Dead Sea PV plant brings affordable energy to Palestinian households

Share

There are few locations in the world where energy security is an issue more keenly felt than in Palestinian East Jerusalem, which relies almost entirely on Israeli power.

Although the exact status of the eastern Arabic section of the divided city is in dispute, the dependence of thousands of Palestinian households on Israeli power is not a matter of debate, according to Abdelnaser Dwaikat, managing director of Palestinian solar developer Msader for Energy System.

“The residents of the old city of East Jerusalem, already suffering from poverty and marginalization, are obliged to pay an electricity tariff approximately 15% higher than that paid by the Israeli population,” Dwaikat told pv magazine.

It was that situation that prompted the Future for Palestine organization, led by Salam Fayyad, former prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, to commit to pay ILS 200,000 ($60,000) per month to the Israeli Electricity utility to subsidize 25% of the energy bills of 5,000 needy households. But the opening of the 710 kW first phase of a planned 1.5 MW solar farm near the ancient city of Jericho last month has already reduced the financial burden on the donor organization.

Future for Palestine funded the $1 million solar project – at 258 meters below sea level, the lowest on earth – and already has seen its monthly energy bill subsidy program expense come in to just $15,000.

The Dead Sea Photovoltaic Generating Plant project, Palestine's largest, was developed by Dwaikat's Msader and incorporates 13 Powador 60.0 TL3 inverters from German company Kaco New Energy.

With domestic manufacturers in Gaza and the West Bank producing 24,000 solar water heaters per year and around 70% of homes having such systems, Dwaikat told pv magazine the second phase of the Dead Sea project will start soon and the potential for solar in Palestine is huge.

“There is a huge potential for investment in solar energy,” he added, “and the Palestinian Energy Authority is dedicated to the sector.”

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Longi introduces 665 W HPBC photovoltaic modules

11 October 2024 The Chinese PV manufacturer said its new module series has a power conversion efficiency of up to 24.8% and temperature coefficient is -0.26% per C.

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.