Friends of the Earth-Middle East (FoEME) led a project which installed PV-solar energy systems in communities throughout the region for use in a variety of development purposes. Several of these communities were without any kind of permanent and/or reliable source of electricity.
With the support of the Greenstar Foundation, one West Bank village identified in the study has already been fitted with photo-voltaic solar energy panels for domestic use in homes and schools.
Why Solar?
- Renewable energy is a clean method of energy production, that will reduce emissions of polluted air and greenhouse gases. Photovoltaic (PV) cells which convert the sun's energy into useable electricity, do not produce noise, acid rain, smog, carbon dioxide, water pollutants, or nuclear waste during power generation.
- Promoting the use of renewable energy will reduce the region's dependence on imported and non-renewable energy resources.
- Alternative and renewable energy sources will provide economic benefits such as averting the threat of future fuel price increases as well as a reliability of supply.
- The necessities for solar energy - sun and the wind - are readily available in the region. Extremely high levels of radiation and favorable winds have been left largely untapped for energy production. Passive heating of solar energy to heat water for domestic purposes is the only wide-scale use of solar energy in the region. Currently it provides about 2% of total energy use in Jordan and 3.5% in Israel. The usefulness of passive solar energy, however, is limited and PV systems are necessary to truly take advantage of the sun's potential.