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Gulf Nations Look to Tesla’s Electric Roadster to Speed Around Middle East

Tyson Herberger
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5
Gulf Nations Look to Tesla’s Electric Roadster to Speed Around Middle East

California-based electric car company Tesla Motors is reportedly (according to the National) in talks which could lead to their vehicles being sold in the United Arab Emirates. Ventures in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar are looking at everything from bringing the vehicles in as rental cars to starting championship electric car racing.

News of the Gulf interest in the Tesla Roadster comes as Arab states are increasingly aware of the damage caused by air pollution. As Green Prophet has reported, the Emirates has done much work to shift to renewable energies, including licensing the all electric Reva.

Tesla’s Roadster is a sports car that goes from 0 to 60 mph in just under 4 seconds, has a range of around 250 miles, and takes a full charge in just three hours. The car runs on a Lotus Elise chassis and has been in series production since March 2008. In the US car has a base price of $109,000, and the 250 models allocated to the European market are priced at €99,000 each.


European sales and marketing director Simon Rochefort says talks are underway that could allow Middle Eastern buyers to get the cars in their home region within the next few years. He is in talk with the Gold Green Abu Dhabi and Gold Green Dubai ventures to allow them to import the vehicles to the UAE.

The Dubai project is looking to offer Teslas as options to come with thousand flats being sold on an energy independent island being built in the Persian Gulf. In addition they are looking to establish a small fleet of rental Tesla Roadsters, and possibly using a future sedan model to assemble a fleet of taxis.

Meanwhile two separate groups, one in Dubai and the other in Qatar, are talking with Tesla as they vie to create the world’s first electric sports car championships. The Tesla is being credited with having made electric cars sexy to even non-environmentalists, with Motor Trend having written that the Roadster would be “profoundly humbling to just about any rumbling Ferrari or Porsche that makes the mistake of pulling up next to a silent, 105-mpg Tesla Roadster at a stoplight.”

Rochefort says while the cars aren’t yet sold in the Middle East, he has heard of a few individuals who have purchased them in the US and imported them on their own.

Africa Up For Sale, Is The Middle East Buying?

Karin Kloosterman
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15
Africa Up For Sale, Is The Middle East Buying?

jatropha plants africa land grab photo

As African nations sell and lease its land, and birthright, to the world’s super-powers, and arguably “dangerous” countries like Saudi Arabia who support Islamic fundamentalism, we are seeing a brand new kind of neo-colonial land-grab, and it scares me.

I’d reported on Galten’s Jatropha seeds for biofuel here, and also on the Israeli conglomerate Ormat, Evogene and Leviev in Namibia planting castor seeds for biofuel, and came out thinking, naively perhaps, that land development for biofuels in Africa was a beautiful thing: Israel doesn’t have much arable land, and the projects create jobs for Africans as well.

Israel is not the only Western country buying into Africa:

  • Britain‘s Sun Biofuels plans to grow about 5,500 hectares of jatropha in Tanzania. The company also grows jatropha in Ethiopia and has similar projects in Mozambique.
  • Sweden‘s Sekab Group, one of Europe’s leading ethanol producers, plans to produce 100 million litres of ethanol a year in Tanzania by 2012 at a cost of $200 – $300 million.
  • British-based energy firm CAMS Group said in September it planned to produce 240 million litres of ethanol a year from sweet sorghum in Tanzania at a cost of up to $600 million.
  • British biofuel company, D1-BP Fuel Crops is also actively planting Jatropha in Swaziland and Zambia, and also has plantings in Madagascar.
  • In November 2008, South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics secured a 99-year lease on 1.3m hectares of land, an area roughly half the size of Belgium, from the government of Madagascar. (This equals about half of Madagascar’s arable land!)
  • Flora EcoPower of Germany, through a local subsidiary, of 8,000 hectares in Oromia province in Ethiopia for the cultivation of castor seeds.

Now I am not a huge follower of crazy conspiracy theories, but something has me a little paranoid about new and aggressive land buying and leasing in Africa, especially when I hear countries like Saudi Arabia (15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis), are buying up land in Sudan for agricultural development. Gulf nations are cash-heavy, but water-poor and are looking to secure food and fuel resources on Africa’s land for the coming decades.

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Ekoloko Gets Kids To Save A World

Karin Kloosterman
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0
Ekoloko Gets Kids To Save A World

When was the last time you saved the world? Or motivated your kid or kid nephew to think about positive action for the environment’s sake?

Now, there’s a challenge. Ekoloko, a new virtual world merges two great ideas –– saving the environment and gaming –– with one thing enterprising young Israelis are very good at: creating high tech startups.

