While I was in Tel Aviv this June, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published a column titled "Israel Discovers Oil." He was actually referring to intellectual energy with that sloppy metaphor, but last week a major government announcement touched off a major Israeli energy bull market.
Israeli politics is like a revolving door. In a parliamentary system where politicians rise and fall on their own parties' lists, and no-confidence votes can pull everyone to the polls more than once a year, government ministries change hands like hot potatoes.
Labor Party fixture Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer was the defense minister just five years ago, and almost rose to become his country's premier. Instead, today, he's the National Infrastructures Minister. That accords him more power to guide Israel's economy than you might think, since grid development and energy procurement is the lifeline that keeps Israel running despite energy embargoes from many of the world's major Arab oil and gas suppliers.
I spent most of my time in June in the southern desert known as the Negev, where the world's most highly concentrated solar radiation levels could turn sparsely inhabited areas (most of the region has fewer residents per 100 square kilometers than just a square block in Tel Aviv) into a renewable energy gold mine. With 14 hours of sun a day during the summer, and 360 sunny days a year, no wonder Ben-Eliezer is positive about the Negev.
"In the near future, we will propose a government decision to declare the Negev a national priority area for creating alternative energy," the Iraqi-born Ben-Eliezer said, adding that Jerusalem is being considered for major alternative energy investment as well.
Fouad's endorsement of renewable energy plans didn't come from out of the blue. It came from out of the black, with worldwide oil supplies squeezed to the point where even friendly suppliers won't have much left to send to Israel.
"In less than 40 years, the oil will disappear and in 60 years the natural gas sources will also disappear. Therefore, renewable energy is at the top of our agenda. By 2020, fuel oil and diesel won't be used in Israel," the minister added, punctuating his Peak Oil prophecy there in the land of Jeremiah.
Peace Dividend for Israeli Energy
At the urging of several local business contacts, this summer I took part in the first-ever summit on Sustainable Energy as a Catalyst for Regional Development in the Red Sea town of Eilat. Just next to the Jordanian town of Aqaba (you may know that place from Lawrence of Arabia's legendary raid), Eilat adjoins Jordan to the east and Egypt to the west. Down the Red Sea coastline just a tad are the entire Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, and the sea-lanes to Asia.
Politics aside, Israel is in a prime position to help the entire Middle East with its innovation economy and region-leading patent registry. As Abu Dhabi turns to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for help with its Masdar New Energy Project, where it is installing a massive solar photovoltaic array on the emirate's outskirts, the sheiks could fly just a few hours to the Technion institute in Haifa for Israeli expertise.
For now, that seems far off, but the Annapolis peace summit last week brought in much more Arab involvement than the Oslo Accords, and energy economics should take center stage in forward-thinking regional peace plans and normalization of trade relations.
It's possible, and I've seen the so-called peace dividends first-hand in Jordan and Israel. I met personally with the founders of the Arava Power Company, a joint Israeli-Jordanian solar power venture in the sun-soaked Arava Valley that straddles the border between the two countries.
Just a decade and a half ago, Jordan and Israel were still technically at war, but today there is more and more cross-border collaboration.
Its own lack of native fossil fuel and a flood of Iraqi refugees into the capital Amman and other cities are straining Jordan's resources. Dubai, the famously luxury-oriented Arab emirate, spends 50% of its energy use on air conditioning, and despite its size the tiny monarchy is one of the world's top 50 polluters on a national basis.
These are worldwide issues that must be addressed with a regional perspective.
But first things first. Ben-Eliezer's announcement of resource direction toward renewables is great, and so are his targets of 5% of all electricity from renewables by 2016 and 10% by 2020, but what about the goal set in 1998 that 2% of generation in 2007 should come from renewable sources?
The real statistic today is just .2%, far behind the ambition and potential of innovative Israel.
Left-wing MK (member of Knesset, the Israeli parliament) Ophir Pines-Paz knows that Israel needs to adopt a top-down approach instead of just assuming the private sector will innovate Israel's way to energy independence.
Pines-Paz wants a law to make all new public buildings "green buildings," while reducing property taxes on buildings with energy-reducing and greenhouse gas-eating rooftop gardens.
On a consumer level, Israel leads the world in solar energy use, with 67.5 square meters of solar collectors per 100 inhabitants, mostly used for heating water, according to Israeli solar device maker Chromagen. Yet China leads the world in production of solar water heaters. The disconnect between need and production should be solved on a local level in Israel, with the government's resources brought to bear on energy projects as well as on national defense.
This just in: The Saudi government on Wednesday announced that it has rejected a United Nations proposal for a regional environmental training center because it would involve Israel. "Arabs do not need training from Israel," the Saudi prince in charge of environmental affairs said.
Sigh.
Regards,
Sam Hopkins
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