National electricity demand, which is growing at some 3.5% a year, is being met largely by gas, the lion’s share of which is being piped in from Egypt, with only 1.5% of new supply currently coming from wind and solar energy, including some 500MW of PV now grid-connected and another 200MW that is under construction.
But Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, is “cautiously” pushing through a new energy policy that would build on government targets of renewable energy meeting 10% of demand by 2020 – alongside exploitation of several giant oil and gas fields discovered in recent years in the Israeli Mediterranean – led by a raft of greenfield PV projects.
“Israel