Ekoloko not only gives kids a chance to chat and play games, they can also help save the world from destroying itself. And more good news, the game can be adapted to multiple languages, meaning that it could be available in Middle Eastern country languages, like Arabic.

“All of the content is around the environment and social awareness,” says Guy Spira, CEO of Ekoloko. “We feel passionate about the mission. Kids can get involved with the adventures, have a total fun experience and at the same time absorb values and knowledge.”

Visit Ekoloko’s home page, and you will see that this virtual world is also one of the most gorgeously colored, animated graphic worlds out there. It never gets dark in Ekoloko.

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The UAE's Zayed Future Energy Prize Awarded to Bangladesh Solar Power Developer

Maurice Picow
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3
The UAE's Zayed Future Energy Prize Awarded to Bangladesh Solar Power Developer

zayed-gareem prize zayed photoA Bangladesh developer in the alternative energy field won the coveted Zayed Future Energy Prize at a recent competition held in the United Arab Emirates State of Abu Dhabi.

Dipal Barua’s non-profit company Grameen Shakti was founded in 1996 to provide alternative energy solutions to one of the world’s poorest nations, where most of the inhabitants get by on less than $2 a day.

Mr. Barua wanted to find an economical solution to provide affordable electricity to Bangladeshis, who up to now have mostly been without the normal conveniences of electric light and power that developed countries take for granted. The US$ 1.5 million award is going to be used by Mr. Barua to provide for more than 100,000 “green jobs” in his country, hiring people such as rural women from impoverished backgrounds.

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Eco Rabbi: Parshat Bo – The Power of Symbols and Action

Jack Reichert
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0
Eco Rabbi: Parshat Bo – The Power of Symbols and Action

pascal-lamb

Each week Orthodox Jews read one segment of the Five Books of Moses so that they can complete the entire Five Books within the course of a year. In last week’s Eco-Rabbi post we discussed Moses’ fight for his people’s freedom. This week continues with discussing the power of symbols.

Moses finally persuaded Pharaoh to let the Jewish people leave Egypt and their state as slaves there.  Moses tells Pharaoh that the final plague will be coming. That on the coming night at midnight God will go through the houses and kill every first born.

Moses tells the people that God commands that they feast that evening on a lamb and place the lambs blood on the door frame of their houses. God explains to Moses that the Jewish people should put the blood on the door frame is as a sign for them.

If you think about it, why would God, the all-knowing, need a sign on the door-frames to tell Him where the Jews are living?

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Give "Loli" Organic Sweets to Your Sweet This Valentine's Day

Karen Chernick
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0

loli organic sweets israelWhether or not you’re a fan of the overly commercialized holiday of love, Valentine’s Day, we think everyone would agree that when giving your special someone a loving gift you want it to be something that doesn’t cause potential harm to them.  Candy and flowers are the traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, so why not show your loved one that you really care with handmade organic candy and a potted flower plant?

The flowers are pretty easy to find, but what about the candy?  Enter Loli Natural and Organic Sweets.

Started by two fresh mothers named Liat, Loli grew out of their maternal need to provide a natural alternative to the very unnatural candy options that are already available and which are beloved by most kids.  Kids are going to want candy no matter what, so the candy that they eat might as well be natural, made with organic fruit, sugar and chocolate, and locally handmade.

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Abu Dhabi to Build the Gulf's Largest Solar Powered Hot Water Project

Tyson Herberger
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4
Abu Dhabi to Build the Gulf's Largest Solar Powered Hot Water Project

abu dhabi solar power plant photoJordan’s Millenium Energy Industries (MEI) has announced a project to provide 1.3 million liters a day of hot water for a new development in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi’s Modern Residential City is to house 25,000 people in 48 buildings, all of which will receive their hot water from the planned project.

The project adds to numerous efforts in the Emirates to green their life. Last week Abu Dhabi announced that 7% of their total power needs will come from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Surveys in the Gulf state show most real estate investors weigh heavily the environmental impact of the buildings they are financing, and plans are underfoot for Dubai to host the Middle East’s largest solar panel plant. Simultaneously, UAE is one of the world’s largest exporters of oil, and is home to heavily critiqued environmental excesses as indoor ski-hills and a refrigerated beach.

MEI Chair Ennis Rimawi says “with the right regional engineering expertise, advanced solar heating technology is currently commercially viable due to its efficiency and reliability.”

