A new demo village in southern Israel's Arava Desert showcases cutting-edge Israeli solutions for housing, energy, water and agriculture needs of populations out of reach of national water and energy grids in any part of the world. Contact online >>
A new demo village in southern Israel''s Arava Desert showcases cutting-edge Israeli solutions for housing, energy, water and agriculture needs of populations out of reach of national water and energy grids in any part of the world.
The village, built in the environmentally forward Kibbutz Ketura ahead of last December''s sixth annual Eilat-Eilot Green Energy Conference, is a central feature of the Eilat-Eilot Off-Grid Hub, a project of the nonprofit Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative.
The village has three solar-powered model structures constructed by volunteers from Kibbutz Lotan''s Eco-Building Program – a thatch-roofed communal building with simple yet innovative sources of natural light and ventilation; a straw-and-wool insulated plywood house roofed with palm leaves (for ventilation) and metal (for protection from the elements); and a dome-shaped, thermally balanced "Earth Bag" house made with sacks of local soil.
The first four Israeli startups demonstrating their products in the village are HomeBioGas (backyard biodigesters that convert organic waste into clean biogas for cooking, heating and lighting, as well as organic liquid crop fertilizer), Kalisaya (portable solar energy generator), Ulysses (remote, real-time monitor for production and consumption of energy and water) and SunDWater (solar-powered water-purification system for drinking and agriculture).
These and other clean-tech companies involved in the hub can further develop their products with the assistance of world-renowned researchers from the Kibbutz Ketura-based Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and receive help with business and marketing strategies to reach the attention of Eilat-Eilot''s network of affiliates in countries that most need these technologies.
In the vast Eilat-Eilot region of sprawling desert landscapes, the only natural resources are abundant sunlight and open spaces. Capitalizing on these advantages, the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative is transforming the region into an international center for research and development of technologies for renewable energy.
The initiative now brings about 104 megawatts of solar- and biogas-generated electricity to the area''s power grid – making the southern Arava one of the only places in the world that produces the majority of its own electricity during the day. By 2040, Eilat-Eilot could be entirely energy-independent and free of fossil-fuel and carbon emissions.
We use renewable energy, specifically solar, to leverage the whole region and produce more jobs along with electricity to become more self-sustainable," Weinstein tells ISRAEL21c.
"This is a model proven to work in Israel, and we want to look at rural regions throughout emerging markets and see what we can do to chip in and be a part of this worldwide phenomenon. Globally, there is a growing understanding of the potential of rural technology and business models that aim for the bottom of the pyramid."
In partnership with the Capital Nature renewable-energy investment firm, the Off-Grid Hub is working with a variety of stakeholders focused on electrifying rural African villages, including the UN''s IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), community-based NGOs, local and national governments and the World Bank.
"We''re combining know-how in terms of cutting-edge technologies in solar, water and agriculture with private-sector and new business models," says Weinstein, who lived in Kenyan slums for two years as a social entrepreneur and has a master''s of business administration in development work from the University of Geneva.
"We''re also promoting the companies through worldwide conferences," he says. "For instance, last month I presented the hub and the companies at an alternative-energy conference in Dakar, Senegal. This November we''ll have a conference on business models for the bottom of the pyramid for renewable energy companies. It will be hosted at Eilat-Eilot''s new renewable energy structure near Yotvata."
US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro recently toured the village and all the hub''s facilities with Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative founder and CEO Dorit Banet, after the organization won a $61,000 grant from Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) of the US State Department. MEPI supports efforts to promote political, economic and social reform in the Middle East and North Africa.
"Many Middle Eastern countries are not connected to the power grid," Banet tells ISRAEL21c. "Ambassador Shapiro came to see what we''re doing and give the official certification for the grant. We showed him our power station, our solar fields and our off-grid village, as well as our new research and innovation hub near Yotvata."
The Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative, supported by organizations such as the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, also sponsors an educational youth science competition and Climate Launchpad, Europe''s largest clean-tech business idea competition.
The Gaza Strip has an estimated 12,400 rooftop solar systems, likely representing the highest density in the world. Despite damage they still provide dwindling power.
A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) details the role of solar power in Wartime Gaza. Based on extensive and detailed study of commercial satellite imagery, the report underlines both the resilience and vulnerability of small-scale solar power systems in conflict zones.
Co-authored by CSIS'' Middle East program deputy director, Will Todman, and colleagues, Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jennifer Jun, the report concludes that future combatants will likely seek to reduce adversaries'' access to solar power.
As they do so, vulnerable populations will simultaneously seek increased access to solar power to help them survive conflict. In other words, the war for energy within War will remain much the same as it always has.
"The analysis we did indicates that Gaza probably has the highest density of rooftop solar in the world. That''s not the same as saying it has the highest solar capacity," Todman explains. Other locations like Honolulu, Hawaii generate much more solar-derived electricity via larger capacity rooftop systems he notes.
But in Gaza as in Lebanon and Yemen, local people have acquired small, easy-to-obtain rooftop solar systems to make up for chronic shortages of electricity from public grids. In prewar Gaza, Gazans reportedly only received power from the grid for six to eight hours per day.
Before the most recent conflict, half of all Gaza''s electrical power came through 10 Israeli power lines according to the CSIS report. A single diesel power plant in Gaza generated an additional quarter to one-third of the power supply with fuel purchased from Israel and financed by Qatar. Informal private solar-power and other systems provided the remaining 25 percent of electricity in the Gaza Strip.
Some 320 days of sun per year over the territory make solar power viable. Though it has periodically restricted their importation, many (probably most) of the rooftop solar systems installed in the Strip were acquired through Israel.
"[Rooftop systems] provided [Gazans] with some resilience, with some autonomy, and ultimately allowed them to get on with their lives when others around them were plunged into darkness," Todman affirms.
Hamas'' attacks of October 7 and the subsequent war have changed that. The CSIS report points out that rockets fired by Hamas at Israel on October 7 destroyed some of the electrical lines that supply Gaza from Israel. At the same time, Israel cut off the Strip''s external electricity supply and blocked diesel imports resulting in the shut-down of Gaza''s sole central power plant on October 11.
Inevitably, fighting has also destroyed solar systems on critical infrastructure. The satellite imagery that Todman and his colleagues reviewed shows evidence of damage from Israeli strikes to larger scale solar infrastructure, including that powering a German-funded Gaza wastewater plant. However, assertions that Israel has deliberately targeted rooftop solar are "very tricky" Todman cautions.
"I don''t know that Israel has deliberately targeted solar panels linked to Gaza''s infrastructure. They have been hit, possibly when aiming at Hamas fighters in between panels or during airstrikes. It''s hard to be sure but the result is that many of the largest solar systems have been destroyed."
The very fragility of solar panels and the above-ground nature of solar systems (which makes them relatively cheap, quick to install and connect to the grid) renders them vulnerable to all kinds of debris, shrapnel and detritus common to urban combat. So far, Todman says there is no evidence that non-kinetic means (electronic warfare, directed energy, spraying of obscurants) of disabling small arrays/panels have been used.
Stories about the lack of energy in Gaza and reports from NGOs on the situation there have echoed through the media, amplifying the meaning of the improvised solar power that Gazans have used to cope with the conflict. But the same systems have very probably aided continuance of the fight.
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