Siemens Invests $15 Million in Negev-Area Solar Power Company
In what amounts to the largest foreign investment in Israeli solar energy development, Siemens is investing $15 million in the Arava Power Company.

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, Arutz Sheva
September 8, 2009

Siemens and APC intend to build solar power plants
with a total output of 40 megawatts.
 

In what amounts to the largest foreign investment in Israeli solar power development, Germany's giant multi-industry corporation Siemens is investing $15 million in the Arava Power Company (APC), Israel's leading solar power developer.

The agreement, which grants Siemens a 40 percent stake in APC, was signed by representatives of the two companies at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava late last month. APC was founded in 2006 by several members of the kibbutz.

Aside from the equity investment, Siemens will contribute its relevant technological know-how and manage the construction of the planned solar plant projects.

Siemens and APC intend to build solar power plants with a total output of 40 megawatts. The first project will be the construction of a plant with an output of up to 4.9 MW at Kibbutz Ketura, with additional plants planned for the Negev and Arava deserts, in the region between the southern Dead Sea and the Red Sea.

"Siemens will be supporting local solar projects with our full range of technologies, know-how and finance," a company spokesman said.

"This investment is another consequential step in further strengthening our green and sustainable technologies," said Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG. "Thanks to its intensive sunshine and steadily growing demand for energy, Israel is an ideal location for further developing our solar business."

Jonathan Cohen, CEO of Arava Power, with 20 employees, said that Siemens, with over 430,000 employees worldwide, "is the ideal partner for Arava Power and our property partners for winning over others interested in producing solar energy in Israel. Our strategic partnership will make it possible for our country to reach its ambitious goals of clean air and renewable energy even faster."

Israel has set a goal of meeting ten percent of its total energy needs with renewable energy by 2020. APC seeks to supply the whole of that demand with solar farms on kibbutzim and in other open land areas, especially in the south of the country. APC, the first company to be granted a commercial license to produce electricity from solar energy, has already reached agreements with a number of kibbutzim.