Solar Power in Israel

Solar energy has served two distinct roles in Israel: producing heat directly, especially for domestic hot water, and generating electricity. Solar water heating became widespread decades before grid-scale solar generation, while electricity production now includes photovoltaic (PV) panels and solar-thermal plants. PV systems convert sunlight directly into electricity; solar-thermal systems concentrate sunlight to generate heat, which can in turn drive a turbine. These technologies have different operating characteristics, land needs, and relationships to electricity storage.[5][6]

Israel’s solar resources are supported by substantial sunshine, particularly in its southern desert regions. A reference account places the country at about 30° north latitude and estimates annual solar irradiance at roughly 2,000 kilowatt-hours per square meter. The Negev has been a focus for research and power projects, but high population density and limited available land constrain the scale and siting of new facilities.[6][7]

Solar generation is intermittent: panels produce electricity when sunlight is available, and Israel’s long-term energy planning summary estimates roughly five effective generating hours per day on average and a capacity factor of about 20%. Thermal storage and batteries can shift some energy to other hours, but high solar penetration also requires grid reinforcement and, in some scenarios, seasonal storage to transfer surplus spring electricity into winter. Solar’s role is therefore connected not only to generation technology, but also to storage, land planning, and the design and resilience of the electricity system.[8]

Solar water heating became established in Israel during the 1950s, decades before grid-scale solar generation.[9] A Library of Congress country study describes solar as an important alternative pursued after Israel failed to find economically viable domestic fossil-fuel deposits, and says the country devoted substantial resources to solar development. It characterized Israel at the time as a long-acknowledged leader in the field, though it did not provide installed-capacity or generation figures.[10]

A 2000 book, citing research from 1988, reported 65% market penetration for solar domestic hot-water systems. That figure describes a historical estimate, not present-day prevalence.[11] A 2010 article reported that more than half of domestic hot water had been produced using solar energy since the 1950s.[9] A 2013 commentary described heaters in over 90% of Israeli homes; this too is a dated claim and should not be read as a current measurement.[12]

Policy helped establish the technology in homes. A 2011 report said regulations introduced in 1980 required solar water heaters on the roofs of private buildings, and that they accounted for 3% of primary energy consumption at that time; the reported requirement applied to the household sector rather than businesses.[13] A separate 2000 account said the government required systems in new homes and small apartment buildings, linking adoption to strong sunlight and a national aim of reducing dependence on imported oil.[11]

Solar research also developed through institutions and demonstrations. The first section of the Negev Research Institute opened in Beersheba on October 31, 1957. Its work included solar-energy programs as well as research on the desert’s limited water supply and uses for arid land; the source says the region comprises 40% of Israel. The institute is now identified as the Institute for Applied Research, with agricultural research facilities that include greenhouses and laboratories.[14]

After the 1974 energy crisis, industry and government undertook solar demonstrations. At Beit Ha’aravah near the Dead Sea, a saline solar pond was reported to cover 250,000 square meters. Ormat developed a low-temperature turbine for the project and built a 5-megawatt turbine, while the account estimated average electrical output at about 570 kilowatts. Stored heat could support higher output for several hours during morning or evening peak periods.[6]

Solar design also shaped buildings. Passive solar architecture used winter sunlight while aiming to keep homes cool in summer. A reference account identifies a sun-dried adobe-brick house at Ben-Gurion University’s Sde Boker campus, completed in the late 1970s, as Israel’s first passive solar house and says its basic principles were subsequently widely adopted by Israeli architects. The same account says active solar space heating was not cost-effective because the Israeli winter season was relatively short.[6]

A central solar-assisted hot-water system installed at a Ben-Gurion University student dormitory complex in Beer Sheva had operated since November 1976. It used 20 commercial collectors and a two-cubic-meter central tank serving two dormitory buildings. The study reports that successful operation led to many similar systems being built commercially throughout Israel.[15]

Rooftop solar water heaters remain the most familiar form of solar energy described in the sources. A typical domestic system has an insulated 150-liter tank and a flat panel of about two square meters. Water circulates through a gravity-driven loop without a pump, is heated by the panel, and then flows to storage. One reference account estimates average annual efficiency at about 50% and electricity savings of approximately 2,000 kilowatt-hours per unit per year.[6]

