Israel’s Mifal HaPais national lottery, which supports healthcare and education causes, has had its remit expanded to back an incentive scheme aimed at driving rooftop PV systems.
Some 141 municipalities have already lodged requests for a total generation capacity of 141 MW of solar arrays on schools, council buildings, clinics and day care and community centers, under a scheme which offers payments to systems with a capacity of up to 200 kW.
The Israeli Ministry of Energy has said the initial ILS100 million ($28.5 million) budget has been raised to ILS500 million due to the strong response. Under the scheme, the Mifal HaPais lottery will grant local authorities seven-year, low-interest loans.
Successful applicants will receive an ILS0.45/kWh ($0.13) feed-in tariff (FIT) for 23 years.
Strategy
A month ago, the government announced a new energy and water infrastructure plan to help the country’s economy recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The plans include the deployment of 2 GW of new solar capacity. To support the plans, the government will devote ILS500 million in state guarantees for project development.
At the end of 2019, Israel had around 1.19 GW of installed solar capacity, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. The nation supports PV development through tenders, for large scale projects, and a FIT scheme for rooftop PV
The government had already this year announced a plan to almost double the 2030 renewable energy target to 17%. “A public hearing on the new plan is expected soon,” Eitan Parnass, CEO of the Green Energy Association of Israel told pv magazine. “We have great confidence in the Israeli masterplans to shift to renewables.”
