‘In a decade, Israel can run on renewable energy’

Nofar Energy outlines plans at Post NY Conference

More than 250 business leaders, Israeli and American politicians, diplomats and opinion leaders gathered in New York’s Gotham Hall on Sunday night for a private gala cocktail reception prior to the The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York on Monday.

The event was held in the presence of senior Israeli and American officials, including former defense minister Benny Gantz, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, former minister Ayelet Shaked, businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams, Ministers Nir Barkat and Ofir Akunis, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion and others.

“Israel can be 100% based on renewable energy and clean energy in 10 years, if only the government and lawmakers would support it,” said Ofer Yannay, chairman and founder of Nofar Energy in an interview with former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post Yaakov Katz. He also launched his new book, New Under the Sun, about the renewable energy revolution. Yannay said that his company has laid out a broad plan that is also bringing in European countries.

Yannay predicts that renewable energy will become the world’s primary source of energy.

“This is a battle that will be over in less than a decade,” he says. “The transformation of the world’s energy system to renewable energy is a biblical event. It is amazing, and I am very happy to be a part of it in Israel.

We are moving forward in many territories around the world with this unique, innovative idea.”

Nofar Energy includes an extensive portfolio of over 2,000 projects and subsidiaries in seven countries in Europe and the US and major renewable energy and energy storage projects are generating over 1,000 megawatts power.

Yannay discussed the importance of solar energy and its emergence as one of the world’s primary energy sources.

On Monday, Yannay addressed attendees at the Jerusalem Post Conference and detailed his proposals for “using energy not as a weapon of war, but as a means to create prosperity and peace.”

“To be a Jew, for me is to be on a journey, a journey that is personal. It’s also a generational journey,” he said, giving examples of leaders such as Abraham, Moses and Theodor Herzl, who established modern

Zionism.

Nofar Energy is one of the largest commercial and industrial solar companies in the world and a global leader in renewable energy investments. Yannay, who helms Nofar, attended Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Reza Pahlavi II, the eldest son of the last Shah of Iran and heir apparent to the Peacock Throne, was crown prince before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

He said at the event that “I am here to speak not about the past 75 years, but rather about the next 75 years of our region.

The Crown Prince said that “once this evil regime is defeated, a new future will arise. It will provide multiple opportunities to improve the lives of so many citizens of our region, working in harmony.”

Pahlavi today resides in Virginia and is a prominent critic of the Islamic Republic’s regime.