Many players are betting Palestinian microgrids (solar and wind) will ease the country’s energy crisis. Palestinians pay the highest energy prices in the entire Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). The Palestinian territories are completely reliant on neighboring governments (mainly Isr Contact online >>
Many players are betting Palestinian microgrids (solar and wind) will ease the country’s energy crisis. Palestinians pay the highest energy prices in the entire Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). The Palestinian territories are completely reliant on neighboring governments (mainly Israel) for fuel supplies, which are taxed heavily and distributed at a rate of 1 MW of electricity for every 12 MW used by Israelis. Some Palestinians lack power completely, some have power only for short times each day, and a combination of standard-0f-living and high prices mean electricity swallows a large portion of their monthly budgets.
Yosef Abramowitz, CEO of Energyia and founder of Israel’s solar sector was frustrated with “lackluster” progress of infrastructure plans from the U.K. and the U.S. Two years ago he published a plan for a Palestinian energy infrastructure based on solar energy. Abramowitz envisions Palestine, Israel, and surrounding energy-poor countries becoming the greenest region in the world. As he told the Jerusalem Post, “solar energy is the energy of peace, for the sun known no borders.”
A recent article in Science Direct describes energy issues in Palestine as follows:
In addition to paying the highest energy prices, Palestinians also have access to the least electricity of any country in the region barring war-torn Syria and Yemen.
Palestinians living in the South Hebron Mountains in "Area C"— which comprises approximately 60% of the West Bank — live off-grid. They lack electricity or use cost-prohibitive diesel generators. The Israeli government, which controls the area, does not provide Area C''s Palestinians the electricity available to Israeli settlers in close vicinity.
For this reason, Israeli-Palestinian NGO Comet-ME has since 2008 been using the area''s abundant sun and wind to bring power to these villages, enabling them to make, store, and cook food as well as communicate with the outside world. In 2012, the organization established a Center for Appropriate Technologies in the South Hebron Hills. The center serves as the non-profit’s base of operations and headquarters for design (using HOMER Pro for modeling), installation, and maintenance work.To date, Comet-ME has helped provide 3,000 people in 30 villages with renewable energy. By the end of 2017, the organization plans to serve 45 communities and 4,000 Palestinians as it begins expanding beyond the south Hebron hills to all underserved communities in Area C.
"Our systems range from small-scale family-based solar energy systems that serve a single family to microgrids that serve an entire community that can be up to 30-40 families or 200-300 individuals," Tamar Cohen, who handles organizational development for Comet-ME, tells Microgrid News & Insight. "The microgrids range from all solar to hybrid solar/wind to solar with an integrated backup genset."
"Our continued presence in the field enables us to respond in a timely manner to any technical or social issues that arise," explains Cohen. " We also conduct system upgrades and grid extensions as needed to accommodate the expansion and growing energy needs of communities."
Cohen says Comet-ME’s biggest challenge is working in an area “where any construction, including of humanitarian facilities, faces the threat of demolition.” At this time, however, all of Comet-ME systems installed in the past eight years are currently operational and continue to reliably serve the communities, and the organization oversees ongoing maintenance and management of the systems as well as training of community representatives.
Upcoming in Part 2, ambitious initiatives and a quick glimpse into a variety of other off-grid renewable projects throughout Palestine.
Visit the HOMER Software website to download HOMER software, get support and sign up for training.
Microgrid Knowledge Conference 2024
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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)''s “Renewable Energy Generation through Solar Panels for Public Education, Health and Water Facilities” supports the Palestinian Solar Initiative through a half-million-dollar project funded by the The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). According to a story last year in PV-Magazine, UNDP estimates that installing solar for schools and hospitals would benefit more than 100,000 Gazans.
“The electricity shortage hindered the educational process, especially in winter,” Maha El Tawil, headmistress at the Bashir El Rayyes High School, says in the 2015 story. Due to Gaza’s severe school shortage, her 1,800 students attend school in two shifts. “This was a challenge for teachers and students operating the second shift. We used to teach in the dark — unable to read what was written on the board nor in the books,” she says. “We needed a better alternative.”
Installed solar systems have brought light to the classrooms and enabled reinstatement of regularly scheduled computer classes. The completed project is estimated to benefit more than 100,000 people. The Palestinian government, international organizations, and private investors are all involved in other Gaza projects, from those helping several hundred people to one designed to bring the area 200 MW of solar power. With the area’s dire electricity and water shortages, their success may literally mean the difference between life and death.
Palestine’s Energy Authority moved forward last summer on development of the West Bank’s first solar park, to be built near Hebron. The project, a $10 million, 5.7 MW plant, has been awarded to Dutch firm Gigawatt Global Cooperatief UA and Palestinian firm Rack Tec and is being financed by American company Overseas Private Investment Corp. The Energy Authority is planning 10 additional solar parks (up to 10 MW each). Two are scheduled for bidding in 2017 and all are slated to be completed within the next five years. The solar parks are estimated to save Palestinians up to $100 million.
With the Palestinian government’s recent recognition that renewable energy must be the way forward in Palestine for both industry and public use and expanded its national strategy has recognized the importance of exhausting the opportunities in renewable energy for the adequate supply of clean energy for residential, commercial and industrial needs. The Palestinian government has recognized the importance of exhausting the opportunities in renewable energy for the adequate supply of clean energy for residential, commercial and industrial needs. The government recently announced a national strategy for expanding the use of renewable energy calling for the production of 120 MW of electricity using a variety of AE energy sources.
New companies are sprouting up throughout Palestine to deliver the national strategy through investment in renewable energy. Sunergy, a local Palestinian company that designs RE solutions and supplies hardware, technology, installation, and support services, is committed to educating Palestinians about “changing mindsets and promoting the use of Palestine''s natural resources” and hopes to help grow the Palestinian alternative energy market toward energy independence. The company has installed an impressive number of both residential and commercial systems in Jericho, Hebron, Beit Fajjar and other locations. It’s helping bring much-needed power to Palestinian hospitals and schools — as it looks forward toward Palestine’s green energy future.
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