Driving Decarbonization Opportunities with Social Acceptance in the Renewable Sector: The "Kosher Electricity" as the Case Study

Electricity storage in utility-scale batteries has been proven to be a mature commercial technical solution to help with circumvention of the stochastic nature of solar irradiation. However, these renewable energy projects are not an exception regarding social acceptability. Thus, the integration of the social component can help in the deployment of renewable electricity sources. We chose here a case study of the decarbonization benefits derived from the combination of solar PV and utility-scale batteries in the state of Israel. Although there are plenty of solar resources, solar PV electricity production in the state of Israel is still relatively low plus zero electricity storage capacity. In this sense, the state of Israel has a unique social challenge that can push the deployment of renewable energies backed up by utility-scale batteries, by supplying "Kosher electricity" for ultra-orthodox (UO) Jews. These strict communities avoid contact with electrical devices during the Sabbath due to religious beliefs and use diesel generators instead to avoid other Jews from working during the day. The results obtained show that providing all the Kosher electricity for the 1.28 million UO individuals demands a storage capacity from 18 to 24 times the world's largest installed utility-scale battery (450 MWh) but can reduce up from 188 to 474 kton of CO2 on a yearly basis. This solution can have a positive social acceptance and the acceleration of the country's solar revolution. However, the quantified size of such a task represents as much as 5-15% of the potential utility-scale market size by 2030, therefore revealed to be gigantic.