ISRAEL’S WIND

Can Israel’s Wind Power Sector Compete with Solar?
Jesse Fox, February 28, 2010 (Green Prophet)

"In Israel, renewable energy has become almost synonymous with solar energy in its various forms.

"But what about that other renewable resource – the wind? Worldwide, the wind energy industry is booming, with a $63 billion global market as of 2009, and half a million people employed in wind power-related jobs. China has been doubling its wind power capacity every year for the past five years."

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"Egypt and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar…[plan] to build a 200MW wind farm, which would supplement an existing 430MW in Sinai. Jordan is also expected to set up its first wind farm soon…Currently, [Israel’s] entire wind power sector boils down to 10 outdated wind turbines on the Golan Heights. But that may be about to change, as old turbines are replaced with more advanced models, and a handful of other wind energy projects attempt to make their way through a cumbersome bureaucratic process…

"…Israel has the potential to generate significant amounts of wind power…[perhaps] 2,500 megawatts…Studies have identified several areas with sufficient wind, including the Golan Heights, Arava, Gilboa and Galilee regions. Plenty of local companies have entered the arena, and a feed-in tariff is even in place."

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"…[B]ureaucracy [is the one major obstacle]…[E]ven government officials themselves [describe] an exhausting bureaucratic process. Moshe Shitrit, of the Israel Public Utilities Authority, [says] the complicated process of attaining a permit to generate power from the wind…currently takes at least 5 years…[Others describe the process as paternalistic, requiring multiple approvals and being inadequately formulated. Suggested solutions include] mandating small wind turbines on the roofs of buildings (alongside solar water heaters), equalizing feed-in tariffs for all forms of renewable energy generation and working with architects to incorporate small turbines into urban landscapes.

"…[D]espite the difficulties, several new wind power projects are in the planning stages in Israel. In the Golan Heights, those 10 old wind turbines are due to be replaced by 150 modern turbines, boosting capacity to around 300MW – reportedly enough to power the entire eastern Galilee. New large and medium-scale projects are also being planned in the Arava and near Mt. Gilboa, as well as on Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, where a combined solar and wind power scheme is expected to lead to significant savings on electricity costs."