All of Israel learned about the wind energy projects in the Golan Heights yesterday when thousands of Druze demonstrated violently yesterday against the ARAN project (Hebrew for “Clean Wind Energy”) to build a wind farm to produce electricity. Twenty-seven people were injured in the demonstrations: five demonstrators were seriously injured, seventeen policemen were slightly injured, and the rest of the protesters were injured of one kind or another.
The agreement was signed between the Department of Defense and ARAN, a subsidiary of Energix Renewable Energies Ltd. (TASE: ENRG), which allows the project, subject to the maintenance of Israel’s security interests, in 2021. A few months ago, the project received court approval, and now work has begun on it, sparking a storm of protest from the Druze population.
The widespread protests raise many questions. Here are some answers.
How did the project come about?
The project began as a joint venture between Druze residents of the northern Golan Heights and Energix Renewable Energies, who jointly wanted to advance a national infrastructure project to produce electricity from wind power.
What is the scope of the project?
The project consists of 21 wind turbines with a capacity of 104 megawatts. Its cost is estimated at 700 million shekels. ARAN aims to provide energy to 50,000 households for twenty years. The project involves removing mines remaining since the 1967 Six-Day War from 170 dunams (42.5 acres) of land, and returning the land to the agricultural use of its owners. It also includes the infrastructure for power transmission, and will provide hundreds of jobs during construction, and dozens of jobs during the operation period. It will be connected to the national electricity grid via an underground cable.
Who is Energix?
Energix for renewable energies It is a publicly traded company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and is included in the Tel Aviv 35 blue-chip index. Its share price fell 3.23% yesterday in the wake of the unrest in the Golan Heights.
Energix operates in Israel, Poland and mainly in the United States, where it has a portfolio of renewable energy projects up to 224 MW, with projects up to a further 415 MW under construction. In Israel, if focused on solar energy. In 2022, its net profit amounted to 237 million shekels, and at the end of last year it estimated that within a year it would have projects in commercial operation or at the end of construction with a total production of 1,400 megawatts.
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What is the cost of electricity from the project?
Under the agreement with the Israel Public Electricity Utilities Authority, the tariff will be 0.293 NIS per kilowatt-hour for twenty years.
How much does the project bring to the state?
Energix paid the state NIS 100 million for the project. The state incurred costs of NIS 50 million, including NIS 15 million in improvement fees paid to the Druze local authorities in the area.
What benefit do the local people get from the project?
Landowners with whom agreements are signed are guaranteed rent totaling millions of shekels annually for twenty years. In addition, Energix plans to improve roads and infrastructure in the region, including the power grid. The company is committed to large-scale demining, and as with any infrastructure project, it will pay the local property tax (arnona), which will benefit the Druze population of the Golan Heights.
Where is the project located?
The project is located east and southeast of Majdal Shams, the main Druze town in the Golan Heights, on the southern slopes of Mount Hermon, near Israel’s border with Syria.
Why the opposition?
The ARAN project is being criticized in three directions: Environmental organizations criticize wind energy production because wind turbines are deadly to birds. There are energy experts who oppose abandoning fossil fuels and relying on renewables, which they say are not reliable enough; And local Druze residents, some of whom claim that the people from whom the land was rented for the project are not the real owners, and some of them consider themselves Syrians (the Golan Heights were occupied from Syria in the Six-Day War) and took advantage of the demonstrations against the project to stir up riots.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Ministry, headed by the former minister, Tamar Zandberg, called for wind turbine projects to be put on hold for five years. At that time, it was planned to build fifteen turbine sites with a total output of 600 megawatts. By comparison, peak consumption on a hot Friday three weeks ago, when some 300,000 homes in Israel experienced power outages, was 12,549 megawatts. In other words, wind energy will not be the savior for Israel in switching to renewable energy sources. Zandberg wanted to halt the project due to the severe harm to birdlife. Israel is on a global north-south bird migration path, and wind turbines kill thousands of birds.
What is the state’s solution to protect birds?
In legal hearings and approval by the National Infrastructures Commission, Energix pledged to establish an operational system that includes special radar to identify bird approaching turbines. The National Infrastructure Commission also stipulated that Energix should set up birdwatching centers. When spotters and radar detect approaching birds, the turbines are supposed to stop to avoid harming them. The committee will monitor the implementation of its instructions from the construction stage.
What does Energix tell residents?
“Energix is reaching out to the Druze population of the northern Golan Heights,” Ariel Utzer, CEO of Energix Israel, told Globes. “The company wants to establish the project in cooperation and coordination, calls for calm, and is sure that the many benefits, and the large financial investments that Energix is making in the region, will lead to a better electricity network, livelihoods and prosperity for the economy of the northern Golan Heights.”
What do the courts say?
Druze residents of the Golan Heights petitioned the court in April 2022, claiming that the actual owners of the project land were not the people Energix dealt with, but the court refused to issue an injunction to stop the ARAN project.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 22, 2023.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.
