Tesla CEO Elon Musk Visits Israel, Cites Negev Energy Potential
Written by TPS on March 20, 2018
Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Tuesday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who said they had discussed solar power.
Speaking at the 8th Negev Conference, Netanyahu said: “This morning, before coming here, I met with Elon Musk, a man of vision, perhaps the greatest technological visionary of our time. He is a genius.”
Netanyahu said Musk praised Israel as a ‘technological power’ and said the Negev could provide the country with all its energy needs. “The Negev is the energy future of the State of Israel. You could spread solar systems here that would give you more energy than you need or could need. Clean energy,” Musk said according to the prime minister.
Musk revealed his visit to Israel yesterday when he posted on Instagram that he was “learning how to pour flaming absinthe over a tower of glasses in a Jerusalem speakeasy.”
Earlier Tuesday Musk posted a photo of himself at Masada, tweeting “Paid respects to Masada earlier today. Live free or die.”
A report in the Globes financial website suggested that Musk was in Israel to discuss cooperation between local computerized vision company Cortica and his Tesla electric car venture.
Cortica declined to comment on the report, Globes said.
Tesla also has a solar roof division launched last year, which produces solar tiles for residential buildings. Musk has claimed that the entire United States could be powered by solar energy. “If you wanted to power the entire US with solar panels,” he said, “it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah; you only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States.”
