October 29, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Arava Power Company has hired an outside company to raise $10 million to fund the development of solar fields outside of Israel.

Arava  announced Sunday that it hired DS Apex M&A Ltd. to help the company expand globally.

Also on Sunday, Arava President Yosef Abramowitz was named “Person of the Year” by the 2012 Israel Energy and Business Convention.

“If there is no profitability, horizon and clarity within six month from today, the majority of international investors in the Israeli solar industry will leave along with billions of dollars and thousands of green jobs,” Abramowitz said in accepting his award.

He also decried the fact that no approved solar projects have gone to the Bedouin. “We believed in the Government’s promise that democracy means equal opportunity for all.  But for now, in our democracy, 100 percent of the licensed and approved projects have been given to Jewish landowners. Only a separate quota for the Bedouin could bring a small amount of justice,” he said.

Arava has developed the only commercial scale grid-connected solar field in Israel, the Ketura Sun solar field, and is expected to break ground on eight additional fields shortly.
Abramowitz is looking at countires in the developing world, particularly Africa, to expand the reach of solar power with the yet-unnamed new company. 

“Eighty-five percent of Africa has no power,” said Abramowitz. “And most of the 15 percent who have electricity are burning dirty and expensive diesel. We have a moral and strategic interest to end the burning of oil for electricity production worldwide. Our investors will derive great value by our providing clean and inexpensive power to energy-hungry markets, while also improving the lives of tens of millions of people.”
 

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