Renewable energy options in Israel are "near zero," and the country will have no alternative to building additional power stations, an economist for the energy sector in the Budget Department of the Finance Ministry Ido Mor said Tuesday.

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Speaking at the 18^th Israel Energy and Business Convention 2021 at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan, Mor said that "Israel was under-performing in terms of renewable energies, but even if we meet the goals we will have no choice other than to plan and build more power stations."

Mor said that the government's goal of transitioning Israel to 20% renewable energy by 2025 would "require a herculean effort, and we need to prepare for the possibility we won't meet it."

"In any case, moving the economy to electricity in the long term is more important than the short term, and we will need to ensure a supply of electricity when we bring a metro, light trains, electric trains, and more on line. All this requires preparation and more power stations," Mor said.

Chen Herzog, chief economist at BDO Israel, sounded more decisive and told the conference that "it is not feasible to meet the government's goal of 20% renewable energies by 2025," and that "so we don't have excuses in 2030, there need to be goals that can be met, rather than utopian ones."

According to Herzog, regulators would have to admit that Israel would not meet its 2025 goal and take steps to reduce emissions rather that focus solely on renewable energies: "For example, accelerating the developing of electric transportation and construction efficient power stations, as well as developing a competitive market for renewable energies."

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The Palestinian Authority owes the Israel Electric Corporation 400 million shekels ($128 million) in unpaid electric bills for Palestinian residents, Minister in the Finance Ministry Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu) said late Monday in response to a query by MK Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party).

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Amar said that Israel would not forgive the debt and added that he had instructed the Israel Tax Authority to "coordinate a framework with the PA that would allow the debt to be removed gradually from the tax money Israel transfers [to the Palestinians]."

The IEC produces most of the electricity consumed by the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip. According to agreements between Israel and the PA, the PA is supposed to pay for its residents' electricity consumption.

Over the years, the Palestinians have amassed a massive debt for their electricity consumption, but the PA claims that it is unable to collect the money owed by residents who do not pay what they owe.

Israel has made a few attempts at plans to collect the PA's electricity debt. In 2017, a deal was reached that would allow Israel to deduct payments for the PA's outstanding electric debt from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA.

In 2019, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense and finance ministers Naftali Bennett and Moshe Kahlon approved what was defined as a "special loan" to the PA, which was earmarked to help it pay the debt.

Recently, Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej (Meretz) announced that Israel needed to "take action to stabilize the PA, at least economically, even at the level of writing off debts."

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The Palestinian Authority has not paid for the electricity it has received from the Israel Electric Corporation for the past two years, resulting in an accumulated debt of around NIS 500 million ($156.8 million).

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Some two weeks ago, the IEC issued the first of two notices about the outstanding debt. This week, the second notice was issued and said that if the debt was not paid within one week, power will cut to various PA-controlled areas of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, Israel Hayom has learned that due to the PA's severe shortage of funds and amassing debt, a delegation of senior Palestinian officials left Ramallah several days ago on a fundraising mission to Gulf and Arab states.

A senior PA official told Israel Hayom that the IEC debt issue would be resolved in the coming days.

"Among other things, there's the deal that was signed between Minister Hussein al-Sheikh and [former] Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon. The debt should be offset from the taxes Israel collects [for the PA] and is supposed to be transferred to the PA," the official said.

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Amid growing criticism for Lebanon's dire economic situation, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday repeated calls for the Lebanese cabinet to seek a US sanctions waiver to import Iranian fuel and alleviate crippling shortages.

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Nasrallah said the government should make power shortages a priority, adding the total blackout that occurred on Saturday when Lebanon's two largest power plants ground to a halt was like a "clinical death" for the country.

Lebanon's power supplies were back to normal on Sunday after the blackout, the country's Energy Ministry said.

The closure piled further hardship on Lebanese struggling with job losses, soaring prices and hunger wrought by the country's worsening financial meltdown.

The ministry said it had received central bank approval for $100 million in credit to issue fuel import tenders for electricity generation, adding the country's grid had resumed supplying the same amount of electricity as before the complete outage.

Lebanon has been paralyzed by an economic crisis that deepened as supplies of imported fuel have dried up. The Lebanese currency has fallen by 90% since 2019.

