Bethel Finance: State to subsidize new home appliances

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Bethel Finance news:
Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau announced the launch of a project to assist the adoption of energy-saving domestic refrigerators today. The state will subsidize the replacement of 25,000 refrigerators for people receiving income supplement to the tune of up to 60% of the cost, including the cost of removing and scrapping the old appliance.

Landau said that replacing an inefficient refrigerator with an energy-efficient one could save a household NIS 600 a year.

The program is for refrigerators more than five years old, that is, from before the introduction of the standard obliging electrical appliances to abide by energy efficiency requirements.

The Ministry of National Infrastructures estimates that some 600,000 Israeli households have refrigerators that do not meet the standard. Landau admitted that he himself had a 15 year-old refrigerator at home. "I'm starting to wonder whether it wouldn't be worthwhile replacing it," he said today.

The program applies to six models from Samsung, Beko, and LG. Under the program, a new 505 liter refrigerator from Beko will cost just NIS 1,086.

In February, a scheme will start to replace 50,000 refrigerators for the population at large, offering a subsidy of 30%, up to NIS 1,250. This scheme will apply to eight models from Samsung, LG, and Hitachi.

Replacing refrigerators is one of the main elements in a national plan for energy efficiency being promoted by the Ministry of National Infrastructures in cooperation with other government ministries. The plan is meant o implement the decision by the government in September 2008 to cut by 20% the energy consumption expected in 2020. According to Ministry of National Infrastructures Shaul Tzemach, this means cutting the annual rate of growth of energy usage in Israel from 3.5% to 2%. "We have taken it on ourselves to deal with the household sector, which accounts for 33% of power consumption," he said. "This is a very complicated task, because it means running after many people who consume small amounts."

The numerical target is to lower consumption by households by 4.5 billion kwh, which cost NIS 2 billion.

In February, the ministry will launch a similar scheme to replace 10,000 air conditioners for people receiving income supplement. The state will offer those entitled 40% of the cost of buying a new air conditioner and removing and scarpping their old one. The annual saving for each household is estimated at NIS 800.

The ministry will also distribute 1.5 million energy-saving light bulbs. Each pack of three light bulbs will be sold for NIS 20.

On January 1, regulations will come into force forbidding the sale iof incandescent light bulbs and halogen lamps with an output exceeding 60 watts that fail to comply with the formula for testing energy efficiency.

In addition, the requirement to install solar water heaters will be extended from buildings of up to nine stories to buildings of up to 15 stories.

The energy efficiency budget rose from NIS 6 million two years ago to NIS 24 million in the past year. In the next two years, NIS 314 million will be earmarked for implementing the project.

Landau said that this was an element of the 20-20-20 plan, under which power consumption is to become 20% more efficient, a saving equivalent to the capacity of a 3,400 megawatt power plant, and 72 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.