Love and solar power in the Negev

August 18, 2011 - 9:05 AM by David

This week, Israel celebrated Tu Be’Av – which in the days of the Temple, marked the beginning of the grape harvest – but which today has morphed into ‘chag ha’ahava’ or the ‘festival of love.’ It’s a prime time for weddings, and legend has it that it’s not a bad day for matchmaking.

I’m not exactly sure what the connection to our own Valentines Day is with solar energy, but Israeli solar energy group, The Arava Power Company, which is has built the first commercial solar panel field in Israel, apparently sees some parallels there.

They decided to use the holiday and the current social justice protests as a backdrop to lobby the government to allow more solar power fields to be built. Filmed at their headquarters at the Ketura Sun solar field at Kibbutz Ketura, 50 km. north of Eilat. the video uses some loving couples to highlight that electricity bills would be lower if government decided to allow the building of additional solar facilities more quickly.

I think I’m beginning to get the connection now – after all, when two people get together in a loving way, they can sure make some heat.

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