If you know anything about Israel it is likely you are aware the landscape is primarily desert. The country has made great strides to move water from it normally flows to where the people are to allow for food and water distribution. Being a desert, it lacks the water for hydropower, the winds may blow but they do not blow enough for wind power, being a desert, it lacks vast tracks of land to build a traditional land-intensive photovoltaic power plants so what can it do? The solution is simple.

In an article by Ari Rabinovitch of Reuters, the government of Israel is passing a low to require all new non-residential buildings to have rooftop solar panels. Think about California and solar panels on new housing. Israel has a history of using sun-powered water heaters and they dominate rooftop landscape in cities, without them the country would need to produce 8% more electricity.

Ron Eifer, who heads the Energy Ministry’s sustainable energy division, says you cannot cover the entire Negev in solar panels because of electricity will be lost over long distances from generation to usage in the cities. However, a simple solution is to use rooftops and Mr. Eifer believes eventually 60% of the rooftops will be dual use – roofing and to generate power.

Israel’s government incentives includes permit exemptions, tax benefits and small producers are paid a premium for electricity.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all governments use regulations to influence behavior and soon the behavior becomes the normal. In theory and sometimes in practice, sometimes the normal means new industries and employment opportunities open up. For example, someone has to make the solar panels or import them, someone has to put them up and someone has to connect the panels to the grid to ensure the electricity is used. All of those actions start with time delays, but as time goes on, they generate employment and opportunities to the economy and in the end it is the correct thing to do. Some of the actions will translate in larger companies generating revenue to make profits along the way and it is up to you to do your homework to see which company is best to invest in.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.