China helps build Israel's biggest solar power station

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-09 10:35

KATSRIN, Israel -- Israel's biggest solar power station was inaugurated on Monday in this Israeli northern town, setting up a landmark in the Chinese-Israeli cooperation in the field of clean energy.

The 50 KW rooftop project, estimated to generate 85,000 KWH a year, was co-built by China's Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., a world-leading solar energy company, mainly specialized in photovoltaic (PV) power generation technologies, and Solarit Doral, a major local player in Israel's renewable energy market.

Dubbed the biggest and most efficient of its kind so far in Israel, the solar power station is integrated into Israel's national grid, as the Jewish state has been carrying out incentive measures to prod the development of alternative energy, including purchasing cleanly generated electricity at a relatively higher price.

Highlighting the urgent need to find alternative resources to power the world and protect the environment, Zhao Jun, Chinese ambassador to Israel, said at the ceremony that China has been investing heavily in alternative energy, and shares great cooperation potentials with Israel in relevant respects.

"It is very appropriate and natural for Chinese and Israeli companies to work together on this," he told Israeli National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and local officials.

Ben-Eliezer, whose ministry has unveiled an ambitious plan to produce 20 percent of its electricity through renewable resources by 2020, stressed that Israeli government pays high attention to the development of clean energy, and noted that Israel and China should deepen cooperation in commonly-interested fields, particularly water resources and renewable energy.

Meanwhile, representatives from Suntech, a listed company in New York Stock Exchange, said that the company is planning with its Israeli counterpart to construct a larger solar power plant in southern Israel.