February Edition 2021

6 Phillips adds: “I think the Government has historically taken several different approaches to how best to encourage the development of renewable energy using different technologies, different levels of connection to the grid and allowing for different types of projects. This approach has been backed by different regulatory regimes – from pure BOT tenders for PV (“photovoltaic”) and solar thermal projects to feed-in tariff mechanisms for PV, wind, waste to energy, pumped storage and others.” There is a lot to do on the Government checklis t. Uri Noy, h ead of Erdinast, Ben Nathan,Toledano&Co.’sEnergyand Infrastructuredepartment,added: “Among other things, the Ministry of Energy is expected to promote the construction of renewable energy facilities in built-up areas and areas with dual use, publish tenders for the construction of solar fields in the Negev Desert, set a loan fund for entrepreneurs in order to encourage the installation of renewable energy and storage facilities on rooftops, promote a PPP project for the construction of a solar facility, and develop the national electrical grid to be able to transport the electricity generated from renewable energy facilities.” PV is definitely a significant part of the mix. A s Asaf Illuz, partner at Lipa Meir & Co. says: “The government initiated several tenders for solar PV projects, including the allocation of land for a massive project in the Negev in Southern Israel. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Energy published a tender for a B.O.T project, a 180 MW Solar PV power plant with an integrated battery energy storage system, near Dimona.” “In late December, last year, the Electricity Authority published the results of Competitive Procedure No. 2, in which seven companies were awarded the right to build Solar PV power plants with an integrated battery energy storage system, with an aggregate power of 609 MW. All these projects include a commitment to purchase all the electricity produced, at a price determined by the competitive procedure,” adds Illuz. Solar fields in the Negev In practice, how has the government support turned out?