Israel’s first large solar powerplant may be constructed in the Negev Desert by an independent power producer. The proposed 250-MW facility will use solar-thermal technology and is expected to cost $1 billion.

“We will issue a call to prequalify for the international tender within the next few months,” says a senior National Infrastructure Ministry official. He adds that the final selection would probably take place in early 2008. The plant would begin operating in 2009. The ministry has not yet established terms of a contract, but such contracts are usually for 25 to 30 years, says a spokesman.

A joint committee from Israel’s National Infrastructure and Finance ministries will draw up the tender. Israel requires that 30% of total electricity production come from private powerplants, including 10% from renewable energy.

“This is part of our effort to expand electricity production in general and renewable energy in particular,” says Hezi Kugler, director general of the Infrastructure Ministry. Enough land has been set aside at the site to allow for an expansion to 500 MW.

The company or consortium selected would have to plan, finance, construct and operate the powerplant. Bids will be assessed on both technological and financial criteria.

Israel-based Solel Solar Systems Ltd., a solar-power developer with extensive experience, has expressed interest in the Negev tender. Luz, a Solel predecessor, built 350 MW of solar-trough plants in the 1980s in California’s Mojave Desert. Solel now is replacing the heat-collecting elements at seven of the nine plants, which now are owned by FPL Energy LLC, Juno Beach, Fla. The solar trough’s parabolic mirrors heat a pipe containing a heat-transfer fluid, which generates steam to drive a turbine.