Biggest cities continue to lag behind on solar panel installation
New, upgraded Energy Ministry index shows huge variety in and between councils countrywide, but reflects continuing challenge of putting panels on apartment block roofs
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Israel’s biggest cities have failed to take advantage of most opportunities to install rooftop solar panels according to an index published by the Energy Ministry.
According to the survey published Tuesday, six cities or regional authorities have managed to utilize at least half of their potential rooftop space for solar panels as of December 2023, led by the Central Arava Regional Council in the Negev desert, which was generating 117 percent of its potential, providing solar energy throughout the day and storing extra for use during the night.
In contrast, the country’s largest cities ignore 90% or more of their potential solar power.
In Jerusalem, up to the end of last year, just 5% of roofs identified as suitable for solar panels had such panels, up from 3% in 2020.
In Tel Aviv-Jaffa, only 4% had such panels on roofs. The northern city of Haifa, by contrast, hit 12% of its potential, up from 10% the previous year.
Six authorities, including Central Arava, had reached at least half their potential by December 2023. The other five were the Golan Heights Regional Council and the city of Beit Shean in the north, the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council and the Meitar Local Council in the south, and the local council of Bnei Ayish, near the coastal city of Ashdod.
In the lowest of nine socioeconomic categories, two Bedouin towns in the south, Kuseife and Ar’ara, realized their potential on 9% of roofs, compared with 1% in the Bedouin Tel Sheva.
In the highest socio-economic cluster, realization of potential ranged from 31% of roofs in Lehavim in southern Israel to 6% in Savion and just 2% in Kfar Shmaryahu in the center.
The index (in Hebrew) focuses on so-called dual-use facilities — those installed on existing infrastructure — of up to 700 kilowatts, which can serve a large industry.
Dual use makes more efficient use of the country’s limited land than large solar fields and brings energy production closer to its consumption while saving money.
A more sophisticated version of an index published last year, with additional categories for comparison, shows where the potential is for each city, local or regional authority — for example on residential, public, agricultural or commercial roofs, and allows tracking across time. It is updated once a year.
Aimed at local government, solar energy entrepreneurs and residents, it is based on mapping carried out by the Electricity Authority in 2020 which identified the potential to generate 11,764 megawatts of solar energy countrywide through dual use. Of this, panels producing 2.7 megawatts — 23% of the potential — have already been installed nationwide, compared with 19% up to the end of 2022.
The Energy Ministry said this jump translated into some 450 new megawatts in built-up areas and was equivalent to a ground-based solar system covering 4,500 dunams (over 1,100 acres) and supplying 100,000 homes for a year.
The price of solar panels has come down enormously in recent years and the Energy Ministry has pushed through regulatory changes that allow, for example, the placing of solar panels on buildings that have not yet received a Certificate of Completion (Form 4) that would normally be required.
There are no uniform reasons for the variety between different councils.
But with most of the potential on residential roofs (over 6,230 megawatts), the figures reflect the problems of erecting solar panels on apartment blocks, where multiple property owners must agree and someone must push the process through. (Most apartment blocks have solar panels to heat water, which saves the country some energy).
To tackle this, the Energy Ministry has linked up with Sun for All (Hebrew link), an NGO that helps residential buildings navigate the processes more easily and profit from selling the excess energy channeled to the national grid.
Over the past two years, the number of apartment blocks installing solar panels has increased from one to around three dozen.
According to its website, Sun for All explains the benefits, maps the building’s solar energy potential (looking, for example, at the position and form of the roofs), and explains the options (self-installation or leasing to a third party). It secures owners’ agreement in principle, selects a solar company, signs the owners onto a contract, and oversees the work and the panel connection to the grid. Finally, it ensures that the income is managed for the good of the building.
