After months of delay, residents of Judea and Samaria can now install photovoltaic electricity systems on their roofs – enabling them to take advantage, along with the rest of the country, of an Israel Electric Company program that lets residents manufacture electricity and sell it to the IEC. And it's a good deal, too, says Meir Steiner of Elkanah, the first householder in Judea and Samaria to install the system.
“Electricity purchased from the Israel Electric Company costs about half a shekel per kilowatt," Steiner said, "but any power my system makes is sold back to the state for NIS 2.04 - meaning I can use four times the electricity I generate and not have to pay for power.”
'I finally decided to take this discrimination up with the State Comptroller's office' - and a week later, the IEC said it had received permission to proceed with the installation.
It's a great deal, but for a while it was off limits to residents of Judea and Samaria. Since 2009, photovoltaic conversion systems – which convert solar radiation into direct current electricity – have been legal in Israel. The systems are hooked up into IEC main lines, and the electricity generated is transferred to IEC substations. The households that provide the electricity receive credit for their production, and at the end of the month, the IEC determines how much power the household used, and how much they produced – and send them a check for the money owed them.
When the program was initiated, says Steiner, “no one said it wouldn't apply to Judea and Samaria.” He decided to take advantage of it. But he hit a bureaucratic wall: “The people who sold the systems weren't aware of any problems, but when I tried to register for the program, the IEC said that the Civil Authority had not signed off on it, and therefore they could not legally install the system and the meters to allow me to get paid.” The IEC sent Steiner to the Civil Authority, which said that its hands were tied – and that it was the Defense Ministry that was in charge of the issue.
In a letter to the Ministry, Steiner laid out his frustrations, but received no response. He contacted the legal arm of the Ministry with his complaints, but again got no response. “I finally decided to take this discrimination up with the State Comptroller's office” - and a week later, Steiner says, the IEC contacted him and told him they had received “verbal permission” from the Civil Authority to proceed with the installation. “They said that were given authorization to allow installation of the systems in all of Judea and Samaria. I feel as if I broke through a roadblock, and hopefully many others will follow.”
Although nothing specific was ever mentioned, Steiner says he has “no doubt” that “anti-settler feelings” played a major role in the delay.
And now, Steiner says, residents of Judea and Samaria are free to participate in a program that is not just environmentally smart, but a great investment as well. The state pays four times the amount the IEC charges for power because of Israel's commitment to international “green” treaties. “Good systems cost about about NIS 100,000, although there are cheaper ones, and you can make that money back in 6 to 7 years,” says Steiner, “while your contract with the IEC is for 20 years. So, for most of the period of the contract, you are producing electricity at a net profit.” With interest rates so low, the investment in a photovoltaic system pays off far better than leaving your money in the bank. “The average person gets a check for NIS 1,200 – 1,300 from the IEC each month, plus all the electricity they can use,” says Steiner. “More people should be taking advantage of this.”
The system was installed by Friendly Energy, owned by Danny Denam, who has since installed systems in Gush Etzion and Har Gilo. "We were the first ones to set up these systems," says Denam Now we have systems set up throughout Judea and Samaria, and demand is rising quickly, as residents learn the benefits of installing a photovoltaic system." In some European countries without Israel's sunny climate - like Germany, Denam says - photovoltaic systems account for as much as 6% of the electricity generated. "Here we generate far less, but there's no reason we shouldn't be producing far more electricity in this manner," says Denam. "This is a land of light and sun, and we should be taking advantage of that."