It ain’t Chicago, but Israel does have a little bit of wind potential on the Golan Heights. A local company called Enlight, which has been active in solar energy, has just received a conditional license to build 34 more wind turbines in the Golan Heights totalling some 58 MW of renewable energy.
Local papers are reporting that Enlight has received a conditional license from Israel’s Public Utility Authority to produce up to 102 MW of power, but some 58 MWs are expected in output. If executed this will be the country’s largest wind project.
The company would need about $125 million USD to develop the project which could yield about $20 million in returns every year in feed-in tariffs over the next 20 years. Sounds good, but when all is said and done getting approvals on plants in Israel is a headache. There is also the questionable status of the Golan Heights and if it ever gets returned to Syria.
Enlight Renewable Energy, is a publicly traded firm which has been installing solar panels on a number of kibbutzim and moshavim throughout Israel since its 2008 establishment.
The Mey Eden wind farm constructed in 1992 was Israel’s first wind farm (pictured above) and the first commercial plant in wind for the Middle East.
The farm operates 10 candy-cane coloured Floda 600 wind turbines generating 6 MW in total. The energy is now consumed by the Mey Eden plant (a spring water company), the Golan Heights Winery and about 20,000 people. What’s left is fed into the grid. There was talks about Mey Eden building a 400 WM farm in the Golan Heights, but that plan worth $500 million seems to have gone with the wind.
