REHOVOT (Aug. 18)
African scientists attending the International Conference on the Role of Science in the New States, currently under way here at the Weizmann Institute, were advised by one of Israel’s top scientists today to build solar energy plants for the generation of electric power. He elicited deep interest with the details of Israeli experience in that new source for power.
The speaker was Dr. Henry Zwi Tabor, director of the National Physical Laboratory of Israel. He told the scientists and statesmen from 29 underdeveloped Asian and African countries at the parley that, because of the abundance of sunshine in their areas, the use of solar energy has immediate practical significance for their areas.
Dr. Tabor described a solar energy power station, built on a principle developed here, which can produce electric power at a low cost. The cost of the installation, he said, would be between $1,000,000 and $1,200,000. All that is needed for the process, Dr. Tabor said, is ample sunshine, a flat area and cheap salts. The scientist reported that Israel’s experimental solar energy station, at S’dom, is “very successful,” and can produce 6,000 kilowatts.
Prior to Dr. Tabor’s address, the parley was told by European experts on atomic energy that the use of nuclear sources of energy for generation of power is a process that is “not yet ripe” for their needs. Dr. J.A. Jukes, economic adviser to the British Atomic Energy Agency, advised the scientists from underdeveloped lands to conduct research on the use of atomic energy for generation of power, but to make use of other sources of energy in the meanwhile.