Galilee hydropower project delayed as GE engineers flee war

29 Jan, 2024 15:28
Dean Shmuel Elmas

The Kokhav Hayarden project was meant to be completed by 2023.

70 engineers from US company GE (General Electric) left Israel following the start of the war, delaying progress of the Kokhav Hayarden renewable energy project in the Galilee. The venture is a pumped storage hydroelectric power (HEP) project worth NIS 1.7 billion. The state is committed to finance 94% of the project for the first 18 years.

Noy Fund, which has a 60% stake in the project said, “The war did lead to some GE employees and engineers leaving the country at the beginning. 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 who will arrive at the site in the near future. According to professional sources, the delay in the schedule for completing the construction of the project will be several months.”

Difficulty in meeting targets

Noga, the government company that manages the electricity grid, estimates that the pumped storage systems being built in Kokhav Hayarden and Manara as well as the unit in Ma’aleh Hagilboa which has already been built, will supply the grid with 800 MW in total. Noga expects the Manara unit to connect to the grid in 2026, while the Kokhav Hayarden project was meant to be completed in 2023.

Currently 96% of Israel’s renewable energy comes from the sun, 3% from wind energy and only 1% from other sources including HEP. Diversity of renewable energy is essential for meeting the goals that Israel has set for itself, an issue on which it lags behind other countries. For example, it was only in 2022 that the country met the goal it had set for 2020 (10% production from renewable energy), and a few months ago Israel Electricity Authority chairman Amir Shavit told the Globes “Green Electricity Era” conference that the 2025 target of 20% won’t be met. In the longer term, according to him, the expectation is for 30% production from renewable energy by 2030.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on January 29, 2024.