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Egypt and MENA Set to Exploit Solar Power?

Green Prophet
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Egypt and MENA Set to Exploit Solar Power?

egypt-sun pyramids solar energy

Egypt and sunshine. The two go hand in hand. Ask any tourist, or come to that, any solar panel maker pulling in the profits. Both are grateful for the sunshine. Even in December, Egypt enjoys an average 6.4 hours of sunshine a day. In June, the average jumps to an incredible 11.9 hours a day.

Plenty of solar energy to exploit then. If we could somehow harness even just a couple of hours worth of sunshine falling across the Earth then that would provide the planet with enough energy for a full year. An incredible thought. And, given the rising cost of oil and gas these days, the race for cheap solar energy is well and truly on.

Indeed, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report published early this year concluded that recent falling costs of solar power, excellent fit to demand patterns, and rising regional gas prices, meant PV was now economically viable or close to it in most Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, overturning conventional wisdom.

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Controversial Renovation of Istanbul’s Taksim Square Has Begun

Julia Harte
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Controversial Renovation of Istanbul’s Taksim Square Has Begun

taksim sqaure istanbul, Turkey, public protests

Despite all the criticism the plan received from urban planners, lawyers, activists, academics, and concerned citizens, Istanbul has begun remodeling its central square, a focal point for transportation and protests.

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Jordan’s Nuclear Ambitions are Doomed, Claims Industry Expert

Tafline Laylin
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Jordan’s Nuclear Ambitions are Doomed, Claims Industry Expert

Jordan, nuclear power, AREVA, AtomStory Export, radiation symbol, water scarcityThere has been a lot of fuss about Jordan’s nuclear ambitions and activists in the kingdom have been vocal about their opposition, but all this hullabaloo might be for nought according to an industry expert.

Speaking with The Jordan Times, Steve Thomas from Greenwich University said that high construction costs, complicated regulatory requirements and the expensive water infrastructure required to maintain nuclear reactors within the context of an already burdened economy are more than likely to doom the plans before they lift off.

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Spain Ditches Morocco’s Desertec Solar Project Meeting

Joseph Mayton
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Spain Ditches Morocco’s Desertec Solar Project Meeting

solar energy, Spain, Desertec, Morocco, clean tech, alternative energyMorocco’s ambitious Desertec solar energy project received a setback after Spain failed to show for the official signing of the agreement that aims to transform North Africa’s energy market. The first Desertec project between the EU and Morocco is now under threat as Spain had been an instrumental partner in the project.

Officials from France, Italy, Luxemborg and Malta were in Berlin last week with Moroccan representatives to ink the deal that would begin the process of developing a 100MW PV power plant, 100MW wind power plant and 150MW CSP power plant to export electricity to Europe.

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Message to Qatar From Arab Youth – ‘Take The Lead On Climate Change!’

Arwa Aburawa
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Message to Qatar From Arab Youth – ‘Take The Lead On Climate Change!’

arab youth, climate change, day of action, cop18, Qatar, Doha, activismThe newly formed Arab Youth Climate Movement held a successful ‘Day Of Action’ which called on the Arab world to take the lead at the upcoming climate negotiations

On Saturday, members of the Arab Youth Climate Movement united in a day of action aimed at encouraging the Arab world to take the lead on climate change. Ahead of the upcoming global climate change conference which will be hosted in Qatar later this month, the campaigners also called on Qatar to lead the region into a more sustainable future.

Activities and events were held in more than 13 Arab countries from Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain to Mauritania, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. These included theatre and dance performances, lectures, talks, protests, marches as well as activities with young children highlighting the issues surrounding climate change.

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An Organic Farm Springs Up in Sinai

Arwa Aburawa
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An Organic Farm Springs Up in Sinai

best friends, safari trek, bedouin, eco farm, organic farm, wadi marawan, egypt, sinaiThe Wadi Marawan Organic Farm is a new project by the ‘Best Friends Safari’ that guides tour groups in Egypt

Located at the terraces of Panorama Mountain Camp, the Wadi Marawan Organic Farm is a veritable paradise in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula. Over 4,000 sq. metres of land is planted with vegetables and fruit trees that organisers hope visitors will soon be able to sample at the Panorama Restaurant in Dahab, Sinai.

The Best Friends Safari group, which leads desert treks and Bedouin evenings and has over twenty years of tour guiding experience, provides a sustainable and environmental mountain camp for guests and volunteers.

