Global governments may be voting against Israel in the United Nations General Assembly, but they clearly have no qualms about sending their best and brightest solar engineers to the Negev to work with Israelis on renewable energy.
Israel’s Ministries of Finance and Energy, as well as its Land Authority and the Public Utilities Authority/Electricity this week published a tender for the construction of the Jewish State’s largest solar power plant, to be built near the Negev city of Dimona. The response to a request for bids was overwhelming.
An unprecedented number of respondents answered the call – 27 consortia from various countries – to begin the pre-screening process.
The solar power plant is to span 750 acres (more than 3,000 dunams) and is intended to produce electricity using photo-voltaic technology, according to the Globes business news site.
Included in the published tender is a requirement to integrate energy storage into the solar batteries in the project. Part of the power produced will be stored, making it possible to supply solar-produced power at night when no sunlight is available but demand for electricity is high.
The project is intended to help achieve the government’s target of 30 percent of Israel’s energy needs being met from renewable sources by 2030.