practically every house and apartment in israel has a solar panel — obtaining oil is an issue here, so we used our natural resources (brains) and have been hooked up to the sun for years. we (as in my household) only use our electric water heater on rainy winter days when there is no sun, and as soon as the rainy season is over, we switch over completely to the solar panel. most appliances in israel are european which means that they heat their own water so that power is utilized on an “as needed” basis. no need to heat an entire household’s worth water tank for one load of laundry.

there are now new tax incentives to make hybrid cars more attractive to buyers, stores everywhere sell cfl’s, even the supermarkets have them… we’re working on it, and as in the case of our solar panels, we’ve been doing it for many many years.