Israel may not be the world’s leading nation in generating and utilizing renewable energy, but yesterday it broke a record for the amount of energy created by solar panels. the record was for the most amount of energy generated by solar power ever recorded in Israel. At 12:07 p.m. some 804 megawatts of energy were created, sufficing to cover 13.4 percent of all energy being used around the country at that time, with the total amount coming to 5980 megawatts according to a report in Ynet.

Israel Electric Company said that the record-breaking level was due to the particularly clear day that we enjoyed around the country yesterday. “The solar panels function optimally during clear bright days such as the one yesterday,” said a source in the IEC.

Ore Helman, the Vice President of Regulations for the IEC said that: “We are proud of these statistics. This is a record-breaking moment for us. The percentage was high in part due to the fact that a lot fewer people we using electricity as it was Shabbos and the weather was beautiful. We have proved that we can generate a considerable amount of power this way as the sun is the greatest source of energy that we have. Now we just have to keep increasing this trend.”

70 percent of Israel’s solar power comes from the Negev with the largest solar field of Givati-Zmurot producing some 55 megawatts alone. Israel is currently building a much larger solar energy station in Ashelim that is expected to supply two percent of the power needed for the entire country by itself. This move will help Israel reach its goals of generating 10 percent of its power from renewable energy by 2020 and 17 percent of all its energy by 2030.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)