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Jordan Launches EDAMA Intiative on Energy Independence, Water Conservation

Rachel Bergstein
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1
Jordan Launches EDAMA Intiative on Energy Independence, Water Conservation

Edama jordan water Logo

Fresh on the heels of Israel, Egypt, and the UAE, who have all recently made commitments for a renewable energy future, Jordan recently launched EDAMA,  an initiative to help Jordan reduce energy demand, water usage, and protect the environment.

EDAMA Chairperson Karim Kawar indicates that Jordan is using its energy and water resources in an economically and environmentally unsustainable manner.  Jordan imports as much as 96 percent of its energy, he says, which equaled 20% of the country’s GDP and 24 percent of its total imports in 2007. 

Much of this energy comes from dirty-burning oil, so Jordan produces  13.4 million tons of greenhouse gases just from its energy sector.

Kawar also indicates that Jordan is consuming water from its aquifers at twice the renewable rate.

The EDAMA initiative intends to respond to these challenges by developing a comprehensive strategy “that streamlines efforts towards effective energy sector performance, increases private sector participation and investment and reduces the environmental impact of energy and water use.”

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Designing from Nature at Jerusalem's Green Design Seminar

James Murray-White
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2
Designing from Nature at Jerusalem's Green Design Seminar

jerusalem design conference photo

Green Design – From Theory to Practice (see preview post here), a major international architectural seminar took place this week here in Jerusalem, bringing together leading experts from the worlds of architecture, design, and integrated studies.

Despite the recent war in the south, all but one of the international practitioners came, and by doing so, in a single stroke they reinvigorated Israel’s green thinking community, overcoming as one speaker noted, “our sense of collective depression.”

With early starts, through packed daytime lectures and workshops, to the last session finishing late every night, the conference, located in the big central venue at Binyanei HaUmma (or ICC), this Green Design Seminar has been a success in every way possible.

Bio-Climactic Skyscrapers

Speaking exclusively to Green Prophet, conference chairman and internationally renowned architect Ken Yeang said: “Today we are exploring the theoretical work done in this field of designing for a sustainable future, and using the range of technical solutions. I’m delighted to be back in Jerusalem, and proud to have helped to bring such an outstanding group together.”

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Elite coffee uses leftover beans to power factor

Michael Green
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9
Elite coffee uses leftover beans to power factor

elite-coffee-tsfat-green-prophet

The Israeli town of Tsfat (or Safed) is typically associated with the colour blue, owing to the tint that many of its buildings are painted with. But modern Tsfat, famous for being a centre of Jewish mysticism, its graves of tsadikim and art galleries, could just as easily be associated with brown. Since 1956, Israel’s major coffee and chocolate manufacturer, Elite, built a factory there, making the smell of coffee, not to mention smoke from the plant and traffic which have become part of many residents’ daily lives.

According to a recent report in Ha’aretz, the Elite plant is now undergoing a “green revolution”. Last week, a large furnace was installed to burn leftover coffee beans to power the plant instead of oil, a move which the company says will reduce the consumption of the fossil fuel by 50%. Typically, vehicles also burn gas to truck the spent beans from the factory, passing lorries carrying oil on their way in.

“This creates a direct connection between being ‘green’ and being efficient,” Pini Kamari, vice president of Strauss. “Motivation for the change came from our desire to cut costs, reducing energy costs and transportation costs for both the shale and the waste. At the same time, emissions will be much lower, both from the smokestacks and from the trucks. We will create less waste and need to bury less garbage. Noise will also be reduced.”

:: Ha’aretz, Wake up and smell the green revolution.

Photo: miscpix.

Coffee grounds into energy

Karen Chernick
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2
Coffee grounds into energy

Ada Hanina cafe Jaffa

You know that great smell that tickles your nose when you walk into a coffee shop?  The wonderful aromatic smell of roasting beans?  Well, if you are a resident of Safed, Israel – where the Elite coffee factory is located – that sweet smell is currently mingled with the harsh odor of the shale oil used to power the factory.  Thus destroying the great scent.

How is the coffee factory going green?

But not for much longer.  The factory is going green, using its beans not only to make great coffee but to power the plant as well.

Large furnaces that were recently installed will burn the leftover coffee beans at high temperatures to create steam that will serve as alternative energy.

Until now the leftover beans have been mostly buried or sold as fertilizer and livestock feed – a solution that is better than tossing them into a landfill but that still requires many trucks and lots of gas.

How does using biological waste cut down air pollution?

By using the leftover beans to create energy the factory will cut down on air pollution and also reduce shale oil consumption by 50%.

Pini Kamari, the Vice President of the Strauss Elite Company, explained that: “This creates a direct connection between being ‘green’ and being efficient.  Motivation for the change came from our desire to cut costs, reducing energy costs and transportation costs for both the shale and the waste.

