Evaluating Energy Options for Israel: A Case Study

Abstract

More than 98 percent of Israel's primary energy resources are imported, most of it as crude oil, the rest of it as coal, placing the country in a most vulnerable and awkward position. The sharp increases in crude oil prices in 1973 following the Yom Kippur War and in 1979 has increased the country's economic burden, contributing to its increasing deficit in the balance of payments and staggering inflation rate. Perhaps here more than anywhere else, a balanced energy policy is most crucial for security and well-being. Such policy would allow diversification of primary energy resources by using more alternative and renewable resources supplemented by a variety of ways of managing demand and controlling peak-load growth.