GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestine is looking to put landfills to good use and develop sustainable energy sources to become more self-sufficient and help limit its reliance on Israel. It plans to increase its locally produced energy and diversify its sources by making use of all types of renewable energy.

According to a general renewable energy strategy developed by the Palestinian Energy Authority (PEA) in 2012, renewable energy should account for 10% of the total electricity produced by 2020, while energy imported from Israel should not exceed 50%. Of the energy currently supplied to Palestine, 97% comes from the Israeli Electricity Corp., leaving Palestine vulnerable to political and economic developments.

Samples from the Zahrat Al Finjan landfill are being collected and examined to determine the amount of energy that can be produced from the landfill. This comes after the PEA, the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and the Zahrat Al Finjan landfill services council in Jenin signed a memorandum of understanding Oct. 3 to conduct an economic and environmental feasibility study for a project aimed at generating electricity from the gas produced from decomposing biomass in landfills.

This is Palestine's first waste-to-energy project, and it will help address environmental problems caused by landfills. According to the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA), if the project proves worthwhile, it will be applied to all Palestinian landfills. PENRA said the government chose Zahrat Al Finjan for the study because it's the largest landfill in the West Bank.