The systems illustrate how a solar technology can reduce electricity demand without producing electricity for the grid. Their history also helps explain why solar energy became widespread in Israeli households before large-scale PV power plants were established. The historical prevalence estimates vary by date and definition—from a 65% market-penetration figure based on a study cited as 1988 to a later report of use in over 90% of homes—but neither dated figure establishes a current rate.[11][12]

Passive solar design is another direct use of sunlight. Rather than converting solar radiation into electricity, it uses building orientation and design to capture winter sunshine while limiting summer heat. The described Sde Boker house became an early demonstration, and its principles were reported to have spread among Israeli architects. By contrast, the same source’s assessment was that active solar space heating did not make economic sense in Israel because winter is relatively short.[6]

In 1985, the government established the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center at Sde Boker as a test and demonstration facility. In 1991, it assigned Ben-Gurion University the task of converting the center into a solar research facility. Projects described at the center included photovoltaic systems intended to feed electricity into the grid and a 200-kilowatt PV system at Kibbutz Samar, among facilities at different stages of planning and execution.[6]

Israeli academic research covered several photovoltaic approaches. Work described in a reference account included high-efficiency single-crystal silicon cells at the Jerusalem College of Technology, amorphous-silicon thin layers at Tel Aviv University, and prospective thin-film materials at Ben-Gurion University, the Technion, and the Weizmann Institute. A Negev Solar Radiation Survey, established in the 1980s by the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Ben-Gurion University’s solar center, and the Meteorological Service, recorded radiation and related weather data at approximately ten Negev sites to help identify locations for future power stations.[6]

The Israeli-American company Luz demonstrated solar process heat at a potato-chip factory in Sha’ar Ha’negev. Sun-tracking mirrors focused sunlight on a tube carrying oil, heating it above 200°C; the hot oil then produced steam for the factory. Luz later used similar collectors in power plants in California, but went bankrupt before completing negotiations for a comparable Israeli power station. A 2010 account described Solel and BrightSource as successors associated with Luz’s solar-thermal expertise, and reported that Luz had generated 95% of the world’s solar energy by the 1980s before investment dried up in the 1990s.[6][9]

In March 2009, Israel’s minister of national infrastructures signed what a contemporary report called the first two licenses for solar-electricity generation. One authorized Aora to build a thermosolar facility of up to 100 kilowatts at Kibbutz Samar in the Arava; the other authorized Arava Power to build a PV facility of up to 4.9 megawatts at Kibbutz Ketura. Both licenses were conditional on meeting stipulated criteria.[16]

Ketura Sun, inaugurated at Kibbutz Ketura in June 2011, was described as Israel’s first solar field. It occupied 80 dunams and used 18,500 PV panels, with expected annual production of about nine million kilowatt-hours—enough, the contemporary account estimated, for three average-sized Arava kibbutzim for a year. Its electricity was to be transferred to the national grid. Planning began at the end of 2006, and the project took more than five years to reach inauguration.[17]

A 2015 U.S. investment statement reported that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation had recently authorized a $250 million construction loan for an Abengoa-backed, 110-megawatt concentrated solar power project in the Negev.[18] Separately, Israel and the United States established formal channels for energy cooperation: an agreement signed in Jerusalem on February 22, 2000, and effective from May 1, 2001, listed solar energy among possible areas of cooperation. It provided for technical exchanges, personnel exchanges, seminars, joint research and experiments, and jointly funded projects, and was amended in 2011.[19]

U.S.–Israel legislation also authorized grants for research, development, and commercialization of covered energy sources, including solar energy. Eligible projects had to involve joint U.S. and Israeli participants from business, academia, nonprofit organizations, or government, and had to be considered unclassified by both countries. The grant program and its advisory committee terminated on September 30, 2024.[20]

Photovoltaic systems have expanded from individual installations to a distributed network of facilities at different scales. A 2017 INSS report documented thousands of Israeli PV systems: most were connected to the low-voltage grid, a few dozen to the medium-voltage grid, and some connected—or being built for connection—to the high-voltage grid. The report contrasted this dispersed generation with a power system in which most electricity-production capacity was concentrated at only 20 sites.[5]

