In September 2010, an NGO run and co-founded by CEU alumnus Elad Orian got awarded a membership in the Clinton Global Initiative. Elad is an environmental expert, physicist and political activist. He graduated from the CEU Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy in 2009 and since then has succeeded in launching the up-and-coming non-profit organization Comet-ME.*
Comet-ME is a joint project of Israeli and Palestinian communities committed to breaching the bounds of social, political and ethnic segregation in the region by collaborating on the sustainable development of the local environment, economic growth and quality of life.
The organization’s activity targets off-grid communities in the occupied Palestinian territories. It facilitates the cultivation of basic energy services and the building-up of the local capacity to install and maintain those systems by environmentally conscious means.
Within less than three months of entering in a CGI membership, the organization reported on the successful installation of 11 energy generation systems in the South Hebron Hills, providing about 100KW daily to 1000 people.
Comet-ME partners with the Olive Oil Campaign in the continuous building and installation of hybrid, wind and solar, stand-alone mini-grids, which systems provide approximately 2kWh per family, per day in the Masafer Yatta area. The organization has committed to providing such basic energy services to all off-grid Palestinian communities in the area by 2013.
*Comet-ME: Community, Energy and Technology in the Middle East
Related Links:
Comet-ME Official Website
Clinton Global Initiative Official Website
Comet-ME December 2010 Newsletter (reporting on Oct-Dec 2010 projects in Wadi Gkheish and environs)
