The sun is shining, so why isn’t Israel making hay of its solar energy?

With fires, floods, hurricanes and other disasters putting the consequences of climate change high on the international agenda, many developed nations are finding renewed urgency in reaching net zero emissions targets by 2050, which will involve substantially cutting fossil fuel use.

For 2050, Israel has committed to a more modest goal, reducing total emissions by 85 percent from  2015 levels. That will include an 85% reduction in emissions from electricity production, but the country has not set an actual target for how much power will come from renewable resources — primarily the sun — by then.

The country did not come close to meeting a goal set by the Energy Ministry for 10% renewables by 2020, reaching only 6%. And despite vast desert tracts, plentiful solar rays and access to new technologies in efficient power generation and storage, there are serious questions as to whether even its goal of 30% renewables by 2030 is a realistic one.

Recent years have seen the Energy Ministry in full-throttle embrace of natural gas from large deposits found offshore. Karine Elharrar, who became energy minister in June, has indicated that she will oversee a shift in focus toward renewable energy, which she views as a top priority.

But there are still a number of hurdles that stand in the way of a solar revolution in Israel, including finding room for all the solar panels needed to supply electricity, upgrading the country’s outdated and insufficient electric infrastructure, and resolving organizational issues.

One in eight Israelis who want to erect solar panels on their roofs are being told that there’s no room on the grid to handle the exchange. Some have begun pushing for a sea change in the way Israel’s grid is designed, advocating a move to a decentralized model that they say could more effectively harness solar energy in diffused fashion.

Bringing all the pieces together will require coordinating between a mind-boggling array of ministries, state agencies, private stakeholders and others. But the body charged with plotting out what will need to happen to hit the targets only started work in December.

Stepping on the gas

Yuval Steinitz, who was energy minister from 2015 until June, may best be remembered as a champion of natural gas.

It was he who refused to set any target for renewable energy generation for 2050, saying that too little was known about how the technology will develop.

Despite a move away from fossil fuels in many countries, Steinitz’s Energy Ministry continued to issue permits for gas and oil exploration, though it did set a 2025 target to phase out coal, which is even dirtier. (His successor Elharrar announced in August that oil exploration on land would stop, but offshore exploration and drilling is expected to continue.)

Steinitz advanced plans for new gas-fired power stations to meet much of Israel’s domestic consumption needs.

He oversaw deals to supply gas to Jordan and Egypt and, with his eye on sending it further afield to Europe, co-founded the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) with Cyprus, Greece and others.

A United Nations report published in May declared that expanding natural gas infrastructure and usage was “incompatible with keeping [global] warming to [the UN’s target, as set out in the 2015 Paris Climate Accords of] 1.5° C.”

With so many eggs in the natural gas basket, Steinitz’s Energy Ministry was reluctant to commit to renewable energy in any major way.

A roadmap for cutting emissions that the ministry published in April talked in general terms and lacked interim milestones, and Steinitz spoke out about the difficulty of reaching the 30% goal — which he himself had upped from a previous commitment for 17% renewables by 2030.

One of his main arguments against solar power was the sheer amount of space needed.

He told a press briefing earlier this year that close to a million dunams (just under 250,000 acres) of open land would be needed for the country to provide 90% to 100% of its electricity from renewables. This would double Israel’s built environment, including roads, he said.

Energy Ministry Director General Udi Adiri, who is due to be replaced by an Elharrar appointee, said at the same event that solar energy takes 150 times the land required for natural gas development, and urged attendees to also consider preservation of open land and biodiversity as an environmental factor.

Earlier this month, he told the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee that reaching 30% renewables would require 180,000 dunams (45,000 acres). A ministry spokesperson later clarified that of this figure, 80,000 dunams would come from potential dual-use sites.

These are roofs and other locations that are already in use, ranging from agricultural and industrial buildings to traffic intersections and cemeteries.

The Israel Electricity Authority, which regulates the power industry, estimates that at least 40,000 dunams (9,900 acres) of open land will be needed to hit the 30% target, though the National Planning Council has limited the amount of open space for solar panels to half that.

By contrast, both the Environmental Protection Ministry and the NZO (Net Zero) project at the Heschel Center for Sustainable Development, a Tel Aviv-based environmental policy shop, have run models indicating that Israel could reach 95% renewables by 2050 through the dual-use approach alone.

The Environmental Protection Ministry even estimated that there is enough space for solar panels on roofs and other potential dual-use locations to already provide 46% of Israel’s electricity needs.

100% solar?

Ofer Yannay founded and heads solar power firm Nofar Energy. Among the firm’s innovations is floating solar panels on a reservoir, harnessing the underutilized surface area to generate electricity.

According to Yannay, Israel could get 100% of its electricity from the sun by 2035 without putting a single panel on virgin land.

“We need to aim to put panels on any surface that can generate energy, from car roofs and the surface of the roads to the facades of buildings — for which the technology exists,” said Yannay, who tried unsuccessfully to get a permit for his floating solar installations, in a taste of the red tape that experts say has also held back expansion of solar projects.

Drafted into producing a new national plan to deal with dual-use solar energy sites, Energy Ministry planning head Dorit Hochner has sought to both expand where panels can be placed and streamline regulations.

Called Tama 10D 10/2, the new national plan for photovoltaic solar panels on dual-use sites covers the potential placement of panels on traffic junctions, acoustic barriers, retaining walls, reservoirs, waste dumps, greenhouses, outdoor parking lots, pergolas, cemeteries and installations owned by utilities such as the telephone or water companies.

Hochner’s department is now working on a policy paper to add army bases, fencing, building facades and agrivoltaics — which combines electricity generation with shade that is beneficial for crops — into the mix, as well as plan for solar energy storage.

Hochner has also managed to get a number of riders inserted into the omnibus Economic Arrangements Bill making its way through the Knesset that would support dual-use panels in areas outside its purview, meaning other ministries will also need to play ball.

One proposal recommends planning for solar panels above army firing ranges and even in cleared minefields, areas that the Prime Minister’s Office and Defense Ministry normally control.

Another clause would exempt solar panel companies from capital improvement taxes on parking lots and other dual-use sites, bypassing the Interior Ministry, which currently only exempts roofs.

Hochner has also proposed that the Israel Lands Authority charge set prices for land to put solar installations on, rather than haggle with potential developers on each project, inserting uncertainty into the process. And she wants the planning council to review its 20,000 dunam (4,900 acre) cap on open space for solar projects.

But several people involved in moving Israel toward the 2030 goal told The Times of Israel that finding the room for panels is just one of several critical hurdles faced by solar advocates.

Inadequate infrastructure

Another key obstacle is the electricity grid, which does not have the capacity to absorb the shift to decentralized solar power, despite repeated demands over the years to expand and upgrade it.

The limitations on the grid means the Israel Electric Corporation has been rejecting 13% of all private solar installations requesting to be hooked in, an IEC spokesman said.

Residents of the Galilee and the Golan Heights in northern Israel and Eilat in the south, for example, have been informed that they cannot connect solar panels into the system until 2023.