ISRAEL POWERING UP SOLAR: CHINESE WATCHING

Though the Israelis and Palestinians have long been at each others' throats over, sadly, the only land in the region WITHOUT oil, it may turn out in the long run that their solar resource is more valuable. Who's at work developing it?

New Israel solar energy technology
August 22, 2007 (China Central Television)

WHO
Professor David Faiman, Director, Israel National Centre for Solar Energy

Professor Faiman's prototype solar concentrator.

WHAT
As reported by Chinese television, Israel is developing concentrating solar photovoltaic (CSP) energy, using mirrors to concentrate the intensity of sunlight 1000 times onto unique solar cells which then produce much more electricity.

WHEN
A prototype system exists. Production could be ready by the end of 2008.

WHERE
12 square kilometers in the Negev Desert would produce 1000 megawatts of electricity, 10% of Israeli regular consumption.

WHY
- The intensity of the sunlight concentrated by the mirrors is described as “strong enough to carbonize a person.”
- The solar cells the Israeli researchers use are described as “twice as efficient” as current solar panels: A 10 centimeter square receiver in mirror-intensified sunlight produces the same electricity as 10 meters of current solar panels in unconcentrated sunlight.
- Bottom line: electricity cost/watt matches conventional power plants but requires only sunlight for fuel.
- The Israeli scientists claim this achieves adequate efficiency to serve “any sunny” region, overcoming all objections to solar costs. Though CSP technology requires large surface space for the mirrors to produce large amounts of power, the reduced requirements for solar panels significantly reduces cost.

World solar resources. Note how rich the Middle East is in sun. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
Faiman: "The achievement is that we separate out the collection function of a photovoltaic cell to the light conversion to electricity function. When we collect the light, instead of using a huge area of solar cells, we use an equal area of cheap glass mirrors and they are curved in such a way as to concentrate the light onto a very small solar cell, the size of just one cell, and in this way you concentrate the light a thousand times and you can get a thousand times more power out of a small cell…"