Enlight to build new nation-wide solar energy project

Oct 6, 2009 - Merav Ankori - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News

Enlight Renewable Energy Ltd. has won a BOT (build, operate, transfer) project for 25 solar energy installations. Enlight will set up and operate the installations together with investors. The company is in advanced talks to secure financing with one of Israel's big banks, which sources inform "Globes" is Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI). The financial closing is due in a few weeks.

Enlight and its partners will finance construction of the project from their own equity, and sell the electricity to Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) under a 20-year power purchase agreement on the basis of Public Utilities Authority (Electricity) rules for photovoltaic systems of up to 50 kilowatts.

Enlight will install the photovoltaic systems on the roofs of large industrial farm buildings throughout the country on the basis of 20-year rental contracts with the buildings' owners. The systems will be installed at locations on the Golan Heights, Jezreel Valley, and Carmiel in the north, in Arad and Beersheva in the Negev, and elsewhere.

The company already has a deal to install a photovoltaic system on the roof of the dairy of Moshav Yonatan on the Golan, which has one of the largest cowsheds in the north, with an area of over 10,000 square meters.

Netanya-based Enlight will be the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor in the project, and will operate and maintain the systems for 20 years. The project is due to begin in mid-2010, immediately after the company secures the set-up financing.

Enlight CEO Gilad Yavetz said that the company will buy the equipment for the project from the world's top ten photovoltaic panel manufacturers and will assemble the systems in Israel.