Solar Eye (2022)

Looming over a remote village in the Negev, the Ashalim solar plant is, for some, a marvel of green technology. For others, it’s a boondoggle and an eyesore.
You shouldn’t look at it directly, but that’s easier said than done. Drive through the crags and craters of the Negev Desert, and it’s difficult to miss: a piercing light, mounted on an austere gray tower, more than 800 feet high. It’s visible even from space. This is the great solar tower of Ashalim, one of the tallest structures in Israel and, until recently, the tallest solar power plant in the world.
“It’s like a sun,” said Eli Baliti, a shopkeeper in the nearest village. “A second sun.” To backers, the tower is an impressive feat of engineering, testament to Israeli solar innovation. To critics, it is an expensive folly, dependent on technology that had become outmoded by the time it was operational.
(By Patrick Kingsley for The New York Times).