The report used a roughly 40-megawatt southern Israeli PV facility to illustrate modular design. It described about 400,000 modules and 40 converters. In its assessment, damage to a few dozen or even hundreds of modules would have negligible overall impact; damaged converters might be replaced within hours or days if spares were available, while replacement of damaged modules could take a few weeks. These observations were presented as an example of how distributed, modular generation could limit the consequences of localized damage.[5]

Solar-thermal generation concentrates sunlight to produce heat and then electricity. The Ashalim project in the Negev includes different technologies and separate generating facilities, so reported capacities depend on which facility and which date a source describes. In 2017, INSS reported that the government-initiated project included two solar-thermal stations and a PV station, with the thermal stations still under construction. It listed nominal capacities of 136 megawatts for a parabolic-trough station and 125 megawatts for a solar-tower station; these are historical figures from that report, not a verified current statement of plant capacities. The trough design concentrates sunlight on a heating element with concave mirrors, while the tower design uses moving heliostats to focus sunlight on a receiver atop a tower.[5]

A separate description of the Ashalim tower under construction in 2017 specified a planned capacity of 121 megawatts. It described 50,600 computer-controlled mirrors spread across three square kilometers, focusing sunlight on a receiver at the top of a 250-meter tower; the receiver was reported to have been lifted to 200 meters. The concentrated heat was intended to produce steam at close to 600°C to drive a turbine and send electricity to the national grid. Differences among the figures reflect separate descriptions and reporting dates, and should not be combined into one current capacity figure.[21]

A later account described the Negev Energy solar-thermal facility at Ashalim as a 121-megawatt plant covering 390 hectares. Rotating parabolic mirrors heat a fluid, which transfers heat to water to produce steam for a turbine. Molten-salt storage was reported to allow as much as 4.5 additional hours of full-capacity electricity after sunset or during cloudy weather. The account said the plant supplied about 0.75% of Israel’s electricity, could serve approximately 70,000 households, and was operating at 95% of full capacity when the report appeared. It estimated annual carbon dioxide reductions at about 245,000 tons.[22]

The cost and dispatchability of solar-thermal power involve a trade-off. The same report gave the Negev Energy tender price as 90 agorot per kilowatt-hour over 25 years, while noting that PV electricity prices had fallen as low as 15 agorot per kilowatt-hour. It attributed the difference to rapid progress in PV and comparatively static solar-thermal costs, while emphasizing thermal solar’s capacity to store heat and generate after sundown. A 2017 INSS assessment also noted that thermal storage can support a more continuous flow of renewable electricity and that Ashalim’s solar-thermal units could use natural gas when sunlight was unavailable.[22][5]

The project’s scale has been reported in different ways. A contemporary account described three Ashalim plots expected together to generate about 310 megawatts, roughly 1.6% of Israel’s energy needs and enough for about 130,000 households, with another plot planned at the time. The figure refers to the three plots as described in that report, not to a single facility or a later verified site total.[22] Another historical account described the Megalim project as involving BrightSource Energy, General Electric, and NOY Infrastructure & Energy Investment Fund, and said the Ministry of Finance approved a NIS 4 billion funding agreement in July 2015. It described the tower as 820 feet tall and surrounded by 50,000 heliostat mirrors; the page’s expectation that the complex would be operational by mid-2018 was a forecast, not confirmation that the schedule was met.[6]

Solar generation grew markedly during the 2010s and early 2020s, although reported percentages refer to different years and measures. An INSS analysis said solar’s share of Israeli electricity generation rose from 2% to almost 10% over the five years preceding its 2021 publication, with the latter figure referring to 2020. A 2019 report quoted an Israel Electric Corporation executive saying solar exceeded 5% of electricity consumption for the first time that year; he reported 2,200 megawatts of grid-connected solar capacity, twice the amount five years earlier, and 7,000 pending connection requests.[1][23]

A 2020 Ministry of Energy report identified solar as Israel’s greatest renewable-energy opportunity and said it accounted for about 90% of the country’s renewable sources. It listed 3,496 approved PV systems with 550 megawatts of installed capacity and noted that seven PV systems had been installed on water reservoirs. These figures describe the report’s period and should not be confused with later capacity totals.[7]

