The southern region of Mount Hebron is one of the poorest in Palestine. Its inhabitants have no access to water nor electricity. In 2009 Israeli physicists Elad Orian and Noam Dotan created Comet-ME, an NGO that provides basic energy and clean-water services to off-grid communities of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

.

Comet-ME (Community, Energy and Technology in the Middle East) oversees the set up of mini-grid hybrid plants which operate by wind and solar energy and can provide each family an average of 2.5 kWh per day. This is enough to have access to elementary amenities such as light, refrigeration, laundry machines and butter churns. Since 2013, the association also implements water pump systems that enable people to obtain drinking water more easily. For these remote communities, access to renewable energy enables them to regain self-sufficiency in their daily lives.

In 2012, Comet-ME launched the first Israeli-Palestinian technology centre in the south Hebron hills. The centre is completely powered by renewable energy and functions as a platform for research, innovation and training. Of its 12 employees, half of them are Palestinians from the southern West Bank and one person was directly recruited from a local community benefiting from the project.

Approximately 2,500 people currently benefit from the project developed by Comet-ME. The NGO works in partnership with communities to build and maintain the systems, using local materials wherever possible. The involvement of the community is one of the key elements of their success, not only are the beneficiaries able to maintain their own systems, but also knowledge opens up new prospects for local development.