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A Solar Dream from Israeli Kibbutzim
[BusinessWeek] Neal Sandler - With both sun and land in abundance, a band of new-age socialists envisages turning the desert into a vast solar power plant. The first 5-megawatt field at Kibbutz Ketura is expected to be up and running by early next year. "Within five years we'll have 200 megawatts of photovoltaic fields on more than a dozen kibbutzim in southern Israel," predicts Yosef Abramowitz, president and founder of Arava Power Co. Israel's Defense Ministry is becoming a proponent of alternative energy partly because the recent military operations in Gaza underscored the vulnerability of Israel's large power plants, two of which were in range of Hamas rockets. Solar isn't the only alternative energy being considered. Ketura began growing algae for use as a food additive and potential fuel source. The kibbutz has signed an agreement with Boston-based GreenFuel Technologies to develop algae strains for use in producing biofuel.