Jewish Israelis and Jewish Americans Look to US-Israel Cooperation To Break Oil Dependence

If any of you were able to make Sunday’s renewable energy conference in Jerusalem or in San Francisco,  you may have gained a better insight of  the joint renewable energy projects that Israel and the US are involved in.

The one-day conference was held in the American Jewish Committee’s Jerusalem headquarters in Beit Moses, and included speakers such as Dr. Isaac Berzin, director of  the Herzliya-based Inter Disciplinary Center’s Institute for Renewable Energy. For background reading, Green Prophet has a great story about Berzin’s algae-for-biofuel solution here.

Mr. Hezi Kugler, chairman of the Israel Clean Energy Alliance mentioned in a previous Green Prophet article dealing with the 2009 Eilat Renewable Energy Conference, was also featured in regards to his contributions in the field of renewable energy.

The conference was timed to occur jointly with the Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge conference occurring in San Francisco, California, in which a number of Israeli and American clean tech projects are being displayed.

The keynote address, given by Dr. Berzin entitled “Assuming leadership in the post oil world” dealt with countries whose renewable energy would be advanced enough to make them key players in a world where oil will no longer be considered as a key energy source.

He also showed participants his video, which made a showing on Green Prophet. You can see his video here: We call it pollution, they call it gourmet food. Berzin has a $100 million algae biofuel reactor project now in place in Arizona. He is akin to being a rock star in the clean technology sector.

Stressing the meeting as a Jewish event, a heated panel discussion followed, dealing with manners in which Israel and the US will help preserve each other’s national security through cooperation in renewable energy projects, particularly solar energy, now involving companies like BrightSource.

Israel and the US entered into a joint renewable energy agreement at the 2009 Eilat Renewable Energy Conference with the purpose of creating a renewable energy storage initiative to reduce dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. As more renewable energy projects are created, less reliance will be needed on fossil fuels; which may eventually begin to reverse some of the problems caused by global warming.