Many Lebanese normally rely on private generators that run on diesel, although that is in short supply.

Making matters worse, meanwhile, a huge blaze erupted in a storage tank at one of Lebanon's main oil facilities in the country's south. The fire sent orange flames and a thick black column of smoke into the sky.

Energy Minister Walid Fayad said the fire broke out when workers were transferring gasoline from one storage tank to another in the coastal town of Zahrani. He said nearly 250,000 liters (66,000 gallons) of gasoline were burnt during the blaze, which lasted more than three hours. No one was reported hurt.

"Let the government ask for a sanctions waiver and let the Lebanese companies go and buy ... and then we will withdraw from this file completely," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

The Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organization has been coordinating Iranian shipments of fuel oil and gasoline for Lebanon since August as shortages spread amid an economic meltdown, despite US sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said the Iranian shipments constitute a breach of his country's sovereignty.

Iran sends the fuel oil shipments organized by Hezbollah to the port of Baniyas in Syria and from there they are transported by truck to Lebanon. Syria is also under US sanctions.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, on a visit to Beirut last week, said his country was ready to build two power plants in Lebanon, one in Beirut and the other in the south of the country, in a period of 18 months.

On Monday Nasrallah urged the cabinet to respond to his offer.

One resident of west Beirut told Israel Hayom on Monday that the "energy crisis is insufferable, and in the past year has only worsened with more frequent blackouts… Many Lebanese people know Hezbollah's promises are baseless, and that even when Hezbollah does help – they only help their fellow Shiites."

Hanan, a resident of Beirut, said: "Government corruption has caused this situation. Hezbollah, too, bears much of the blame. This organization behaves as if Lebanon is the private property of Nasrallah and his patrons in Iran. Nasrallah promised that oil tankers and fuel trucks would arrive from Iran. Thus far, we haven't seen Nasrallah fulfill his promises. Lebanon needs a serious root canal in order to stabilize."

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Lebanon's two main power plants were forced to shut down after running out of fuel, the state electricity company said Saturday, leaving the small country with no government-produced power.

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Lebanon is grappling with a crippling energy crisis made worse by its dependency on fuel imports. Erratic power supplies have put hospitals and essential services in crisis mode. The Lebanese increasingly depend on private operators that also struggle to secure supplies amid an unprecedented crash of the national currency.

The shortage of diesel and fuel, along with an antiquated infrastructure, has worsened power cuts that have been a fixture for years. Blackouts that used to last for three to six hours could now leave entire areas with no more than two hours of state power a day.

On Saturday, the state electricity company said Zahrani power plant in the country's south was forced to shut down because of fuel shortage; the main plant in the north was shut down on Thursday.

Electricite De Liban said the shutdown reduces the total power supply to below 270 megawatts, which means a major drop in the stability of the grid. It said it would reach out to fuel facilities in the country's north and south to see if they can procure enough fuel to bring back power. It added that a new shipment of fuel from Iraq is expected next week.

But the company, responsible for most of the government's debts, is dependent on credit from the country's central bank, which is struggling with dwindling reserves.

The government has gradually raised prices of fuel and diesel as the central bank cut back on subsidizing dollars for imports, adding to the hardships in Lebanon, where about three quarters of the population has plunged into poverty over the last year.

With prices soaring and unemployment at a record high, many families have given up private generators and few hours of state power a day is all they get.

On Saturday, distributors of gas canisters used for cooking and heating stopped operating, saying subsidy cuts amid black-market currency fluctuations meant they were selling at a loss.

The energy sector has been a huge drain on state coffers for decades.

The electricity company has annual losses of up to $1.5 billion, and has cost the state more than $40 billion over the past decades. Energy sector reforms have been a key demand by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

To help alleviate the crisis, Lebanon has received fuel shipment from Iran via Syria. Iraq has also made a swap deal with the government that has helped Lebanon's state electricity company stay operational for days.

The new Lebanese government is also negotiating supplies of electricity from Jordan and natural gas from Egypt, also through Syria. But those deals are likely to take months.