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Masdar Aims to Stop Cooling From Gobbling up Gulf Energy

Tafline Laylin
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Masdar Aims to Stop Cooling From Gobbling up Gulf Energy

energy, gulf, demand side energy management, cooling, Abu Dhabi, MIST, Masdar, Masdar City, sustainable development, clean techIf you’ve been to Dubai or neighboring emirate Abu Dhabi in the middle of summer, you’ve not only experienced a kind of heat that drains the life force from your pores, but you will also recall the bone-freezing experience of walking into any public building during these same months.

Counteracting soaring outdoor temperatures with overactive air-conditioners is costly for Abu Dhabi and – in today’s climatic and energy context – no longer tenable. Which is why the Masdar Institute of Technology (MIST) is so fired up to find ways to slash energy demand for cooling.

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Morocco is Building a Mega “Green City” Named After King Mohammed VI

Tafline Laylin
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Morocco is Building a Mega “Green City” Named After King Mohammed VI

Green City, Mohammed VI Green City, Morocco's King, mining, environmental degradation, education, clean tech, green developmentMorocco’s King Mohammed VI recently visited the site of Mohammed VI Green City, a future “eco” development being built just outside of Benguerir – one of the largest phosphate producing areas in the country. Located just 70 kilometers north of Marrakech, the new city will be constructed in tandem with the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, which is designed to attract high quality candidates from around the world to produce a thriving new sociocultural “engine” for the city.

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Proposed Tel Aviv SkyTran Project is “Up in the Air”

Maurice Picow
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Proposed Tel Aviv SkyTran Project is “Up in the Air”

Situated above the treeline, SkyTran commuter pods will not interfere with normal traffic: Photo  illustration by NASA/SkyTran

Developing economical and green urban transit systems have not been easy. This includes such planned transit innovations as the commuter pod transit system being planned for Abu Dhabi’s carbon neutral Masdar City and a new commuter light rail line recently completed in Jerusalem and still planned for Tel Aviv.

Now a new type of ecologically clean urban transit system may soon become reality in Israel, with the completion of the SkyTran aerial pod transit system that is being developed by a company headed by Jerry Sanders, a NASA space agency technician and now Chairman and CEO of SkyTran Inc.

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Eggplant Lovers Get New Sabich Restaurant in Tel Aviv

Leigh Cuen
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Eggplant Lovers Get New Sabich Restaurant in Tel Aviv

sabich, food, health, vegetarian food, Ovid Daniel, eggplant, Tel AvivIraq meets Israel in Tel Aviv at this new sabich restaurant.

Givatayim’s legendary eggplant-maker Oved Daniel, whom they call the “professor of sabich [Iraqi eggplant dish] science,” is opening up a new restaurant in Tel Aviv. Previously a gifted soccer player, today Daniel is a local food celebrity whose specialty sabich is one of Israel’s most beloved foods. Sabich has its roots in Israel’s Iraqi community. It is a traditional Baghdadi breakfast dish, consisting of fried eggplant, Arabic salad, parsley, fresh onion and a baked or boiled egg and emerged as a national sensation in the 1960’s.

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Practical Herbs by Henriette Kress: BOOK REVIEW

Miriam Kresh
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Practical Herbs by Henriette Kress: BOOK REVIEW

image-henriette-kress-practical-herbs

If you’re interested in healing with herbs, this is the book to start from.

Henriette Kress is a well-known Finnish herbalist who maintains Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, the Internet’s largest, and oldest, herbal website. She has published three  books on herbology in Finnish; Practical Herbs is her first in English. It packs an impressive amount of herbal information into a relatively slim volume.

To get a glimpse of using herbs at home here on Green Prophet, read our posts on delicious, medicinal chickweed and the abcs of medicine in ordinary spices.

Starting from basic instructions like identification of herbs and ethical harvesting, Practical Herbs continues with clear, easily understood instructions on all methods of processing herbs and making herbal preparations.  Kress takes the reader through herbal teas (like our brew of wild oats), oils, salves, vinegars, syrups, and tinctures (which are simple extracts of herbs’ properties into alcohol). Throughout the text there are  suggestions as to which preparations are best suited to specific ailments.

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Mediterranean’s Worst Eco-Debtor Not in the Middle East (Yet)

Faisal O'Keefe
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1
Mediterranean’s Worst Eco-Debtor Not in the Middle East (Yet)

mediterranean region map

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that the Mediterranean’s biggest eco-debtor is Italy, meaning that nation uses more resources than it generates.  Does that mean Middle Eastern nations bordering the sea are environmentally savvy consumers? Mama Mia, no! The medium is the message, said Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan. And the message is skewed by the words. Calling our region the “Middle East” chops off connectivity to the other club we belong to: the Mediterranean Basin region.

