Country Israel Status Operational Decommission date 2011 | Location Mishor Rotem, Dimona Construction began 1987 | |
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Construction cost US$30 million (oil shale-fired plant)
US$500 million (natural gas-fired plant) Operator(s) Rotem Amfert (oil shale-fired plant)
OPC Rotem (natural gas-fired plant) Primary fuel Oil shale (until 2011)
Natural gas (since 2013) Owners Israel Corporation, Veolia Similar Rutenberg Power Station, Eshkol Power Station, Ashalim Power Station, Guodian Beilun Power St, Reading Power Station | ||
The Mishor Rotem Power Station is a former oil shale-fired power station and current natural gas-fired power station in Mishor Rotem, Israel. It is operated by OPC Rotem, a subsidiary of the Israel Corporation (80%) and Veolia Environnement (20%).
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Oil shale-fired power plant
The oil shale-fired power plant was first commissioned as 1978 as a test pilot plant, with an installed capacity of 0.1 MW. Between 1982 and 1986, the PAMA, a subsidiary of Israel Electric Corporation, established and operated a 1 MW pilot plant. After a R&D program was carried out and funded by PAMA and the Israel Ministry of National Infrastructures with an investment of approximately $30 million, the 13 MW demonstration plant was completed in 1989. The generated power was sold to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), and low-pressure steam was supplied to an adjacent industrial complex. After 2000, the power station was operated by Rotem Amfert Negev, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, an Israel Corporation company.
The power station required approximately half a million tons of oil shale annually, which was transported from a nearby open-pit mine. A large part of the ash generated in the process was used in products such as cat litter. Most of the ash product was distributed in Europe under the commercial name Alganite.
OPC Rotem natural gas power plant
OPC Rotem, a joint venture of IC Power, a subsidiary of the Israel Corporation, and Dalkia Israel Ltd., a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, built a 440 MW single-shaft combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant at the site. Constructed by Daewoo with turbines and generators from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, it came on-line in the summer of 2013. Originally, IC Power requested permission to build a station twice the size (consisting of two generation units), however, insufficient transmission capacity from the area led regulators to only approve the construction of a single generation unit.