Israel's 300 Days of Sun No Help as Offshore Gas Eclipses Solar
- Pending regulations could rekindle interest in greener energy
- "We think they'll turn their focus to renewables again"
Yosef Abramowitz, the developer of the Ketura solar field.
Photographer: Uriel Sinai/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
After struggling to grow citrus trees on a stretch of parched desert, Israel’s Kibbutz Ketura instead devoted the land to harvesting the country’s most abundant resource: sunshine. Yet as the kibbutzniks seek to expand their solar installations, the government is proving almost as formidable an obstacle as the scorched soil ever was.
“Israel has the technology and plenty of sunshine, but the government is completely ignoring the renewables industry,” said Yosef Abramowitz, a solar energy advocate who helped found Arava Power Co., the developer of the Ketura field.