“Massive promotion of renewable energy for electricity generation in the Israeli economy is the goal I have been promoting every day for the past six months since I took office – from the level of policy to the smallest details. I have established bi-weekly meetings with all relevant professionals. For the production of renewable energies, in these discussions we have been able to harness everyone to the task and bring the economy to doubling the connections of renewable energies to the grid, since I took office in June.
But discussions will not be enough to make this tremendous change. To ensure that 2022 will be the year of renewable energies, natural gas will wait.
In the coming year we will focus on the future, on green electricity, on energy efficiency and on renewable energies and while we do that we will put aside the pursuit of expanding the development of natural gas, which is, as is well known, a transit fuel. In the coming year, the Ministry of Energy will not adopt the conclusions of the report examining the natural gas policy and will not embark on the fourth procedure for granting licenses for natural gas exploration.
We will use the coming year for a series of moves that will promote the transition to renewable energies. We will establish a renewable energy department in the ministry that will receive the most attention and resources, we will promote the national energy efficiency plan recently approved by the government at a cost of about NIS 1 billion, we will invest in research and development, allocate grants for clean energy promotion and significant technological developments.