Electricity and Renewable Energy

The Israeli electricity sector is undergoing a tremendous change. The privatization of most of the activity (production and supply), the transition to a market-based model in the various activity segments (distribution and transmission) and the fight against the climate crisis are changing the face of the economy and opening it up to significant business opportunities. Along with an accelerated transition to renewable energy electricity production, the State of Israel is promoting the development of a decentralized electricity market based on transactions between the various players or between the producers and the system manager, with an emphasis on promoting renewable energy projects, electricity storage and the development of innovative technologies.

With the desire to ensure that complete and up-to-date support is provided to our clients, the office has a dedicated team under the leadership of Michael Macchia (who served as legal counsel to Israel’s Electricity Authority for about a decade), which provides comprehensive support with respect to all types of activity in the electricity sector, while monitoring the main trends and the development of regulation in all relevant branches of the law relating to the field.

The unique combination of the firm’s departments allows for comprehensive support of projects in the field of electricity and renewable energies, on all their business and legal aspects, starting from the entrepreneurship stage, through the creation of planning and regulatory arrangements, drawing up an agreement system, financing, construction and up to the operation and commercialization stage of the project.

The department’s team has many years of experience in consulting and providing legal services to a variety of clients in the promotion of projects in the field of renewable energies, including providing counsel in the first projects in Israel for the production of electricity using photovoltaic technology, as well as special expertise in providing counsel with respect to complex projects in the field of infrastructure, as well as in government tenders, including in the field of electricity.

Our firm represents most of the leading players in the electricity sector in all segments of activity, both in renewable energy and in conventional production. Among the firm’s clients are Dalia, IPM, Rapac, Paz Ashdod Oil Refinery, Energix, Doral, Rimon, Teralight, Synergy, Pazgas and Ellomay.

In addition, our firm represents entrepreneurs, start-up companies, investment funds and private investors in activities in the field of electricity in Israel and around the world.

The energy and infrastructure department of our firm is headed by Dan Hacohen, who is currently considered the leading and most experienced attorney in Israel in the fields of energy and infrastructure. Dan is an expert with over 30 years of experience in commercial law with an emphasis on the fields of energy and infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions, project financing and international transactions .

The electricity and renewable energies team is led by Michael Macchia, who served for about a decade as legal counsel to the Electricity Authority. During his tenure at the Authority, he provided counsel in the main transformations in the electricity sector, including the entry of private manufacturing, led the promotion of regulation for the integration of renewable energies into the electricity grid and was a partner in designing the reform in the electricity sector and at Israel Electric Corporation. In addition to his activity in the field of regulation of the electricity sector, Michael was a member of the tenders committee for the OPC and Ashalim tenders, and provided counsel in lateral processes in the civil service, in particular in the field of gas.