
Solar energy in Israel: It's a knockout - mblakele
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14082027
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dkasper
Just goes to show, it's only a matter of time before enough breakthroughs
occur that solar power overtakes fossil fuels.

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pmorici
How much of this is scientific breakthroughs and how much is the climate?
Israel is hot and sunny for most of the year, the same is not true of the
upper Midwest US for example.

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quizbiz
Israel for the most part (then again the Negav Desert is 1/3 of Israel) is not
exceptionally hot and sunny. But Israel does have an exceptional motivation to
be energy independent. It is a county in the middle east with no oil
surrounded by political enemies with oil. When there is a will and that will
is backed by cost, there is a way.

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ido
None of Israel's direct neighbors is even close to being a significant oil
producer - those are mostly in the Arabian peninsula.

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quizbiz
I used 'neighbors' very loosely, speaking more about Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc.
But you are right.

    
    
       Oil Produced: (Wolfram Alpha)
       Israel       |     5 966   bbl/day  (barrels per day)
       Syria        |   381 600   bbl/day  (barrels per day)
       Egypt        |   664 000   bbl/day  (barrels per day)
       Saudi Arabia | 9 200 000   bbl/day  (barrels per day) 
    

Israel for the political reasons can not afford for its economy to rely on
exported oil from Arab states. I'm not even sure if Iran, Saudi Arabia, or the
UAE would be willing to export oil to Israel. It's expensive to import it from
farther so Israel spends 73.43B/year on oil imports[1]. The opportunity cost
of not developing alternatives has been high so solar panels are already a
part of the infrastructure (ie: to heat the water in almost every single
home).

[1] <http://www16.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=oil+import+israel>

