A general program to help the development of the changing relationships between the world’s advanced countries and the less developed regions, was outlined here today by Israel’s Minister of Education, Abba Eban. As one of the three senior vice-presidents of the first United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for the benefit of less developed areas, he delivered today the closing address of the world parley that has been under way here for 16 days. His address was loudly applauded and praised by many of the delegates from 103 countries.
Daniel Shim shoni, director-general of Israel’s National Council for Research and Development, told the Conference that Israel is the only country in the world which has developed a successful solar heating device for water heating which is not only widely used in Israel but also is being exported. He told the 1,600 delegates that a National Physical Laboratory had been set up in Israel to conduct solar energy research with a staff of 25 professors and technical personnel.
“Part of this work is being done in Israel’s southern desert at the Negev Institute for Arid Zone Research where the sun beats down day after day throughout the year and part is conducted at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem,” he said.
Describing the techniques Israel had developed to capture solar energy, he said that the work so far had been concentrated on the design of water heaters for domestic use, small solar power generators, solar air conditioning and the ultimate creation of a power station working entirely on energy supplied from solar radiation ponds.
ISRAEL REVEALS INVENTION OF SOLAR ENERGY POWER GENERATOR
He reported that “several thousand” of the solar water heating units were being sold and installed each year in Israel and that the units were being exported for sale in Mediterranean and African countries, “The owner of such a solar device has an abundant supply of hot water for his home throughout the day and–because the water tanks are well insulated–even at night,” he told the Conference.
He also revealed another invention, a five horsepower solar energy generator, said to be the first of its kind which “can supply electricity at a cost of five United States cents per kilowatt hour in a sunny climate. It yields enough power to run a variety of small pumps and mills and to supply light. It is visualized as being particularly useful in remote villages far from a central electric network.”
He said that of all the experiments Israel was conducting, “the most fascinating” is the solar pond because of “the vast possibilities of the system. ” He said these possibilities included the development of a large central power station in a major city, although, he added, “many challenging problems have yet to be solved before this dream becomes a reality.” Other projects being studied at the new laboratory were listed as solar ovens, solar refrigerators, solar distillation plants and other devices. He explained that data gathered to date indicated that such devices were expensive to build “but cheaper to run” than to build.
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