Israel is lagging behind its targets in the energy sector (Al Jazeera)
The war on Gaza prompted 70 engineers from the American company General Electric to leave Israel, disrupting the construction of the Kochav Hayarden renewable energy project in the Galilee, according to the Israeli economic newspaper Globes.
The project is a stored hydroelectric energy project worth one billion and 700 thousand shekels, and Israel is committed to financing 94% of the project during the first 18 years, according to the newspaper.
Employees leaving
The Noy Fund, which owns a 60% stake in the project, said that the war led to the departure of some GE employees and engineers initially, “and some of them have already returned to Israel in the meantime, but not all of them.” In addition, GE is working with the project management to find Replacement workers will arrive at the project in the near future,” according to the newspaper, which quoted professional sources as saying that the delay in the timetable for completing the project would reach several months.
Economic sectors in Israel froze as a result of preventing Palestinian workers from entering the Green Line for work, which costs Israel’s economy 3.1 billion shekels per day ($820 million), based on data from the Ministry of Finance, according to what the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month. .
Infographic of Israel's economic losses due to the Gaza War (Al Jazeera)
Goals are late
Noga, the Israeli government company that runs the electricity grid, estimates that the pumped storage systems built at Kochav Hayarden and Manara, in addition to the unit already built at Maale HaGilboa, will supply the grid with 800 megawatts in total, and expects the Manara unit to connect to the grid in 2026, in When the Kokhav Hayarden project was scheduled to be completed in 2023.
According to the newspaper, 96% of renewable energy in Israel comes from the sun, 3% from wind energy, and only 1% from other sources, including hydroelectric energy.
The newspaper believed that the diversity of renewable energy is necessary to achieve the goals that Israel has set for itself, an issue in which it saw Israel lagging behind other countries, as it achieved its goal of reaching 10% of total energy production from renewable sources for the year 2020 two years later.
The head of the Israeli Electricity Authority, Amir Shavit, said a few months ago at a conference that the 2025 goal of raising the percentage of renewable energy to 20% of the total energy in Israel will not be achieved on the expected date, and Israel aims to raise the percentage to 30% by 2030, according to the newspaper.
Source: Israeli press