An amendment to the Planning and Building Regulations, formulated jointly by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, the Planning Administration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and approved by the National Planning and Building Council in August 2024, came into force in December 2025. It is the most significant regulatory change in Israel's energy sector in nearly fifty years.
What does the regulation require? A new private home with a roof area of 100 m² or more must install a photovoltaic (PV) system with a minimum capacity of 5 kWp. A new non-residential building (offices, commerce, industry, public facilities) with a roof area of 250 m² or more must install a PV system sized according to Electricity Authority standards. Multi-unit residential buildings with a roof above 250 m² must include full infrastructure readiness for a future system even if the panels are not installed immediately.
The Form 4 link: Compliance with the regulation is an integral condition of the building permit and a material part of the occupancy approval (Form 4) inspection. A new home that fails the solar requirement will not receive Form 4 and cannot legally be occupied.
Practical impact on developers and homeowners: The solar plan must be integrated into the structural and electrical drawings at the building-permit stage, not at project completion. This requires coordination with a licensed electrical engineer and certified installer, production-output calculations, and early grid-connection mapping. Adding the system late in a project almost always costs significantly more than planning it in from day one.
Wider context: The regulation is part of Israel's national 30%-renewables-by-2030 target. At Meniv Energy we accompany developers, architects and self-builders from the building permit through grid connection, handling every step of the paperwork with the local authority, the electric company and the Electricity Authority.
