solar system installations throughout the country which generates about 3 percent of the entire electrical grid, the Electricity Authority said that there have been significant investments made in solar energy since 2017. These figures were revealed in the Electricity Authority’s annual report published this week.

Over the years, solar panel technologies became better and cheaper, said the Israeli government and noted that Germany and China are the major sources of the solar panels to Israel.

A number of potential investors in Israel’s clean energy projects had been previously scared of and backed away because of the vast bureaucracy that is involved in the operations of the Electricity Authority in Israel. But the red tapism has been significantly reduced as a part of a new strategy that has been implemented this year.

There has been an ongoing continuous transformation of energy sources in the power stations of the country during the last two decades ever since Israel discovered huge quantities of gas lying beneath the water of the Mediterranean Sea.

While gas accounted for only about 9 percent of Israel’s total electricity generation source in 2004, it has grown to 54 percent according to last year’s statistics which has also been accompanied with a reduction in the use of coal as a source of generating electricity from 78 per cent to 45 per cent during the same period.

Israel has also seen multiple environmental movements that are urging the government to shift from the trend of using polluting energy sources and choose to use make use of clean energies as primary sources of the country’s power.

The country’s solar power industry set a record on March 19 this year when it broke its solar power record. The Israel Electric Corporation said that 13.4 per cent of the total electricity that was being consumed in the country was produced generated form solar power source at precisely 12:07 P.M. on that day.

However, according to officials, a specific confluence of events — high solar production and low overall consumption, resulted in the record being set despite the fact that eth country has been pushing forward with its strategy of enhancing the portion of power derived from renewable energy.

“We are very proud of this,” said Oren Hellman of the corporation. “But it is a specific record. The high percentage level comes because it was a Saturday and the weather was perfect for renewable energy. This proves we can do it.”

“The sun is the biggest source of energy in Israel and we can achieve much greater solar energy production,” he said.

(Adapted from Xinhuanet.com & TimesofIsrael.com)

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