In 2020, Government Resolution 465 set a target of producing 30% of Israel’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030, with solar expected to provide most of that generation. An INSS assessment said the target required 17,000 megawatts of cumulative renewable facilities and that 7,000 megawatts had been connected to the grid at the time it was written. A possible 2035 target of 35%–45% was under examination by the energy minister in that account; it was not an adopted target.[4]

A 2020 ministry plan, as reported by Globes, envisaged solar supplying 90% of renewable generation, equivalent to 26% of total electricity production, toward the 30% overall renewable target. It estimated that meeting the solar objective would require 15,773 megawatts of solar systems, compared with 2,248 megawatts of cumulative solar capacity reported at the time. The plan projected that solar could meet 80% of afternoon electricity consumption and exceed demand during some hours, with surplus power stored in batteries.[24]

The same report stated that the plan would require a total of 140,000 dunams for solar installations, but its listed categories—84,000 dunams of open land, 41,000 dunams of rooftops, and 45,000 dunams at water reservoirs, fish farms, and road interchanges—sum to 170,000 dunams. The source does not reconcile that discrepancy. It also described proposed legislation requiring buildings with roofs larger than 750 square meters to install systems on at least half their roof area, alongside measures to facilitate installations on apartment buildings and public buildings.[24]

A 2022 plan presented by the Energy Ministry and Electricity Authority estimated that 17,145 megawatts of total solar capacity would be needed by 2030, including an addition of 13,554 megawatts over existing capacity, and about 9,800 megawatts by 2025. It projected that 80% of solar-generation potential would come from dual-use installations—such as roofs, reservoirs, and agricultural land—and 20% from open land, subject to a 20,000-dunam limit for ground-mounted systems. These projections came from a different plan version than the 2020 estimate of 15,773 megawatts.[25]

Reported renewable shares and targets should likewise be read in their time context. A 2022 peer-reviewed study states that Israel raised its 2030 renewable-energy target from 17% to 30% in 2020, while the Electricity Authority’s revised series gives an actual renewable share of 6.3% for 2020. The figures describe different things—a policy target and measured electricity consumption—and should not be treated as interchangeable.[26][2]

The Electricity Authority’s 2024 status report recorded 6,813 megawatts of installed renewable capacity at year-end, up from 5,903 megawatts in 2023. It said 911 megawatts of renewable capacity connected to the grid during 2024. Renewables accounted for 14.7% of actual electricity consumption and 16.2% of potential consumption at year-end, while renewable consumption totaled 10,908 gigawatt-hours, about 21.6% higher than in 2023. These are totals for renewables overall, not solar alone. The Authority noted that rooftop production—especially electricity consumed behind the meter—is difficult to measure precisely, so estimates of potential generation are used.[2]

A Globes report published on May 28, 2026, said renewable sources supplied 16.7% of Israeli electricity in 2025, up from 14.6% in 2024, and that the overwhelming majority of renewable electricity was solar. It reported at least 1.3 gigawatts of renewable capacity entering operation during 2025, a record in the article’s account. If an annual increase of about 2.1 percentage points continued, the report projected a renewable share of roughly 25% in 2030—below the stated national target of 30%. That was a projection based on the recent pace, not a replacement official target. The report also cautioned that growing electricity demand means new renewable capacity must be added just to maintain a constant renewable share.[27]

Israel’s solar potential must be reconciled with limited land and a constrained electricity network. The Ministry of Energy has encouraged dual use, including rooftop and reservoir installations, and identified limited land and high population density as constraints. Solar intermittency makes efficient, affordable storage necessary.[7] A 2021 INSS analysis described Israel and Jordan as lying in a “solar sunbelt,” an area with very high solar exposure, but said Israel lacked sufficient available free land for large-scale solar plants and storage. It estimated renewable-energy production costs of five U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour in Israel, compared with three cents in Jordan, attributing the difference mainly to lower Jordanian land and labor costs.[3]

Studies of ground-mounted PV provide estimates of what the existing system might accommodate. A 2022 study using geographic information systems and Israel’s national power-system configuration estimated that 2.93 gigawatts of installed capacity and 5.16 terawatt-hours of generation could theoretically be integrated without system changes—about 15% of national installed capacity and 7% of energy generation. The authors identified land limits and constraints involving grid stability, reliability, supply quality, and hosting capacity as obstacles to deployment.[26]

