A 50 kilowatt grid connected rooftop solar farm has been brought online in the town of Qazrin in Northern Israel, the largest solar power plant in Israel today.
Installed by Israeli renewable energy company, Solar IT and comprising of Suntech solar panels, the farm will produce approximately 85,000 kilowatt hours of clean, renewable electricity annually. A larger solar farm, also powered by Suntech solar panels, is already in the works in Southern Israel.
Israeli National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer recently announced plans to produce 20 percent of Israel’s electricity via renewable energy resources by 2020 and in the last twelve months, Israel has tripled the budgets allocated to alternative energy initiatives and assigned greater resources for support of renewable energy sources.
The Israeli government earlier this year also announced tenders for two solar thermal power plants, each with an approximate installed capacity of between 80 megawatts and 125 megawatts, plus a solar farm with an approximate installed capacity of 15 megawatts; with option to increase by an additional 15 megawatts.
Interest in solar power in Israel has been additionally spurred along through the introduction of feed in tariffs, which pay home and industrial customers the current equivalent of AUD 76c per kilowatt hour of electricity produced. Household grid connected solar power systems covered under the initiative are limited in size to 15 kW and business plants are limited to 50 kW.
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