EDF Renewables brings online 54 MW of solar parks in Israel

EDF Renewables, part of France’s EDF Group, on Thursday said it has launched commercial operations at 54 MW of ground-based and floating solar parks in Israel, to be run under 20-year feed-in tariff (FiT) contracts.

The bundle includes four projects, all of which were secured in government tenders in 2019.

In the northern parts of Israel, the 19-MW Lochamei HaGetaot floating photovoltaic (PV) plant, with its 44,000 panels installed on a set of fish ponds, will operate under a demo project with the Ministry of Agriculture. The so-called Holga floating array is also generating power in the north of the country. Built with 4,300 panels, the 2-MW array covers around 70% of the water surface of a reservoir used for irrigation.

Additionally, EDF Renewables has switched on the 27-MW Gevim ground-mounted solar park, which is equipped with 64,000 panels, and the 6-MW Kmehin plant with 14,500 panels. Both of them are located in the Negev desert.

The four projects align with Israel’s goal to lift the share of renewables in its energy mix to 30% by 2030 and back EDF Group’s ambitions to expand its net renewable energy capacity to 60 GW by 2030.

Including the latest additions, EDF Renewables has 27 operational solar parks in Israel totalling roughly 490 MW. By end-2022, it plans to bring online six more plants, one of which will use floating PV technology.

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