TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel is stepping up efforts targeted at protecting the environment through the enhanced use of renewable energy. To that end, Israeli Minister for Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg arrived to Paris Dec. 5 to discuss the department’s Environmental Protection Review of Israel. Among other things, the review is expected to recommend advancing green energy policies in Israel while preserving open spaces.

Since the 1980s, as a result of mandatory solar water heating regulations, most homes and buildings in Israel have solar panels on their roofs to heat water. Also, since 2011, there are several on-ground solar farms in the south of the country. Another developing trend is that of kibbutzim and villages installing solar panels over their crops, and selling the generated energy to the national electricity grid. Still, generating electricity out of solar panels placed on the rooftops of private homes is rare in Israel.

As such, last month’s announcement of the “Sun for Everyone” nonprofit organization about two buildings signing an agreement to install commercial-energy solar panels, was an important first step in that direction. The “Sun for Everyone” initiative is cooperating with the public Israel Energy Forum to proliferate solar roofing. One of the two buildings is situated in the southern city of Beersheba and the other one in Carmiel in the north.

The Ministry of Energy is also taking steps to advance the production of clean energy with solar panels installed on the roofs of residential buildings.