IN ISRAELI DESERT, WORLD’S HIGHEST SOLAR TOWER LOOKS TO FUTURE:

In the middle of southern Israel’s desert, engineers are hard at work building the world’s tallest solar tower, reflecting the country’s high hopes for renewable energy. Once completed in late 2017, the Ashalim Tower will rise to 787 feet. The construction, costing an estimated $570 million, is being financed by USA firm General Electric, France’s Alstom, and Israeli investment fund Noy. Israel’s government launched a tender for the project in 2013, committing to purchase electricity from it over 25 years as part of a shift towards renewable energy. The tower should provide two percent of Israel’s electricity needs, enough for a city of 110,000 households. The country of eight million people is seeking, with the construction of additional towers in the future, to make renewable energy account for 10% of its total consumption by 2020. Solar power offers a clean alternative to fuel- and carbon-fired electricity plants, which contribute to global warming with their heat-trapping CO2 emissions. "Israel could in theory meet all its electricity needs through solar energy by using only four percent of the Negev desert, said Eitan Parnass, head of the Green Energy Association of Israel. (Times of Israel)