Megalim Solar Power, a special purpose firm that the two companies created, won the bid for the plant’s construction in the Negev Desert.
The project is expected to be commissioned in 2017 and is part of the three selected under Israel’s Ashalim 250MW total solar tender including two CSP plants and one PV plant.
All three projects serve to advance Israel’s goal to generate 10% of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2020.
The scope of the contract for Megalim includes planning, financing, building, operating and maintaining the power plant for about 25 years and later transfer ownership to Israel.
Speaking on the tender win, Israel Ministry of Finance together with the Ministry of Energy and Water noted, "The principal advantage of [BrightSource’s] solar thermal technology is its high reliability which enables it to constitute a real substitute to conventional power plants which consume fossil fuels, as opposed to some other renewable energy technologies."
