The Limits of Growing Biofuel Crops on a Desert Island

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Quick, name the scarcest natural resources in Israel. I’m sure that “land” and “water” would feature prominently in most people’s answers. Israel is, to all intents and purposes, a “desert island’, with finite – very finite – natural resources. Not your romantic desert island, and not an island geographically, but rather politically. Not a desert […]

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Solar Power Plants in Italy and the US, Built by China and Israel?

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Suntech, the world’s biggest maker of polysilicon solar-power modules from China looks to pair up with Israel Electric Corp on solar-power plants. Image via Suntech Catalysed by the World Expo in Shanghai perhaps, the previous solar deal between Heliofocus and Sanhua, and/or linked to the $35 million deal between Suntech and Israel’s SBY Israel and […]

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MENA Cleantech Sees 'Existential Need' for CSP in Middle East and North Africa

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At the MENASOL conference in Cairo last week, MENA Cleantech’s Samer Zureikat cited this 11th century scientist, Ibn al-Haytham, as one of the forefathers of solar technology. (Image via orientpix.com) I was sitting behind Samer Zureikat, the CEO of MENA Cleantech, at the MENASOL solar energy conference in Cairo last week when one of the […]

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Wind Turbines and 10 Israel-related Cleantech Headlines, Week of May 2, 2010

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Israel’s wind plan, SolarEdge’s Italian partnership, drip irrigation and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech this past week. During the week of May 2, 2010, SolarEdge announced that it’s expanding its operations to Italy in partnership with Albatech. Discussion of the impact Israeli drip technology can have in ending Africa’s hunger cycles continued and Israel […]

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Tigo and AGA Deal Means Solar Energy for Residents of High-rises

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Tigo offers a tech and IT solution to squeeze more energy from the sun, which may be going vertical in high-rises through US partner. Solar energy has traditionally been a land or “area-intensive” form of alternative energy. Solar energy generation required massive, land-hungry solar power farms in order to compete with conventional equivalents, or large […]

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Cautious Optimism at MENASOL Solar Energy Conference in Cairo

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Some 250 people participated in the MENASOL conference in Cairo this week. Courtesy image. The 2nd annual MENASOL solar energy conference on the development and finance of utility-scale solar projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) opened Tuesday in Cairo. Approximately 250 people from around the world gathered for the two-day conference. This […]

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Meet BrightSource's Arnold Goldman

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Builder of Jerusalem and Israeli solar energy company Brightsource. Meet Arnold Goldman. Image via NYTimes. Serious philosophers rarely make good businessmen. But solar energy innovator Arnold J. Goldman is no navel-gazer. Goldman heads Jerusalem-based BrightSource Industries and its California-based parent, BrightSource Energy, which is contracted to deliver more than 2,600 megawatts of solar electricity in […]

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Masdar and US to Collaborate on Carbon Capture and Clean Energy

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United Arab Emirate’s renewable energy company Masdar signed MoU with the US Department of Energy, Canada too. Aligning America with United Arab Emirates? the The US Department of Energy (DoE) and Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multifaceted renewable energy initiative which includes an eco-city with the same name, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week to promote […]

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