More and More Visible Changes are on the Horizon

Implications: Emerging economies demanding more and more natural resources such as oil, metal on one hand, and global climate change on the other hand demand diverisfied approach to the generation of energy, more advanced utilization of its natural sources. Several countries not only changed its standards of design and construction in regard to the utilization of alternative sources of energy, but proceed with utilization of solar energy on national scale by constructing solar power plants.

Analysis: Rapidly growing economies of Asia, Middle East, Russia, demand more and more fossil fuels. Our changing lifestyles with more and more highlight on convinience and comfort heavily depend on high usage of energy.  The envoronmenatl concern of climate change and growing public awareness of the carbon footprint reduction start influencing the changes in energy policy of both developed and developing worlds.


It is important to note that there are very few countries where itilzation of solar energy is mandatory: Israel, Spain, Australia, Germany.

Today we have several ways of generating electric energy from the sun: solar thermal, solar storage and solar photovoltaic. Various technologies have better applacations for different regions. Spain has chosen the thermal storage type of utlization, where a specially formulated fluid is preheated first, then it transfers its heat to water which becomes steam and steam rotates the turbine generating electricity. Australian and Israeli installations will use another method of utilization based on concentration of solar energy and deriving elecrtical direct current from it. German solar installations have a little bit of both ( it is remarkable, that about 40% of EU installations are German ones).

In the United States recent changes in the policy towards renewable resources in California  could be a good testing ground for the rest of the country.

What we need is a strong energy policy that would include changes in design requirements of residential dwelling and commercial buildings for utilization of the alternative sources of energy on one hand, and a strategic development on the solar power plants on the other hand. Let us not to forget that practically every residential dwelling can benefit from having a solar water heater as a part of hot water heating home system. THe percentage of utilization can vary georgaphically, but still, every family could use it.

On the larger and global scale of solar energy utilization construction of solar power plant in Negev has a strategic goal to supply 5% of the total electric energy with the energy derived from sun in Israel. Recent purchase order of solar assemblies for Australia's 350 MW solar power plant, construction of three solar thermal plants Andasol I, Andasol II, and Iberdola Renbables in Southern Spain are good examples of such policies.