Lebanon's Electricity Minister Walid Fayad told The Associated Press that said the new shutdowns leave his government in "crisis management for a couple of days." He said the government would turn to the military to get emergency fuel supplies from its stocks "while we await the fuel cargo from the Iraqi deal and swap."

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Iran halted its crucial supply of power to Iraq, fueling fears of protests Tuesday amid instability following the resignation of Iraq's electricity minister.

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Cash-strapped Iran has put pressure on Iraq's government to release payments for power after falling into arrears. The development comes with months of scorching summer temperatures still to come, and ahead of much anticipated federal elections.

Electricity Minister Majed Mahdi Hantoosh submitted his resignation Monday amid popular and political pressure over repeated power outages across the country. Provinces across the country's south – where temperatures currently average 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) – are shortening working hours citing extreme heat.

A call for protests in the oil-rich province of Basra, often the stage of power-related demonstrations, was distributed across social media giving the government until 6 p.m. Tuesday to restore power.

"Or else we will escalate and all of Basra's streets will be cut off, and we will teach the officials a lesson they will never forget," it said.

Iraq's reliance on Iranian energy imports has geopolitical consequences and has been a source of ongoing tensions with the US. Washington has conditioned successive sanctions waivers – enabling these imports to continue – on Iraq becoming more energy independent.

The stakes are high for Iraq's government as electricity outages have routinely led to violent protests, particularly in the south. Federal elections are slated for Oct. 10, the first since mass anti-government protests swept the country in 2019.

Outputs from four cross-border electricity tie-lines from Iran to Iraq were at zero on Tuesday, according to Ministry of Electricity data seen by The Associated Press. The total cuts began this week, a ministry official said. In past weeks supply has fluctuated.

Gas and electricity imports from Iran often meet up to a third of Iraq's power demands.

"Iraq relies on Iranian energy imports heavily, especially in peak summer months," said Yesar al-Maleki, Gulf analyst at the Middle East Economic Survey.

"Gas imports from Iran range from 1.5-1.8 billion cubic feet per day. Now, we see generation in the south collapsing below 1 (gigawatt), meaning not just these lines are offline but even gas flow is down."

Iran feeds gas into Iraq through two pipelines used to power plants in Basra, Samawa, Nasiryah and Diyala. Generation from these plants also plummeted, suggesting supply from Iran in these plants is also low.

The impact has been immediate.

In Basra, the province requires 4,000 megawatts but is currently receiving 830 MW. "It is a catastrophe," said al-Maleki.

The cuts will deprive Iraqis of power to run hospitals, businesses and homes as temperatures rise.

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With calls to demonstrate growing louder, many fear a repeat of violent protests that swept Basra in 2018. These also coincided with Iranian power cuts over non-payment issues.

Iraq owes Iran $4 billion for energy imports. The country' economic crisis has caused delays in part, but even for money earmarked to pay for imports a complex payment scheme designed to evade US sanctions has slowed down transfers.

Through the scheme, Iraq is unable to pay Iran directly for the imports, but can pay for goods, medicines and other expenses related to Tehran's diplomatic mission and Iranian companies working in Iraq. Recently, Iraq purchased vaccines for Tehran.

But Iran has complained the money is trickling in too slowly.

Provinces across Iraq, meanwhile, took precautions and shortened working hours to cope with rising temperatures. Basra, Najaf, Diwanieh and Diyala shortened working days from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

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Cellcom, one of Israel's leading telecommunications companies, announced Monday plans to enter the electricity market, essentially kickstarting a revolution in the industry, which has until now been monopolized by the government-owned Israel Electric Corporation.

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As part of "Cellcom Energy," its joint venture with Meshek Energy that works with renewable sources, the company will provide electricity to private customers and businesses. Within a decade, it plans to transform the market, shifting most of the production to private companies, increasing the use of renewable energy, and transitioning to mostly electric or hybrid vehicles.

The project, which is pending approval, requires the installation of special smart meters. As part of a pilot, the IEC has already installed 40,000 such devices, with many more to be installed soon.

According to Cellcom, the cost of electricity would reduce dramatically, saving the average household thousands of shekels a year, and businesses, tens of thousands of shekels a year.

