Israel: The World’s first Solar Thermal Legislation

Israel has been the first country to pass a legislation on solar thermal installations. With the second oil crisis end of the 1970s members of parliament searched for ways to make their country more independent of imported energy. The result was a law on solar water heating to be used in new residential buildings up to 27 metres. The legislation came into effect in 1980.

It turned out to be a success. Nowadays more than 80% of the households in Israel obtain their domestic hot water from solar rooftop heaters. A typical domestic unit consists of a 150 litre insulated storage tank and a 2 m² collector. Payback-time is about 2.5 years for an average family of four people. There is no subsidy on the purchase of the system.

More than 90% of the solar systems are installed on a voluntary basis, i.e. they are installed in existing buildings, or the systems are bigger than required by the obligation. “Israelis consider this basic ‘furniture’ and not unique”, says Shoshana Dann from the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center. The hot water heaters save the country the need to import about 4% of its energy needs, and displace about 9% of the electricity production.

This article was written by Ina Röpcke, a German journalist and solar thermal expert