Israel's Cleantech 2009 Emphasizes Water Projects and Renewable Energy

Israel’s 13th annual Cleantech exhibition on environmental technology and renewable energy projects is currently underway at the Israel Trade Fairs and Conventions Center in north Tel Aviv. You can read about innovative companies on display at the event last year, here.

This year, both water technologies and renewable energy innovations appear to be the featured categories of the two day exhibition, running through to today Tuesday June 30.

The section dealing with water technologies is one that has particular importance to Israel, as well as other countries in the region. Divided into several segments, water technologies covers instruments for analyzing, metering, monitoring, and testing of existing water resources.

Water sources, including streams and reservoirs, and underground aquifers, including the most innovative pumps and piping for retrieving water supplies and transporting it to purification facilities, and then eventually to water’s final use in residences and commercial/industrial concerns.

The latest water filtration and purification equipment will also be on display, as well as companies dealing with desalination, including the French based Veolia Environment (formerly known as Vivendi) who helped construct Israel’s largest reverse osmosis desalination facility in Ashkelon.

Another featured water resources project tracker and sponsor at the exhibition is Global Water Intelligence, a market leading analysis platform of the international water industry. GWI keeps track on water resource projects all over the world, including both desalination and recycling of waste water. More than 160 desalination projects alone are being monitored by GWI.

In addition, exhibits dealing with treatment of waste water, especially domestic “grey” waste water recycling, and purification of “black” or sewage water for use in both industry and agriculture.

Renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and small “hydro” generating units are on display, with solar photo-voltaic systems receiving particular attention. Some of Israel’s leading renewable energy companies have exhibits on display this year.

Another sector being featured is one dealing with the exploration and drilling for natural gas, in newly discovered gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean – especially the Tamar gas field south of Haifa.

Being developed by a firm called Noble Energy Inc, promising quantities of natural gas have already been found in the company’s Tamar # 1 well, which was drilled to a dept of more than 16,076 feet in the Levantine Basin. It is estimated that the Tamar gas field may contain more than 88 billion cubic meters of natural gas – enough to supply Israel’s energy needs for years to come.

The exhibition also has exhibits dealing with solid waste disposal and air pollution, both serious problems in Israel, causing it to lag behind many other countries in solving these environmental problems. The exhibition is a “must see” for everyone concerned about this country’s environmental future, as well as that of the rest of the world.

::Conference website