Massive solar tower plant built in the Negev Desert

Описание: (5 Jan 2017) LEAD IN:
In sunny Israel, solar energy supplies just a small percentage of the nation's power needs, leaving it trailing far behind countries with cloudier and colder climates.
Now it is trying to turn that around with a large-scale solar project that could mark a giant leap for the country's fledgling solar industry.

STORY-LINE:
Traditionally run on a fossil fuel-based economy, Israel has struggled to translate its sunny rays into cleaner power.
But with the goal of generating 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and the addition of the solar mega-project, a future powered by renewable energy may lie ahead.
The project, deep in the Negev desert, is made up of three plots, with a fourth planned for the future, each with a different solar technology.
Together, the fields will be Israel's largest renewable energy project when completed by 2018. They are set to generate some 310 megawatts of power, enough for about 130,000 households, or roughly 5 percent of Israel's population, according to Israel's Electricity Authority.
"It's the most significant single building block in Israel's commitment to CO2 reduction and renewable energy," says Eran Gartner, chief executive of Megalim Solar Power Ltd., which is building one part of the project.
The centerpiece of his project is a solar tower, which will be the world's largest once it is complete at 250 meters (820 feet) tall and will serve as a symbol of Israel's lofty renewable energy goals.
Encircling the tower are 50,000 mirrors, known as heliostats, rising from the dusty earth in a shimmering blanket of glass with a 1-square-kilometer (4 square miles) reflective surface stretched out over more than 3 square kilometers (1.2 square miles) of land.
Gartner explains that the height of the tower is in direct proportion to the amount of land the state granted the project. To maximize the use of the land, the panels were squeezed together. The closer the panels, the taller the tower needs to be.
Using solar-thermal technology, the panels beam sunlight onto a boiler on the top of the tower which heats water, creating steam that will then spin a turbine and generate electricity.
There are a number of solar-thermal fields around the world, with the largest solar tower currently near Ivanpah, California, in the Mojave desert.
That project, which is the largest solar-thermal field at 14 square kilometers (5.5 square miles), has about 170,000 heliostats with 140-meter-tall (460-foot) towers.
Another solar-thermal plot at Ashalim will be able to store energy even when the sun goes down. A third plot will use photovoltaic solar technology to produce energy.
Yaron Szilas, CEO of Shikun & Binui Renewable Energy, the lead developer of the second solar-thermal plot, says combining the three technologies in one project was a wise move by the government because each has its own advantage.
He says that in terms of the amount of electricity that will be produced, the project measures up to other large-scale solar fields in California and Chile.
Israel has developed some of the world's most advanced solar energy equipment and enjoys a nearly endless supply of sunshine, but when it comes to deploying large-scale solar technology at home, the country lags behind.
Israeli solar companies, frustrated by government bureaucracy, have often taken their expertise abroad.
Countries with cooler climates like Germany have outpaced Israel in renewable energy development. Germany for example gets nearly 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources. For Israel, that number currently stands at 2.5 percent.


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