To encourage more customers to join its program, Cellcom is offering a variety of discounts, including at-home charging stations for electric vehicles and renewable power sources, such as solar panels.

Another major telecommunications company, Hot, also announced its plan to enter the electricity market and is expected to hand in a request for a license from the Electric Corporation on Monday.

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Local authorities in Israel consume an average of 210 kilowatt hours per resident per year, according to a new report published by the Energy Ministry on Monday.

However, the report said, there were over 30 local authorities are more efficient and consumed under 30 kilowatt hours per hour per resident per year on average.

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The report's data is based on questionnaires filled out by each local authority that focused on two main parameters: how much electricity each authority consumes per resident on average, and their total electricity consumption for outdoor lighting per square kilometers. The reports offer local authorities an opportunity to map their electricity consumption and make decisions that could help them save energy.

This year, 75% of local authorities submitted reports on their electricity consumption, compared to 65% last year.

What uses the most electricity in local authorities? According to the report, 50% of electricity goes to streetlights, another 30% to schools, and the rest is used by public buildings.

If local authorities take action to save energy, they could cut their electricity consumption by 20%, freeing up the money that goes to pay the light bill for other uses. The Ashkelon Municipality has found ways to cut its electricity consumption by 30% by using grants from the Energy Ministry and a grants from a joint fund run by the energy, economy, and environmental protection ministries. The city used the money to replace its outdoor lighting with energy-efficient lighting and install systems to manage energy usage and upgrade lighting and climate control (heat and air conditioning) in municipal buildings.

"Comparing data about energy consumption for every resident of local authorities is vital to making the energy market more efficient and finding more efficient and less polluting alternatives," said Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.

Meanwhile, on Monday Steinitz convened for the first time a team of government ministry directors-general that is charged with promoting solar energy. The team, which was established following a cabinet decision to raise Israel's solar energy production to 30% by 2030, is headed by Energy Ministry Director-General Udi Adiri.

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The Björnberget has a total capacity of 372 megawatts. Permits have been obtained for construction, which is slated to include 60 wind turbines that utilize Siemens Gamesa 5.X technology.

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Enlight's share in the project will be 55%-61%, and the rest will be held by the European Prime Green Energy Investment Fund, which specializes in investments in wind energy in the Nordic market.

Enlight and the PGEIF have also agreed to partner on strategic development to promote  additional renewable energy projects in the Nordic region.

As part of the transaction, Enlight will be allocated a share of about 20% in the PGEIF and will invest up to 50 million euros in the fund, which will be used for more renewable energy projects.

According to projections, once the Björnberget project is up and running, its electricity sales will amount to some €30 million in the first year, and around €60 million per year on average for the operating period.

Enlight co-founder and CEO Gilad Yavetz said that "especially at this challenging time for the Israeli economy, we are very proud to complete this important deal."

"This is Enlight's second large-scale project in the Nordic market, the biggest, most developed and liquid energy market in Europe," Yavetz said.

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The deal has chiseled away at the monopoly held by Houston-based Noble Energy and Israel's Delek Group, which discovered and developed the fields, bringing prices down. The country is on track to phase out coal and derive nearly all its electricity from cleaner-burning gas and solar power by 2025, and is exporting gas to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

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But the financial benefits have yet to trickle down to Israeli consumers, who continue to pay stubbornly high electricity costs even as oil and gas prices have plunged in recent years.

As the scramble for natural gas creates new alliances and rivalries across the eastern Mediterranean, Israel's experience shows that while big gas discoveries can yield geopolitical clout they don't always deliver the riches promised by politicians.

The government says the gas reserves have turned Israel into a regional player and solidified ties with two Arab neighbors. Israel has also teamed up with Cyprus and Greece for a planned $6 billion pipeline to Europe, strengthening its position as it prepares to hold rare talks with Lebanon this week over their disputed maritime border.

But the so-called EastMed pipeline has heightened tensions with Turkey and is fraught with political and logistical challenges. It could prove infeasible if gas prices remain low and Europe accelerates its shift to renewable energy.

At the time of the 2015 gas deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "hundreds of millions of shekels for education, welfare, health and for every Israeli citizen," but a hoped-for sovereign wealth fund has yet to materialize because revenues have been lower than expected.