According to data released by the Global Footprint Network, based on a 47-year-long study, Italy is the Mediterranean Basin country with the highest environmental debt. The Middle East doesn’t appear until fourth and fifth place rankings:  Turkey (10%) and Egypt (9%).

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Qatar Airways Hopes Natural Gas Will Battle Climate Change, Lower Prices

Joseph Mayton
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Qatar Airways Hopes Natural Gas Will Battle Climate Change, Lower Prices

Qatar Airways, green transportation, natural gas, energy, climate changeQatar Airways’ natural gas push could help combat climate change, reduce costs for passengers. Photo: Qatar Airways

With massive natural gas reserves, it is a wonder that Qatar has not pushed natural gas for the aviation industry. Granted, no country, or airline, has made the move to gas, but Qatar and its flagship Qatar Airways hopes that by rolling out planes run on natural gas, it can help keep costs down for the customer and help combat climate change – a major reason many have reduced their flying in recent years.

The belief across the region, and the airline industry, is that through natural gas liquification the airline industry can begin to reduce its carbon footprint and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which has made flying one of the worst climate change enemies.

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Siemens Bows Out of Solar, And Looks to the Wind

Green Prophet
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Calling all windy Middle East and Mediterranean countries. German giant Siemens is looking for your offshore wind. 

The German industrial giant Siemens, a 165 year-old company, shocked us a bit with the news that it would be selling off its half billion dollar investment in Solel, an Israeli solar energy company that it bought in 2009. At the same time the company bought the Italian company Archimede Solar Energy. Siemens we reported last week, has now bowed out of its commitment to the pan-African and possibly Middle Eastern solar grid project Desertec that would connect the energy of solar farms from sunny countries to Europe. Siemens has cited slow growth, high costs and low profit margins in solar, and now it’s reorganizing its renewable energy business, Bloomberg reports.

“Due to the changed framework conditions, lower growth and strong price pressure in the solar markets,” Siemens said in a statement, “the company’s expectations for its solar energy activities have not been met.”

What’s in store? Hydro power and the wind, with a focus on offshore wind farms in particular. Except for Turkey, hydro is not really an option in the dry Middle East North African regions.

So who’s got the biggest wind potential in the Middle East you might ask – enough to catch the eyes and investment prospects of Siemens? It looks like Iran (with operating wind farms), Egypt, Morocco, and Oman may harbour the greatest investment opportunities in this regard.

Shale Gas and The Ugly Truth: It is NOT Green(er)

Arwa Aburawa
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1
Shale Gas and The Ugly Truth: It is NOT Green(er)

Shale gas takes us down a dangerous path – Tunisians are battling shale gas proponents who say it is less carbon-intensive and ‘green’

With Tunisians protesting Shell’s shale gas plans and Jordanians set to finalise a deal to build the region’s first oil shale plant by the end of the year, it seems that the region is buying into shale. In Tunisia, shale gas is being marketed as low carbon and more environmentally-friendly but the latest research by scientist shows that it is far from that. Examining emissions in the US after the country began burning less coal due to shale gas production, researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, found that overall emissions had actually gone up. Why? Well, because millions of tonnes of unused coal are being exported to the UK, Europe and Asia.

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Most of the world’s marine protected areas are polluted by sewage

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Research from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Queensland, published in Ocean & Coastal Management, found that nearly three out of four marine protected areas (MPAs) worldwide are exposed to sewage pollution.

Adamah in Los Angeles wants to make Jewish climate action local, practical and spiritual

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At a time when climate anxiety can feel abstract and overwhelming, and being Jewish something people may need to hide in big cities, Adamah Los Angeles is trying something different: turning Jewish values into local climate action with dirt-under-the-fingernails practicality.

How to safely remove astroturf and plastics from your backyard

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For families with kids, pets, or anyone trying to build a cleaner outdoor space, removing old astroturf is one of the simplest ways to reduce unnecessary exposure to plastics and heat. Some past studies suggest that if kids have played on these surfaces you need to wash their hands. 

Is artificial turf bad for your health?

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Artificial turf, the green plastic stuff that is supposed to look like grass, was sold to many home-owners as a clever compromise: a green-looking surface that makes you feel homey, but which needs no mowing. It survives heavy use, and in dry places like Middle East deserts, and in California or Texas, it can replace thirsty lawns. But it is toxic.

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