Israel mulls solar rooftop scheme to reach 2020 renewables target
A new scheme to promote rooftop solar-panel installations in Israel is hoped to bring online about 1.6 GW of new solar capacity and help the country reach its 10% renewable energy goal by 2020. The scheme would allow photovoltaic (PV) installations up to 15 KW to be eligible to access the net metering scheme or to apply for a 25-year feed-in tariff (FIT) of 0.39 ILS/KWH ($0.111/KWH). Meanwhile, PV installations ranging from 15 KW to 50 KW will be supported with a 25-year FIT of 0.33 ILS/KWH.

The government of Israel is planning to launch a new scheme for rooftop PV installations soon, which is expected bring around 1.6 GW of new solar capacity online over the next three years.

According to information provided to pv magazine by Eitan Parnass, founder and director of Israel’s Green Energy Association, the new scheme is aimed at helping the country achieve its 2020 renewable energy target, which is a 10% share in total energy consumption, based on a solar energy contribution of 3.5 GW.

Under the new scheme, which is currently under a public hearing, PV installations up to 15 kW will be eligible to access the net metering scheme, or to apply for a 25-year FIT contract at a tariff of 0.39 ILS ($0.111)/kWh. This FIT will not be indexed to inflation.

Furthermore, the scheme will support PV systems ranging in size from 15 to 50 kW, with a 25-year FIT of 0.33 ILS ($0.094)/kWh.

As for net metering, Eitan said that there are still around 285 MW of projects that can be realized before the original 400 MW cap set by the government will be reached.

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Projects up to 5 MW will be still entitled to be developed under this mechanism; ground-mounted installations will not be entitled, however, as per the prior regulation.

A new grid fee covering storage costs will also be introduced, which is expected to total 0.03 ILS ($0.008)/kWh.

Israel currently has an installed PV capacity of 1 GW. Another 1 GW is expected to come from a series of six tenders totaling 1 GW, which was launched this year and will run through 2018.

Of the current installed capacity, around 200 MW comes from PV projects exceeding 12 MW, while the remaining power is represented by residential installations up to 15 kW (50 MW), commercial installations ranging in size from 15 kW to 50 kW (240 MW), and distributed generation PV plants up to 12 MW (315 MW).