The new tariff that the state will pay developers of large solar power installations will be NIS 0.65 per kilowatt-hour, Globes learned today. This is a reduction of about one third from the tariff set in the regulations for such installations at the end of 2011, which was NIS 0.98 per kilowatt-hour. The grounds given for the lower tariff are the fall in the cost of constructing solar installations and in the prices of the photo-voltaic panels that produce the electricity.
The decision on the new tariff will be published for a hearing next Monday. The decision was in effect made at a plenary meeting of the Public Utilities Authority Electricity this week, but it was decided to wait a week before publishing it, at the request of Minister of Energy and Water Resources Dr. Uzi Landau.
Landau held a meeting today with managers of the four largest ground-based solar power ventures: SunPower, Arava Power, EDF-EN, and Shikun & Binui Renewable Energy. The developers claim that the Authority's tariffs do not reflect the substantial cost of lease payments demanded of them by the Israel Land Administration (ILA).
Last January, the ILA decided on a new policy under which regional discounts on land in outlying areas of the country (59% discount) and in confrontation zones (complete exemption) were cancelled. An agreement whereby lease payments of NIS 150 per dunam were collected on the land was also cancelled. The ILA set a new assessment of NIS 75,000 per dunam for calculation of lease payments, which was raised to NIS 100,000 per dunam in May. In addition, the ILA obliges developers to deposit a bank guarantee in case the individual assessment of the land should be higher.
In the past few months, the developers have made approaches to ILA director Benzi Lieberman and Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias in an attempt to persuade them to review the new policy.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2012
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