The Chinese-built 344-MW Kokhav Hayarden pumped storage hydropower plant in Israel which lies 275m below sea level, is expected to be operational in early 2023. It will become the country’s largest pumped storage power plant and the lowest power plant of such kind in the world.

The Israeli Ministry of Environment released a new renewable energy roadmap, targeting 40 percent of renewables in the country’s power mix by 2030.

“Pumped storage hydropower provides an economical, efficient and stable way of hydroelectric energy storage. Acting similarly to a giant battery, it can store power and then release it when needed,” explained Han Hongwei, general manager of the project.

“It is a configuration of two water reservoirs at different elevations which can generate power as water moves down from one to the other,” he added.

In late September, construction of the lower reservoir, which lies 236 meters below sea level and with a storage capacity of 3.16 million cubic meters, was completed. The over 200,000 square meters of white impervious geomembrane is particularly eye-catching in the mountains beside highway 90, the longest road in Israel.

Ao Guohui, the project implementation manager, said that the team has gone all out to complete the reservoir before the arrival of the rainy season in November, so as to meet the requirements of flood control and achieve the water storage target at an early date.

According to Ao, as the project is located at the end of the northern extension of the East African Rift, the special geographical condition makes the construction process particularly challenging.