Solar water heaters, & foreign policy

Flat-plate collectors for solar water heating were around in Florida and Southern California in the 1920s.  However Levi Yissar built the first prototype Israeli solar water heater in 1953 when he started NerYah Company, Israel’s, and Europe’s first commercial manufacturer of solar water heaters.

During the  1960’s there was some resurgence of interest in solar heating in North America, and  technical innovations had improved performance, life expectancy and ease of use of these systems.  Installation of solar water heating has become the norm in countries with an abundance of solar radiation, like Cyprus, Israel^, and Greece, as well as in Japan and Austria, where there is a bit less.

In 2005, Spain became the first country in the world to require the installation of photovoltaic electricity generation in new buildings, and the second (after Israel) to require the installation of solar water heating systems in 2006. Australia adopted the mandatory regulation for solar thermal for new construction in 2006 as well.

Solar water heating systems have become popular in China, It is said that at least 30 million Chinese households now have one, and that the popularity is due to the efficient evacuated tubes which allow the heaters to function even under gray skies and at temperatures well below freezing.

Israel’s use of solar water heaters is estimated to save the country two million barrels of oil a year, and the country has the highest per capita use in the world. During the 1950’s fuel shortage in the new Israeli state engineer Levi Yissar proposed that instead of building more electrical generators, homes should switch to solar water heaters. He built a prototype in his home, and in 1953 he started NerYah Company,

Israel’s first commercial manufacturer of solar water heaters. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated their water with the sun and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold.  Hsowever, cheap oil from Iran and from oil fields captured in the Six Day War made Israeli electricity cheaper and the demand for solar heaters dropped.  With the 1970s oil crisrs, Harry Zvi Tabor, the father of Israel’s solar industry, developed the prototype solar water heater that is now used in about 30%-35% of Israeli homes.

In 1980, the Israeli Knesset passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes (except high towers with insufficient roof area). As a result, Israel is now one of the world leaders in the use of solar energy per capita (3% of the primary national energy consumption).

As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems, and Israel’s National Infrastructure Ministry estimates solar panels for water-heating already satisfy 4% of the country’s total energy demand. Israel and Cyprus are the per capita leaders in the use of solar water heating systems with over 30%-40% of homes using them.

Solar water heaters take off in China: video demo

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Tagged as: around the world, foreign policy, solar water heater and foreign policy, water heaters