Sep 30 2010
Multimatrix, an Israeli company joined hands with AES Corporation America, and has made an investment of $400 million to construct a wind farm in a location flanked by Mas’ade and Majdal Shams.
The wind farm is expected to have 70 wind turbines and produce 200 MW of clean wind power. Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel called it a national project to tide over the energy shortage. The project is expected to full fill the growing renewable energy demand of the country and receives full support from the government.
Hila Shamir, Israel’s Public Utility Authority’s (PUA), head of licensing and supervisor said that PUA is in charge of supervising and issuing licenses to businesses for the construction of power plants. Shamir said that the company has proved its credentials about the ownership of the land by showing the signed contracts, proved its financial status by showing 20% of the total capital requirement and finally has proved its credibility to complete the project. Shamir also confirmed that neither PUA nor Multimatrix had any confrontation during the licensing process. Shamir, said that though the project had earlier set a goal of constructing a 380 MW wind farm, but due to paucity of bank funds and problems in land rights it is scaled down to 200 MW.
Yosi Omid, Multimatix’s Director, said that the project when completed will bring a revolution in Israel, showing the country the way of making green power. He further said that the project to be located in Golan Heights represents both, the political and peace process. He expressed his optimism about the project uniting the Israeli and Syrian governments. Yosi omid expressed his confidence that the project will withstand political pressures. He concluded saying that the project will produce green power which is good for the growth of the country.
Source: http://www.pua.gov.il/