Off the Grid in the Middle East

My mother often says that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. A landmark project in the occupied territories of the West Bank is doing one better: turning on the lights.

The Israeli Comet project is using solar and wind generators to provide electricity to Palestinian Bedouins in Susiya, in the south Hebron hills. It’s a desperately poor area, where high voltage lines supply electricity to Jewish settlers, but not to thousands of nomadic Palestinians. Comet-ME believes that empowering off-the-grid communities will build social and economic capacity, and may be one small step towards plugging into peace.

Yossi Mossel is visiting the US to tell the story of Comet-ME and raise funds for the project. We’re catching up with him for our Next Green Thing series.

Comet-ME.org

The Independent: "Out of the Stone Age: Empowering a West Bank village"

Comet-ME is a finalist in the BBC World Challenge

(Photo courtesy Comet-ME)