The blessing embodied in fossil energy allows us to live a comfortable, safe and easy life and to pay less for expenses such as transportation, housing, food and communications. But during the last 50 years the accompanying curses associated with producing energy from oil, coal and natural gas in the form of pollution of air, soil and water sources, wars and social dependency, and increasing the layer of greenhouse gas that drives climate change – have surfaced.
In the 21st century it is clear that we cannot sustain the human population with the currently accepted standard of living by relying on fossil energy. The depletion of these resources due to overuse, and the environmental pollution caused by burning them cannot continue forever. The climate is changing due to the emission of fossil carbon into the atmosphere. We must gradually eliminate our total dependence on fossil energy - and fast.
Renewable energy does not release carbon into the atmosphere, does not pollute air and water resources, and is not limited in terms of quantity. Utilizing energy which comes from the light and heat of the sun, the wind and the movement of waves, the flow of rivers, plant growth on land and sea, and in the heat of the earth, is extremely essential.
Technologies and resources for exploiting and using renewable energy are now available and evolving rapidly, yet we still require a broad change in values to shift from dependence on fossil fuel to clean and sustainable energy. We urgently need to promote a general reduction of energy use, while integrating renewable sources for that energy's production.
In sunny Israel almost 98% of energy is still produced from imported fossil fuels.
Small steps for increasing energy efficiency are being made, mainly in the commercial sector, but the possibilities and the economic logic in this area have yet to become common knowledge. Instead, the government supports foreign companies that are desperately trying to suck the marrow out of the ground and produce oil shale, oil and gas through environmentally dangerous methods.
Our projects aim to demonstrate the potential for producing and consuming energy from renewable and local sources as an alternative to polluting.