“At the same time greenhouse gas emissions will be much lower, both from the smokestacks and from the trucks.  We will create less waste and need to bury less garbage.  Noise will also be reduced.”

The Strauss Elite initiative may be coming at a good time for the city of Safed, which is trying to change its environmental image.  The new mayor, Ilan Shochat, recently established an environmental affairs committee that will promote recycling and river preservation.

Read more about other green coffee:
Tel Aviv’s LovEAT Loves to Drink Organic Coffee
Perach Rafian’s Cupocket Handles Your Hot Drinks with Care
Coffee Grinds
Coffee Break

Geotectura to Build Israel's Greenest Building at Tel Aviv University

Green Prophet
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6
Geotectura to Build Israel's Greenest Building at Tel Aviv University

Eco-Wall Geotectura Porter School of Environmental Studies

Within a few years Israel’s greenest building will be located at Tel Aviv University (TAU). That’s the goal of Joseph Cory of Geotectura. He and two other architecture companies have won first prize in an architectural competition to design a 4,000 square meter green building for TAU’s Porter School of Environmental Studies (PSES).

Cory’s partners in this project, which is being funded by the Porter Foundation and other organizations, are the companies NCArchitects and Axelrod-Grobman Architects. The team’s entry was selected in a competition given by PSES, which included 40 architecture companies.

Green architects focus on conserving energy – which is not only good for the environment, but also saves vast amounts of money for the consumer. Another focus of green architecture is quality of life, ensuring that buildings are made of safe, non-toxic materials and that the people in them live healthy lives.

But with the PSES project, Cory – who has won numerous awards for his green designs – is not content to simply design another green building. The goal of Cory and his team is to design a building worthy of a “platinum” rating according to the US Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system – the first building of its kind in Israel. Such a building would stand as an example to other architects and, Cory hopes, move the country forward toward implementing green architecture on a regular basis.

Putting green science on show with an Eco-Wall

Work on the new $7 million PSES building will begin in 18 months to two years, and should be completed by 2011 to 2013. Its most unique feature will be the Eco-Wall – what Cory describes as a “dynamic changing façade” to the new building. This façade of transparent glass will reveal the various labs in which selected researchers are performing their environmental studies and experiments. The Eco-Wall façade is constantly changing because over the years, different researchers with different work will take over the various labs.

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Ford Designs New EcoGuide to Maximize Fuel Efficiency

Lea Aharonovitch
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0
Ford Designs New EcoGuide to Maximize Fuel Efficiency

[youtube]http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=5dRzx7YGBNM[/youtube]

It’s one thing to buy a hybrid car, but another to understand and know how to use it wisely. Ford has a solution: Ford Motor Company’s Smart Gauge with EcoGuide educates drivers to maximize fuel efficiency on the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids.

The technology uses two digital dashboard LCD screens on either side of the analog speedometer to inform drivers about fuel usage, battery levels and more.

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Eilat Renewable Energy Conference Full Steam Ahead For February

Karin Kloosterman
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0
Eilat Renewable Energy Conference Full Steam Ahead For February

eilat-israel

In the wake of conflicts with Gaza, organizers of Israel’s three-day international energy conference say the show must go on. Following the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Israel will host a massive renewable energy conference in Eilat –– the  Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference –– from February 17-19 at Eilat’s Herod’s Palace. 

This is the second major renewable energy conference for Eilat, and hundreds of clean technology leaders, entrepreneurs, VCs, companies and government representatives from around the world are expected to take part. 

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Israel, Egypt & Abu Dhabi All Set Renewable Energy Goals

Tyson Herberger
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3
Israel, Egypt & Abu Dhabi All Set Renewable Energy Goals

Energy_ Solar_Farm_Middle_EastJust weeks into 2009, at least three Middle Eastern governments have made commitments to increase the green-ness of their energy supplies.

Last week, Cairo has committed that renewables will supply 20 percent of Egypt‘s electricity needs by 2020, Israel says solar power will provide 10 % and Abu Dhabi says 7% of its total power needs will come from renewable supplies by the same date.

 

Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy Hassan Younes told this week’s World Future Energy Summit that “Wind farms clustered in the Saidi area of Egypt will employ thousands and produce 20 percent of the country’s diversified energy needs by 2020.”

If Egypt comes anywhere close to accomplishing this bold target, it may well be the Middle East’s leader in adopting renewable energy sources. Younes’ comments came as he was a guest on a new CNBC Arabiya TV show entitled Bil Akhdar (‘Green Business’) which is to broadcast Sunday evenings on the Arabic business news network.

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