Enlight Renewable Energy, a leading renewable energy platform, announced today that it has won an Israel Land Authority (ILA) tender to develop a cutting-edge integrated data center and renewable energy complex on a 50-acre site in Ashalim, southern Israel. The company plans to invest up to $1.1 billion in the project, marking a significant milestone in the expansion of data centers to southern Israel and supporting the national strategy to relocate large electricity consumers to areas with renewable energy production.
There is a high demand for new data centers in Israel, but most are concentrated in the central region, where land and power infrastructure are limited. This has led to the costly transmission of electricity from the south to meet the region’s growing energy needs. Ashalim, home to Israel’s largest renewable energy hub and well-established high-voltage transmission and communication networks, offers an ideal solution for large-scale data centers.
The planned solar generation and energy storage facility will help meet part of the data center’s electricity needs and reduce operating costs. By integrating renewable energy, Enlight aims to leverage its expertise in energy development, construction, financing, and management, contributing further to Israel’s energy revolution. The complex will feature a 100 MW AC hourly consumption capacity in line with the tender’s terms. Enlight is also exploring additional opportunities in the growing market of combined renewable energy and data center facilities, both in Israel and Europe. Gilad Peled, GM of Enlight MENA said, “Enlight is leading the integration of renewable energy into the growing data center sector. We believe that powering data centers with renewable energy is the right path to take, both as a national initiative and for us as a developer. Winning this tender will allow us to leverage our expertise in renewable energy and lead a national effort to develop data centers in southern Israel. This represents both an economic growth engine as well as a solution to the challenges and costs of electricity production and transmission into the country’s central region.”