A 2023 study used geographic data and an Analytic Hierarchy Process to rank PV locations according to techno-economic, environmental, and electrical criteria, while incorporating the distribution grid and land use. It found 323 square kilometers suitable for PV installations, of which 137.6 square kilometers—42.6%—was classified as highly or very highly suitable. The authors argued that prioritizing sites matters for integration effectiveness, generation costs, and land-use management.[28]

Potential installations fall into consumer-adjacent and more remote categories. Roofs, parking lots, cemeteries, sports fields, and building-integrated PV on façades can be placed near demand and reduce reliance on the national transmission grid, but cannot satisfy all electricity needs. More distant options include ground-mounted and agrivoltaic facilities, installations on water reservoirs, and rooftop systems in peripheral areas. These can contribute substantially to targets, but require transmission infrastructure to carry power to consumption centers.[4]

A 2023 transmission-system development plan was valued at approximately NIS 22 billion, including about NIS 12 billion for connecting renewable facilities. An INSS assessment reported that the Electricity Authority said on January 8, 2025, that the plan was delayed; an oversight report for 2024 expected only one-third of projects to finish on schedule. The assessment identified planning and coordination delays, grid capacity, and the need for more transmission infrastructure as constraints on renewable integration.[4]

The grid is also a security issue. An INSS assessment calls Israel an “energy island” because it is not connected to regional or international electricity grids. It argues that local renewable generation, storage, and microgrids can contribute to electricity security, while remote solar facilities still need grid connections to supply central consumption areas.[4]

Distributed solar can locate generation at different scales—from kilowatts to tens or hundreds of megawatts—and near homes, neighborhoods, industrial areas, kibbutzim, and moshavim. A 2017 INSS report contrasted this structure with dependence on a small number of large production sites, and argued that renewable resources have a resilience advantage because sunlight and wind, unlike delivered fuels, cannot be intercepted before reaching generation facilities.[5]

That potential depends on the ability to operate when the wider grid is disrupted. The 2017 report said the rules then in force did not allow small PV systems to continue in “island mode” during a grid outage: approved converters disconnected if normal grid voltage and frequency were absent. It recommended reconsidering the rules, particularly for small domestic systems, so they could supply local consumers during disruptions. This describes the rules and recommendation at the time of the report, not a claim about current regulations.[5]

A separate study of the Southern Arava found a boom in solar infrastructure development since 2011. Surveys and semi-structured interviews with five kibbutz communities and local solar developers found strong acceptance of installations. The study identified kibbutz co-ownership of solar assets, transparent communication among stakeholders, and local decision-making structures as factors contributing to acceptance.[29]

Solar and storage have also been studied in connection with social practices. A 2024 case study examined combining PV and utility-scale batteries to provide “Kosher electricity” to ultra-Orthodox communities whose members avoid electrical devices during the Sabbath and, according to the study, use diesel generators to avoid other Jews working that day. To serve an estimated 1.28 million people, the study calculated a storage requirement 18–24 times that of a 450-megawatt-hour utility-scale battery used for comparison. It projected annual carbon dioxide reductions of 188–474 kilotons and characterized the required storage as very large—5–15% of the potential utility-scale market by 2030. These figures are case-study estimates, not measured outcomes.[30]

The cost of solar power has changed substantially as PV technology advanced. The Ashalim comparison between a long-term solar-thermal contract price of 90 agorot per kilowatt-hour and reported PV prices as low as 15 agorot illustrates the economic appeal of PV, alongside solar thermal’s ability to store heat and generate after sunset.[22] A 2024 peer-reviewed study of three PV tenders found lower production costs alongside increased market concentration and a 50% reduction in the number of winning firms. The authors reported that smaller firms exited, and their Cournot simulations predicted rising concentration and market power.[31]

Israeli policy has used licensing, feed-in tariffs, and private participation to encourage solar development. In March 2009, the minister of national infrastructures signed what a contemporary report described as the first two licenses for solar-electricity generation, authorizing projects at Kibbutz Samar and Kibbutz Ketura.[16] A 2013 commentary reported that the Public Utility Authority and National Infrastructures Ministry had established feed-in tariffs for solar and wind to encourage investment and innovation; this describes policy as reported at that time, not necessarily current arrangements.[12]

