By SHARON UDASIN
07/03/2013

The Public Utility Authority has granted a provisional license for a Druse entrepreneur to build a 6-megawatt farm in the Upper Galilee.

In the government’s first motion to approve a wind power generation facility in the minority sector, the Public Utility Authority has granted a provisional license for a Druse entrepreneur to build a 6-megawatt farm in the Upper Galilee, the authority announced on Wednesday.

The farm, which will consist of three huge turbines, is expected to supply all the electricity needs of the Druse village of Hurfeish, located off Road 89 about 6 kilometers south of the Lebanese border. Approved by the PUA’s plenary board led by Orit Farkash, the application for the wind farm was submitted by entrepreneur Kanj Hussein. The turbines should be able to provide power for more than 2,000 households, the PUA said.

The turbines will each measure about 100 meters in height and have a blade diameter of 60 meters, according to the PUA. The license is for 66 months, which will include the owner’s process of planning, raising capital and building the facility.

The PUA said that it expects to see similar advances in other wind energy initiatives, in accordance with the stipulations of the National Master Plan on Wind Turbines (Tama 10-dalet-12), which has streamlined the process of building wind farms.

While the government originally allocated 800 megawatts to wind farms, a resolution approved in December 2012 transferred 300 of those megawatts to solar photovoltaic usage. The PUA has thus far approved four wind farms: the 6- megawatt field just okayed; the 6.8-megawatt Sirin farm in the Jordan Valley, about 2.5 kilometers west of Moshav Menahemya; the 10- megawatt Ma’aleh Gilboa site just above Beit She’an at 420 meters above sea level; and the 6-megawatt Tel Asania facility on the Golan Heights.

“The authority sees the importance of employing a variety of renewable energies, which will produce energy in a complementary way for the Israeli electricity market in different ways – from wind, sun, biomass and biogas,” the PUA said.

http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Druse-entrepreneur-gets-wind-farm-license-318634