Shimon Peres, the President of Israel recently helped launch a new solar farm at Kibbutz Yavne. The farm uses concentrating solar power to generate electricity and hot water. President Peres said at the launching ceremony, "It is a natural way to fight terror because the oil-producing countries of Iran and Venezuela destroy our lives by terror." He also called solar power democratic because sunlight is available to everyone.
No government aid was required for the project. It was funded entirely by Israeli venture capitalists. The cost of the electricity generated is approximately 8 cents per kilowatt hour. This price is slightly less than the cost for electricity provided by the main power supplier in Israel, the Israeli Electric Corporation.
Zenith Solar provided the technology for the system. They have a patented CSP device which they say can use a great deal of the sun's energy: "Zenith Solar utilizes the heat generated at the solar cell receiver to provide usable hot water heating, improving overall solar power conversion efficiency to 75% ". Each of the mirrored solar collecting dishes at the site has 110 square feet of surface area.
A vineyard will be planted between the rows of solar cells. Kibbutz Yavne has 1,500 acres of land for growing field crops, fruit, poultry and dairy. It is the site of the largest chicken hatchery in Israel. About 1,100 people live there.