Ketura Sun – the solar field in the Arava

© Goethe-Institut

Here, in the middle of the Arava Desert (south-west of the Ketura Kibbutz and 50 kilometres north of Eilat), Israeli entrepreneurial spirit is partnered with German expertise. This photovoltaic system – the first commercial one in the country – was built by Siemens in partnership with the Arava Power Company. The solar power station has been operating since summer 2011 – and was designed as a pilot project. Further systems are set to follow, in keeping with the vision of state founder David Ben Gurion, who enthused about the “unlimited solar energy that will continue to flow towards us almost indefinitely” back in the 1950s. This sentence is displayed prominently in the Arava Power Company offices as a company philosophy.