First, a flash of light in the distance catches the eye. Then, looking like a sun-lit palm tree on the edge of an oasis in the shimmering heat, a bright-yellow, tulip-shaped concentrating solar power (CSP) tower takes shape against the backdrop of Israel’s southern Arava valley.
Standing at Kibbutz Samar, a community 30km north of Eilat best known as an exporter of organic dates, the 30-metre-tall CSP tower last month began flowing power into Israel’s national grid, the first solar-thermal plant to be granted a license to link up by the country’s ministry of national infrastructure.
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