Israel's revenues from oil and gas royalties have hovered around $250 million a year since 2015, less than 1% of the country's most recent national budget, of around $135 billion.

Prior to the 2015 gas framework agreement, a partnership between Noble and Delek was the main developer of the Tamar field, which went online in 2013, and Leviathan – one of the largest gas fields discovered in the Mediterranean – which went online last year.

The gas deal required them to sell two smaller fields, which were acquired by the Greek firm Energean in 2016. Delek must sell its share of Tamar next year, and Noble – which was recently acquired by gas giant Chevron – is required to reduce its holdings.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a driving force behind the 2015 agreement, says the restructuring of the industry has brought new contract prices down from more than $6 per million British Thermal Units to less than $4 per mmBTU.

"The reality is very clear. Prices today are much lower than they used to be before the framework," he said, adding that he expects a further drop of up to 25%.

That's true for new contracts, but the price Israeli consumers pay is still largely determined by a 2012 contact between Tamar and the state-run Israel Electric Corporation, in which prices are tethered to the US consumer price index and have steadily risen since 2015 to more than $6 per mmBTU, even as global prices have plunged.

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Orit Farkash-Hacohen served as the head of the Public Utilities Authority at the time the framework was being negotiated and was sidelined after arguing that the pricing mechanism was unfair to consumers. She had suggested prices be pegged to an international basket instead, and that Israel push for the change as part of the 2015 agreement.

Israel's antitrust commissioner resigned in protest after arguing that the 2015 deal would not bring competition to the market, and thousands took to the streets in demonstrations. Netanyahu was eventually able to push it through by citing national security considerations.

Farkash-Hacohen supports much of the framework, but faults the government for not renegotiating the main contract between the gas companies and the IEC.

"When you're dealing with an electricity monopoly you regulate its prices in order for it not to misuse its power," said Farkash-Hacohen, who was recently appointed tourism minister.

"In that sense it was a missed opportunity that unfortunately affected the cost of living of the people of the state of Israel."

Gabriel Mitchell, an energy researcher at Israel's Mitvim Institute, says Israelis are paying prices that are "wildly above" those available on the international market.

"One of the big issues that we're seeing now in 2020, with everything that's happened post-coronavirus and with the collapse of global energy prices, is that the average Israeli is paying somewhere between two and three times the amount for a unit of energy than is available on the global market," he said.

He and other critics point to the IEC's recent purchase of liquified natural gas on the international market for a lower price than it is getting from Israel's own fields.

The US Henry Hub price, seen as an international benchmark for natural gas purchases, has averaged around $2.75 per mmBTU over the past five years and fell below $2 after the pandemic caused a global drop in demand.

The price of the Tamar gas has steadily risen during the same period, and Israelis have seen little change in their electricity bills since 2015, with tariffs hovering around 14 cents per kilowatt hour.

When asked about the high prices enshrined in the Tamar contract, Chevron, which completed its acquisition of Noble last Monday, said it "firmly believes in the sanctity of contracts."

"These are very early days and as we continue to build relationships with all of our stakeholders in Israel, we are confident that they will see Chevron is committed to building trusted and mutually beneficial relationships," it said in a statement.

The Israeli government says the shift from coal to natural gas has been good for the environment. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil, cutting down on air pollution. But the drilling and transport of natural gas results in the leakage of methane, which has 86 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In January, Israel began exporting gas to Egypt under a 10-year deal valued at $15 billion. In 2016, Noble and Delek reached a $10 billion agreement to export gas to Jordan over 15 years.

Israel's excess gas revenues were supposed to flow into a sovereign wealth fund for investment abroad, a path to riches used by other big exporters. The fund was supposed to be launched in 2018, but has yet to reach the 1 billion shekels ($290 million) required to begin investing.

Authorities hope to launch the fund next year. That's also when Delek is set to sell off its share of Tamar and when the IEC is eligible to renegotiate its costly Tamar contract. That should bring prices down, but Farkash-Hacohen says it should have happened much earlier.

"Why were they given full immunity of prices, and secondly, such a long period of time to divest their ownership?" she said.

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