Israeli Public Wants Urgent Action Against Climate Change
In advance of Copenhagen, a new survey shows that Israelis seek action against climate change.
The Israeli public is a few steps ahead of its government in wanting to see strong action on climate change, according to a new poll conducted by Ben Gurion University.
The survey was done ahead of the international Climate Summit which will convene in Copenhagen on December 7th, where a new international framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is hoped to be created. Read more
How Israel’s Military Secrets Translate To Clean Technology
Since its founding in 1917, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (the JTA), has been a leading international journalistic source for communicating news and projects dealing with the world-wide Jewish community. Many JTA news articles have dealt with various developments in Israel and the Middle East, including those which are beneficial to the cause of peace.
A recent JTA article on clean technology, published on October 1 by Dina Kraft (also a New York Times reporter), takes a good look at a number of projects by Israeli clean tech industries and Israel’s military branches in the realm of renewable and alternative energy.
“Beating swords into green plowshares in Israel,” the article talks about solar energy energy companies such as Bright Source Energy Inc, which is involved in building solar energy plants in California’s Mojave Desert and other locations; and Rotem, which utilizes technologies developed in Israel’s aeronautical defense industry.
Rotem (read more about their work with the solar power company Aora here) is working on a number of commercial renewable energy projects involving solar and wind power, hydrogen fuel power, and biofuels.
Some of Rotem’s many projects involving the environment and renewable energy are a hydrogen storage research center, a center for geology and hydrology applied research, a center for environmental sciences, and a thermal solar energy applications technology center.
The Bright Source solar energy plants in California, and a wind turbine “farm” located near Kibbutz Ein Zivan on the Golan Heights (pictured above and below), are utilizing technology that formerly was used in developing and manufacturing rotor blades for military helicopters.
Israel’s Aircraft Industries (IAI) is now involved in developing technology to produce “cleaner and greener” commercial aircraft that will be able taxi on the runways of commercial airports without using their jet engines, according to Kraft’s article.
This will not only be more environmentally friendly, but will result in a big fuel savings as well.
In the automotive sector, an Israeli company, Better Place, is working on more efficient batteries for electric cars, and has now entered into joint ventures with automobile companies Renault and Nissan. The technology used in developing these batteries is derived from the aerospace industry.
Mr. Meni Maor, vice president for development at Rotem commented that these kinds of projects have resulted from a need to both preserve the environment as well as due to the increasing cost of oil.
“We definitely leverage a lot of know-how in a variety of disciplines — including materials, chemistry, thermal dynamics — accumulated from our experience with military and homeland security technology for developing renewable energy technologies,” said Meni Maor to the JTA.
Former IDF military officers, including retired General Yom-Tov Samina, are involved in many of these projects, putting knowledge learned during their military careers into raising funds for these development projects as well as being involved directly in the projects themselves. An example of their direct involvement is former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplansky, who is now holding the position of CEO of Better Place’s Israel operations.
The former military generals are very enthusiastic about their new careers and are happy to be making their contribution to preserving the environment. “Our training involving the importance of learning how to follow through on a mission has contributed to being successful in these new projects,” a former intelligence unit head was quoted as saying.
This article was written by Maurice Picow, who blogs at Green Prophet www.greenprophet.com. Follow Green Prophet on Twitter: @greenprophet. These pictures of Israeli wind turbines were taken by Karin on a recent trip to the Golan Heights.
::JTA clean technology article
4 Trade Secrets For Clean Tech Entrepreneurs In Israel
A plucky little country, is how the late Princess Diana once described Israel to Shimon Peres. About the size of New Jersey, Israel has a disproportionate number of clean tech companies and investment in clean technology compared to its size. And now businessman and investor David Anthony from 21Ventures in the US is about to reveal his trade secrets and insider information about clean tech investing in Israel. If you are itching to become a clean tech entrepreneur in Israel, this is must-read information. If you’d like to know more about what makes the industry tick, read on.
Unlike Silicon Valley and the high-tech industry, the clean tech market today has no center of excellence, Anthony tells Green Prophet. In the last 50 years of venture capital investing there has been a saying: Never fly over your company –– meaning one shouldn’t invest in a company that isn’t within a 60 mile radius of the office. But without a center for clean technology, explains Anthony, a VC fund now has to dig into new territory to find the golden investment egg. Investors need to cross borders and turn over new stones.
To help Green Prophet readers better understand what American investors are looking for, we’ve asked Anthony for some tips. Compared to any other country in the Middle East, Israel is a clear and defined leader in this market, so we’ve focused on Israel. Most of Anthony’s tips could work in other non-US locales as well.
Read more
Tel Aviv’s Sh*t Mountain Gets A Green Light for Environmental Remediation
Hiria, Israel’s hard-to-miss garbage mountain located off the road that connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, has been trying to fix its trashy image and go green. It has set up a recycling park to be used as an educational tool for professionals, created clean energy out of the methane resulting from garbage decomposition, made biking and hiking trails, and hired eco-friendly designer Brigitte Cartier to make a beautiful visitor’s center out of trash. It also houses workshops with creative ideas for reusing items that might otherwise help the garbage moutain grow.
This Sunday, July 19th it will go a little greener when it launches a new clean energy lighting system. Hiria’s getting the green light.
At an event that will be attended by Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection, Gilad Arden, members of Ariel Sharon’s family, representatives of environmental organizations, leaders of local municipalities, and the park’s architects, Hiria’s new lighting system will be launched for the very first time. The energy used for the lighting is generated from recycled waste.
People interested in attending the festive event can contact yamit@parksharon.co.il to see if there are any spots left!
Read more about Hiria Mountain::
Hiria: A Garbage Dump Turned Recycling Dream
Ayala Water & Ecology to Remediate Israel’s Sh*t Mountain with Aquatic Plants
Brigitte Cartier Creates Baladi Recyled Design
(This post was written by Karen Chernick, the Arts and Design editor for Green Prophet www.greenprophet.com)
Putting the Z5 to the Power and Emissions Test
Filed under: Environment, General, Technology
Since writing my first article on the Israeli-invented Z5, a small add on to your car’s air filter to save gas, there has been no shortage of skepticism and critics. I’d blogged about it on TreeHugger and the article was pulled due to all the negative feedback by readers who hadn’t tried it.
The public knows they are no fools: any mention of a “device” that sounds like a Cyclone Fuel Saver, FuelMAX or Water4Gas elicits a knee jerk response. How could a small cylinder added to your car’s air filter save gas, decrease pollution or give your car more power?
People want to believe that they can save up to 30% gas, and spare the environment from emissions, but does it work?
To test the company’s claims that the $208 mail-order Z5 can help the environmental cause, Green Prophet took Gal Luft from Set America Free to a garage in Israel to emissions test and power test cars before and after the Z5 installation.
Here’s what we found: Read more
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