At a panel on energy solutions in the aftermath of war, experts stressed that with Israel’s natural gas reserves expected to last only another 20-30 years, the government must prioritize energy security, including through clear legislation with no room for loopholes
achel Fink. Feb 13, 2025
At Haaretz’s 2025 Climate Change Conference, TheMarker journalist Idan Binyamin moderated a panel of distinguished scientists and policymakers. They gathered at Ben-Gurion University on Tuesday to discuss the future of Israel’s energy landscape, national security challenges, and the evolving intersection of both in the aftermath of war.
The discussion focused on the need to transition from the country’s current primary source of electricity production – natural gas – to renewable energy resources.
Since the discovery of around 1,000 billion cubic meters of natural gas off of its coastline in 2000, Israel has become self-sufficient. But with gas reserves expected to last only another 20-30 years, Israel’s energy experts understand that now is the time to put solutions in place for the future, both near and far.
Sami Turgeman, chairman of Noga, the state-owned company responsible for managing Israel’s national electricity grid, laid out some of the challenges Israel will face in the coming decades and beyond.
Chief among them is a soaring growth rate which will correspond to exponentially higher energy needs from year to year. Economic hardships are also expected to increase sharply and will affect the Palestinian population which relies heavily on Israel for electricity. He also noted a boom in electric vehicles on the road, both personal and commercial, which will require more charging solutions at night to keep transportation running during the day.
Other panelists raised concerns about infrastructure and the growing shortage of space needed to build structures that can supply energy to the entire country.
According to Yael Solomon, deputy director of infrastructure at the Israel Planning Administration, many solutions may be provided by dual-purpose technologies such as structural rooftops, or solar panels. This initiative is already being implemented in local municipalities.
Highlighting the work his company is doing to help cities across Israel “go green,” CEO of Enlight MENA Gilad Peled brought the example of large-scale solar panel structures embedded within wheat fields as a space-saving strategy, without impeding growth. “It’s actually revolutionary,” he said.
Any event focusing on the world’s climate crisis may have pessimistic overtones, but Peled said he was feeling quite optimistic. From his point of view, the changes Israel needs to make to achieve energy security are completely feasible, beginning with the financial benefits of weaning the country off its dependence on natural gas. “We have gotten to a point where renewable energy is the cheapest source available on the planet,” Peled reported. “And it is only getting cheaper.”
Bringing the discussion back to issues of security, Professor Iris Visoly-Fisher of the National Solar Energy Center spoke of the potential impact of extreme weather events on extreme security situations and vice versa.
“If another October 7 were to happen in July or August, during the hottest months of the year, and I am sitting in my safe room with no power, I would have had to choose between going outside to die from a missile or staying inside to die from the heat,” she said. “Whatever electricity grid we develop has to account for these possibilities.”
Visoly-Fisher cautioned against looking to the sun as Israel’s only option. Instead, she advocates for a multipronged approach that includes sun, wind and other renewable technologies, as well as some natural gas sources. She would also like to see the creation of what she called “mini-grids,” local sources of energy generation and electricity production that can mitigate the extent of power loss in the event of a missile attack, for instance.
Others underscored the importance of dispersing and localizing. Solomon, for example, called for an end to the conventional, but inefficient, model of concentrating all of the solar panels in the southern Negev region and transporting the energy to the rest of the country.
Gil Proaktor, Senior Director of the Climate Change Division at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, wrapped up the panel by emphasizing a point that was made throughout the discussion.
In its transition from full reliance on natural gas to renewable energy resources, the challenges Israel faces are largely strategic rather than operational, he said. The government must prioritize energy security, including through clear legislation with no room for loopholes.
Plans must be put into action now, Proaktor stressed, rather than when it is too late and the country’s electricity needs can no longer be met. Most importantly, he said, local authorities have to recognize their role in the transition and be willing to make the necessary changes in their own “backyard.”