The photo is sourced from english.news.cn
The project is implemented with the participation of Power Construction Corporation of China. The power plant will be the lowest pumped storage power plant in the world, as its turbines will be located 275 metres below sea level. Construction of the lower reservoir of the PSPP, with a total capacity of 3.16 million cubic metres, was complete in late September 2022. During peak demand hours, the station will generate electricity by discharging water from the upper reservoir to the lower one, and accumulate it by pumping water back into the upper reservoir. The capacity of the new pumped storage power plant will exceed that of the existing hydroelectric power plants in Israel, making a boost from the current 306 MW to 650 MW. However, solar panels will remain the key source of “clean” energy in the country: their capacity reached 2.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2021, while the total capacity of wind turbines and biomass power plants is only 6 MW, according to Ember research centre.
Despite the increase in renewable energy capacity, gas and coal-fired power plants will retain their dominance in the Israeli power industry. In 2021, their capacity reached 12.2 GW and 4.9 GW (66% and 27% of the generation structure) respectively; the share of all renewable sources was 7%. The development of new projects in Israeli territorial waters contributes to the preservation of the leading positions of natural gas. In 2021, gas production at the Leviathan and Tamar fields on the shelf of the Levant Sea (Eastern Mediterranean) increased by 25%, reaching 19.5 billion cubic metres, according to the Israeli Department of Energy. Imports remain the main source of raw materials for coal-fired power plants. Israel imported 6.4 million tons of hard coal in 2021, including 3.2 million tons from Colombia, 2.4 million tons from Russia, and 0.8 million tons from South Africa, according to national customs statistics.
