Ashalim Power Station
Ashalim Plot A (Negev Energy) is a 121 megawatt parabolic trough plant with 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage.
The Ashalim Plot B (Megalim) hosts a solar power tower. It has an installed capacity of 121 megawatts, concentrating 50,600 computer-controlled heliostats enough to power 120,000 homes. Electricity production commenced in September 2019, producing 320 GWhr of energy per year. The project was a joint venture between Brightsource and Alstom. The station was the tallest solar power tower in the world at a height of 260 meters including the boiler but was recently surpassed by the 262.44 meter tall solar power tower at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
Ashalim Plot C is a 30MW photovoltaic plant, commissioned in 2018, one year before the CSP plants.
In 2019 EDF Renewables won a tender for another NIS 150 ($43) million PV plant at a record low price of 8.68 agorot (3 cents) per kilowatt hour.
Reasons for building the power station
According to a press release of the National Infrastructure Minister of Israel, the establishment has several motivations:
- Economic motivation: reducing imports thus balancing the trade and releasing foreign currency.
- Political motivation: reducing strategic dependence on foreign energy sources.
- Environmental motivation: reducing contamination levels.
- Scientific motivation: pushing forward local technology and science, adapting new technologies from abroad.
Cost concerns
The concentrated solar power project in Ashalim was announced in 2008 and awarded in a competitive auction 2012 at NIS0.79 ($0.22) per kilowatt hour for Plot B - that is almost a factor of 9 compared to the PV stations tendered in 2019 at the same spot (see above). Similarly, the project on Plot A at NIS 0.76 per kWh, but including 4.5 hours of molten salt storage, delivers four times more expensive power than the results of tenders for solar plus 4 hours of storage awarded at the beginning of 2021 at NIS0.17/kWh ($0.054) to be delivered by 2023.