JERUSALEM, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Although it is winter in the Negev desert in southern Israel, the weather is abnormally hot. The effects of climate change always weigh on the minds of entrepreneurs and innovators in the country.
From cyber-tech to agri-tech, Israel's wide-ranging hi-tech ecosystem is now tapping into the desert in view of developing desert-related technologies, or DeserTech that enable sustainable living in such environments.
The DeserTech community is a result of a joint venture between the Israel Innovation Institute, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ben Gurion University and the Merage Foundation.
DeserTech aims to cover areas that previously did not need such technologies but now do. Water scarcity, soil degradation, extreme temperatures are just some of the challenges facing the world.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, desertification has accelerated over the past decades, reducing agricultural productivity and biodiversity while affecting millions of people.
Agriculture in the Negev is not a rare sight. The vast desert is dotted with agricultural fields and tents. From cherry tomatoes to fish farms, many things are growing in Israel's desert.
"It's easy to connect this tremendous potential with the huge need," Nicole Hod Stroh, chief executive officer of the Merage Foundation, told Xinhua.
"(Companies) want to come to the region, and they want to understand how the desert can offer not only challenges, but also opportunities for business development to expand their market to the global desert belt," said Sivan Cohen Shachari, DeserTech manager.
One of the companies making headway under the DeserTech umbrella is SoLight.
The company has created a system that collects sunlight throughout the day and channels it into indoor spaces, creating a natural supply of light.
"Israel is a sunny country and we noticed the extreme paradox that we are using artificial lighting throughout the day which is unhealthy and wasting energy, so we wanted to create a solution to remedy this problem," said Ofer Becker, chief technology officer and co-founder of SoLight.
The system has already been installed at a boutique hotel in the desert, in addition to other institutions across Israel. It can also work in less sunny countries and has the ability to control heat intake. In areas like where the hotel is located, it can dissipate the heat, bringing in only visible light. In cold European countries, the heat from the sun can also be brought in.
The smaller model of the sunlight collector is aimed at the off-grid market.
"We think that this is doable in many regions which do not enjoy constant electrical infrastructure," Becker said. Enditem
