Israel continues to be a global leader within the development and use of solar energy, while its geopolitical position has improved. The worldwide solar sector continues to be growing 40 percent annually, which provides Israel lots of space for more progress.
Renewable energy is generated from natural sources, such as sunlight, wind, rain, waves and geothermal heat which are all renewable. Alternative energy technologies include solar power, wind power, hydropower, biomass energy and biofuel. Almost all alternative energy comes from the Sun. The Sun's radiation toward our planet measures close to 5.25 kWh/m^2 a day. After centuries of using fossil fuel energy, today's global picture is evolving, and alternative energy is increasingly one among the key factors in the planet's future development. The Israeli weather conditions are ideal for the production of solar power.
Israel is still a global leader within the development and use of solar power, while its geopolitical position has improved. The worldwide solar sector has been growing 40 % annually, which provides Israel plenty of room for more progress. Also, by investing in solar power, Israel has become less determined by the neighbouring Arab countries that export crude oil. Using the development of solar power, the need for oil decreases, since the Sun can establish around 10,000 times more energy than the global requirements.
How does Israel develop its renewable energy sources? Principally the nation does it via a unique solar field. Seo consists of solar power panels having a 250-kilowatt-capacity. They operate by directing the sunlight on the panels towards the receiver. Around 70 percent of the accumulated energy can be used to generate electricity, but in addition for heating water, which reaches up to 250 families, who thus save on gas along with other kinds of fuel. Solar power plants, of 180-megawatt-capacity, are presently under construction in Israel. This is a fantastic way to utilize 4,000 hours of sunshine a year and therefore generate as much as a tenth of needed electricity from renewable sources. As well as the solar fields, Israel also has a solar tower. Ashalim is a solar energy plant located in the Negev desert. The station is 260 metres high and has a boiler. You will find as much as 50,000 mirrors round the tower to gather solar energy. Ashalim includes three plots with three different technologies the station combines 3 types of energy: solar thermal energy, photovoltaic energy, and natural gas. Ashalim Plot A (Negev Energy) is a 121-megawatt parabolic trough plant with 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage.
The Ashalim Plot B (Megalim) hosts a solar power tower. We have an installed capacity of 121 megawatts, concentrating 50,600 computer-controlled heliostats enough to power 120,000 homes. Electricity production commenced in September 2023, with the wind turbine now amounting to 320 GWh annually. The project would be a partnership between Brightsource and Alstom. Ashalim Plot C is a 30MW PV plant that was commissioned in 2023, twelve months before the CSP plants.
In 2023, EDF Renewables won a tender for another NIS 150 million ($43 million) PV plant at a record low cost of 8.68 agorot (3 cents) per kilowatt-hour.
However, all those sunny days and hours get their downside too. The weather in Israel is dry and warm which raises the question of sufficient water suppliers. Still, Israel has found a strategy to this problem. The cost of desalination continues to be reduced, thanks to new technologies. Among the leaders in this field, Israel even exports water obtained in this manner. For instance, Israel has signed a contract with Jordan which stipulates Israel exporting desalinated water to Jordan, that has been suffering from extreme droughts.
But what is desalination? Desalination is the process of reducing (removing) minerals from water (to really make it suitable for people to drink), processed water and irrigation water, with salt like a by-product of the process. Areas along the sea and islands often have great difficulties with water supply, which is why permanent or occasional water shortages and all the consequences that arise from them have become more frequent.
Ocean water desalination is typical in the centre East, the Caribbean, america, North Africa, Spain, Australia and China. The benefit of this process is the widespread availability of the raw material (seawater), while the disadvantage is the fact that water desalination is currently very costly compared to obtaining freshwater using their company sources since it requires high energy consumption and expensive equipment.
As for natural gas, Israel discovered the Tamar gas field in 2009 and 4 years later, started extracting gas there, that is one of the primary powers. Along with Tamar, Israel also utilizes the Leviathan gas field, that is located near the Israeli coast.
Natural gas is really a primary power source in Israel, mainly useful for electricity production and to a lesser degree in the market. Israel began producing gas from the own offshore gas fields in 2004. Between 2005 and 2012, Israel had imported gas from Egypt via the al-Arish-Ashkelon pipeline, that was terminated because of the Egyptian Crisis of 2011-14. As of 2023, Israel produced over 9 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually. Israel had 199 billion cubic meters (cu m) of proven reserves of natural gas by the beginning of 2023.
Since Israel's creation in 1948, it's been dependent on energy imports using their company countries. Specifically, Israel produced 7 billion cubic meters of gas in 2013 and imported 720 million cubic meters this year Historically, Israel has imported gas with the Arish-Ashkelon pipeline from Egypt. Egypt may be the second-largest gas producer in North Africa. In 2005 Egypt signed a couple.5 billion-dollar deal to provide Israel with 57 billion cubic feet of gas each year for 15 years. Under this arrangement, Egypt supplies 40 percent of Israel’s gas demand. The Israeli Electric Corporation (IEC) controls a lot more than 95% of the electricity sector in Israel and controls the production, distribution, and transmission of electricity. The IEC has a gas distribution law which regulates the distribution of natural gas in Israel to empower market competition.
