Israel issues tender for solar arrays at 3 interchanges

Netivei Israel - Multimodal Transport infrastructure Co. has published the first tender of its kind for the construction of solar arrays at three Israel highway interchanges - Gedera, Beit Kama and Atlit. The tender winner will have a concession to build and operate the photovoltaic arrays, which together will reportedly generate 20 megawatt.

The publication of the tender follows the cabinet decision in the past few weeks to relax procedures for approving the production of solar energy in a range of locations including bridges, interchanges, fish ponds and more.

The relaxation will allow more spaces and organizations to operate in the field of solar energy, in attempts to meet the government target of producing at least 30% of the country's electricity from renewable energy by 30%. According to a report published last week by the Public Utilities Authority (Electricity), Israel has already missed the target of producing 105 of electricity from renewable energy by 2020, with the figure only reaching 6.9%.

Netivei Israel - Multimodal Transport infrastructure Co. is responsible for 985 of the country's inter-city highways and holds a potential of 5,000 acres on which to build solar arrays. Realizing the potential will produce electricity for sale to the national grid as well as use by Neitvei Israel itself, which pays NIS 100 million annually for electricity to keep for its 100,000 highway lights around the country.

Neitvei Israel CEO Nisim Peretz told "Globes," "Our entry into this important field will help the state meet the vital targets it has set for producing renewable energy and secondly in realizing public resources and a double gain for those areas required for building safe interchanges. We are implementing a process of strategic change that will ensure added value that we provide the public for whom we work and serve."

Minister of Transport Merav Michaeli told "Globes," "Only this week we saw in the UN report on climate change how global warming is getting stronger and its destructive repercussions. This is another reason why I insisted that the latest budget include a massive rise in investment in environmental-transport measures. The innovative initiative of Netivei Israel connects in the best possible way between transport infrastructures and energy efficiency and this is another major step in the right direction to balance the climate change - transport equation.