Israel’s regional solar ambitions are shaped by differences in land, capital, and project scale. An INSS article published in 2026 reported solar at approximately 11% of Israel’s electricity and renewables overall at roughly 15%, below the government’s 2025 target of 20%. It characterized Israel as the first country in the Middle East to produce solar electricity commercially. These figures belong to that article’s 2026 context and are distinct from the INSS estimate of almost 10% solar generation in 2020.[32]

The same article projected approximately 17 gigawatts of planned Israeli solar capacity by 2030, compared with 40 gigawatts for Saudi Arabia and 20 gigawatts for the United Arab Emirates. It attributed the difference to factors including greater land availability, government capital, and cooperation with Chinese firms in the Gulf states. It also cited population densities of 440 people per square kilometer for Israel and 16 for Saudi Arabia. These are forecasts and explanations presented in the article, not realized 2030 capacities.[32]

Long-term government scenarios are also projections rather than current targets or outcomes. The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure’s 2050 summary describes solar as “the almost sole source of renewable energy in Israel.” Its scenarios assign solar 56%–77% of projected electricity generation, with installed solar capacity of roughly 75–108 gigawatts, depending on the scenario. They anticipate substantial storage and differ in their use of electricity imports, natural gas with carbon capture, or nuclear power. The same planning summary identifies high population density, limited space for extensive facilities, weak connections to neighboring electricity grids, and rapidly growing energy demand as important conditions for the transition.[8]

Solar facilities rely on inverters to connect panels to the grid and manage the interface between generation and the electricity system. An INSS article published in 2026 said most inverters installed in Israel were made by Chinese companies and reported that Huawei signed an agreement in 2019 to supply inverters with total capacity of 30 megawatts for Israeli solar projects. The article noted that inverters may include monitoring, software updates, or remote-control capabilities.[32]

The article raised cybersecurity concerns about such capabilities but explicitly said there was no documented research evidence, at the time of publication, that Chinese-made inverters had been exploited in Israel. The distinction is important: the source presents a potential security concern, not a documented Israeli incident.[32]

The same article discussed solar installations in the Gaza Strip. It reported that before October 7, 2023, solar systems generated approximately 25% of electricity there, linking this largely to frequent disruptions to the Israeli power grid. It described systems installed by private entities, funded by the Hamas government, or supplied through Chinese donations, including a Chinese-government-funded system for Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital in 2021. The article further reported wartime accounts alleging that Hamas used Chinese-made panels to support military infrastructure. That allegation is attributed to the article and concerns a politically and militarily contested context; it should not be treated as an independently established general fact.[32]

Israel’s research history spans solar heating, building design, thermal systems, and PV technologies, supported by government-backed institutes, university laboratories, meteorological measurements, and demonstrations.[6][14] The Center for Israel Education’s account of the Negev Research Institute highlights how solar work was connected to agricultural research, water scarcity, and the use of arid land.[14] Later academic work has focused not only on cell performance, but also on where systems can be placed and how much generation a constrained national grid can host.[26][28]

International collaboration has been one channel for research and commercialization. The U.S.–Israel energy agreement named solar among possible cooperative fields, with mechanisms ranging from technical exchanges and seminars to joint experiments and projects.[19] The associated U.S. grant program supported qualifying collaborative energy work until its termination in September 2024.[20] A 2013 commentary also described the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center as housing one of the world’s largest solar dishes and said Israel hosted more than a hundred sustainable-energy startups; the latter figure applied to the broader sustainable-energy sector, not to solar firms alone.[12]

Energy planning increasingly considers combinations of solar with storage and dual-use sites. The Ministry’s long-term analysis includes rooftops, agrivoltaics, other dual-use systems, and maritime facilities among possible approaches, while emphasizing that extensive land, grid reinforcement, storage, and integration with other technologies or imports will matter. Its scenarios anticipate a much larger solar role by 2050, but they remain scenario estimates rather than guaranteed outcomes.[8]

The practical challenge is to expand generation while connecting it to consumers and managing its variability. Rooftop systems can avoid some land competition and serve demand close to where electricity is used; remote projects can offer larger installations but depend on transmission expansion. Batteries and thermal storage can shift some production across hours, while seasonal storage and complementary energy sources address longer gaps. The sources therefore portray solar development as a combined question of technology, land use, economics, grid investment, and system reliability.[4][8]