Israel’s National Planning and Building Committee has approved new regulations requiring all new non-residential buildings and houses to install solar panels on their roofs.
The National Planning and Building Committee today approved new regulations requiring all new non-residential buildings and houses to install renewable energy systems with solar panels on their roofs.
As part of the regulations led by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the Planning Administration with the Ministry for Environmental Protection and the Israel Electric Authority, all new buildings that are not residential with a roof area larger than 250 square meters will be obligated to install a system to generate electricity from renewable energy. Similarly, houses with a roof area of more than 100 square meters will be required to install photovoltaic panels with a minimum production capacity of 5 kilowatts.
Exemptions can be granted at a city engineer’s discretion for buildings for preservation or with unique architectural features and if there are plans to extend the building higher.
The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure estimates that the new regulations will lead to the building of thousands of new installations for the production of renewable energy with a total installed capacity of about 3,500 megawatts by 2040. This capacity will save solar arrays on land covering about 8,750 acres and save billions of shekels in electricity network infrastructures that occupy large areas while contributing to the decentralization of the energy economy and strengthening its resilience.
