New York City, N.Y. 10150-6297, November 23, 2005.

An Israeli team from the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and the MST Ltd. of Rishon Lezion, has proposed, within the framework of an IEA Task 8 PV Specialists Group study, the application of the Raviv model to answer energy needs in various Middle Eastern countries.

Although each country has different population growth rates and electricity needs, common features emerged from that study pointing at the potential use of Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV):

(a) In the familiar meaning of sustainability, that solar energy promises compared to the dwindling reserves of fossil fuels.

(b) Within the Raviv Financing Model that includes a given credit line and a scheme for paying back the interest within the expected lifetime of the plants; revenues from the plants being sufficient to continue funding new plants.

(c) Revenues from the steadily increasing number of VLS-PV plants are sufficient to build two new plants per year - one to keep pace with the expected rise in electricity needs and the other to replace a 30-year old plant that has reached the end of its assumed useful life,

We have thus here a self-breeding self-sustaining scheme leading to energy independence based on solar energy, once a national policy was established that calls for entering the proposed scheme. Obviously, above can be extended to an electricity based transportation system.

“The Triple Sustainability of CPV Within The Framework of the Raviv Model” paper was presented at the Barcelona, Spain, June 6-10, 2005, 20-th European Photovoltaic Solar Conference, and won first prize at the meeting for the ideas it incorporated.

From our point of view this paper shows clearly how national policy, called for by responsibility a government ows to its people, can create the needed base for also decreasing GHG emissions.

Further information on the MST renewable energy conbcept can be found on: www.RSMT.co.il
and its initiator - Mr. Dov Raviv - can be contacted at: DovRaviv@RSMT.co.il