Ashalim is a small settlement of some 600 people in the Negev Desert. It is also a major development site for solar power in Israel. And so it hosts one photovoltaic, and two thermal plants with total capacity of 272 megawatts. One of the thermal plants is a solar power tower with the appearance of being a lighthouse in the sky.
Why a Solar Lighthouse in the Sky?
Well first of all, as you glance at the image at the top of this page the similarity is unmistakable. And secondly, lighthouses guide mariners on stormy seas to safe havens where they can rest. It came to us that solar energy too, is calling us to a better, safer space. But that we seem to have difficulty, as a species to engage its promise.
Patrick Kingsley, writing for New York Times describes a “journey through the Negev crags and craters” to a point where an 800-foot concrete tower emits a piercing light up top. “It’s like a sun,” a shopkeeper in a nearby village told him, according to New York Times. “A second sun.”
Second Thoughts by the Surrounding Villagers
The 121 megawatt solar lighthouse in the sky, commissioned in 2019, concentrates energy captured by a flat array of 50,600 computer-controlled heliostat mirrors. This heats a liquid solution to generate steam, to turn a turbine to generate electricity in daytime. However, Patrick Kingsley suggests the local people are not all ecstatic about this trailblazing achievement.
The tiny settlement in the Negev Desert benefited from the project in terms of jobs and infrastructure. However, some inhabitants who settled there to enjoy a flawless desert view are less convinced. “I’m pro clean energy,” one resident told Patrick Kingsley. “But they chose to do it on the road by the village. Maybe they could have taken it 50 miles inside the desert instead.”
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