Sunday Energy Ltd., a solar energy service provider in Israel, and Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA) , one of the world’s largest geothermal power solutions companies, announced the signing of an agreement to build a 1-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic solar installation on the roof of Ormat’s factory in Yavne, Israel.
Following the installation of this project, Ormat and Sunday
said they hope to collaborate on other similar large-scale solar projects across
the country and around the world.
Once complete, the 16,000 square meter installation will be the largest PV roof in the Middle East and will generate over NIS 60 million ($15.5 million) from solar energy sales over the next 20 years. The project will cost approximately NIS 20 million ($5.2 million) to construct and is expected to be completed by the first half of 2010.
Sunday and Ormat will cooperate on all phases of the project, including
the planning, licensing, equipment purchasing, installation and
connection to the electricity grid. Additionally, the agreement
stipulates that the companies will share responsibility for the
maintenance and upkeep of the system for 20 years. The project will be
completed in phases, with the first 50 KWp stage already under
development.
“After examining the other options currently in the market, we chose Sunday because we wanted the best partner for this important project,” said Berger. “Sunday presented us with the most promising risk management model, the highest quality and a guarantee that the project would deliver a very fast return on investment.”
This project follows previous tenders recently secured by Sunday, including the Tel-Aviv municipality bid to install solar energy systems on school rooftops, the Kiryat-Ono tender for installations on that municipality’s public buildings, the installation of a solar power system on the Carmei Ovdat winery in Israel’s Negev desert, and a planned installation on Israel’s Dalton Winery. Over the next two to three years, Sunday is planning to construct solar farms across Israel worth more than NIS 800 million.
Ormat Technologies, Inc. is the only vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business. The Company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world.
