Imagine a controlled system comprising valves, pipes, emitters, and tubing orchestrating water delivery with precision to plant roots. Unlike traditional methods that often waste water, drip irrigation is a gentle and efficient method.
So what are the options for Bay dwellers? A new planned community called Lagoon Valley is being built between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and the project developers believe they are doing their part for planet earth.
The full effects of Hurricane Irma have still to be realized; as this monster storm has already left a trail of unprecidented devistation in the Caribbean with small island communities being almost totally damaged. Huge “super typhoons” in the Pacific ocean basin have recently caused similar mayhem in the Philippines, Taiwan, coastal China and Japan. With all […]
The switch was flipped this week as California’s Ivanpah solar thermal power plant went live. The 392 megawatt concentrating solar plant (CSP) is now delivering renewables to power the equivalent of 140,000 homes in California. After a long journey lasting decades of development, fighting regulations, manoeuvring around turtle conservationists, burning birds may be the latest problem.
Tesla Motors, the California maker of prestigious and high priced total electric sports cars is still to become a true reality in most countries of the Middle East where men prefer big, gas guzzling cars. But it might fill the gap after the failure of Better Place.
UCLA and Egyptian scientist accidentally find a new way to bottle stored energy. This missing link for solar energy, hydro and electric cars could be a fast, tiny, biodegradable battery Penicillin, Teflon, microwave ovens and superglue were all discovered by accident. And now graphene super-capacitors might be the most important accidental discovery of our time […]
A century-old fermentation process to transform plant material into a propellant, could eventually replace gasoline. In 1914, thirty-five years before Chaim Weizmann (pictured center beside Einstein) would become Israel’s first president, he discovered a fermentation process for harnessing bacteria to produce large quantities of useful chemicals. For this discovery, Weizmann was called the father of industrial […]
The Better Place electric transportation company was founded in California’s silicon valley, not far from where the Tesla electric car company began. But while Tesla and Chevy’s Volt electric cars have been sold in the United States, Better Place didn’t enter the fickle US electric car market. Instead they teamed with French automaker Renault and […]
Concentrated solar power company BrightSource doesn’t wear its Israeli identity on its sleeve. “We’re a U.S. company with Israeli engineering, not an Israeli company. It’s a nuance but important to get right,” Keely Wachs, senior director of corporate communications for BrightSource, wrote in an email message. And with an American President and CEO named John […]
With a 35 meter high sun-ray collection tower and about 50 mirrors positioned to direct the sun, Israel’s AORA is about to flip the switch on its latest solar power plant in Spain. The company created a huge buzz in Israel in 2009 when it was the first solar energy company to connect to the […]
Considered by some as the father of solar thermal electricity generation, Newton Becker, was the founding investor and Chairman of the Board of Luz International – the company that went on to become what BrightSource is today. He died Monday in LA at age 83. Back when, Luz became the largest solar company in the […]
BrightSource Energy is making a big bet on CSP while others switch to PV The third huge US solar project from BrightSource Energy is its largest yet. At a whopping 750 MW it is the size of three or four US coal or gas plants. Its Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Facility in California will use the solar tower technology it inherited from Israel's Luz, its parent company (Luz Rises Again as BrightSource for California) in which a field of mirrors on poles reflects sunlight onto a tower to create steam to drive a turbine to make electricity. But it comes at a time when many utility-scale solar companies are switching to PV (photovoltaic) solar - those traditional rooftop solar panels that most people associate with solar - from Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) such as this. Why?
Israeli Solar energy company BrightSource is the child, but the real father of solar thermal technology. SEC filings show BrightSource Energy Inc has raised $122.5 million in its fifth round of financing, according to Israel’s Globes.The company says it raised the capital in shares and warrants, as part of a planned $125 million offering. BrightSource […]
Between 11,500 and 51,000 vehicles drive on California freeways and expressways every day. Energy Harvesting Journal posted earlier today that California Assemblyman Mike Gatto has proposed a bill that would require the state to use piezoelectric technology on its highways. The technology generates electricity from the vibrations on the road that are created by passing […]
Monterey Bay Aquarium takes the guesswork out of the best seafood choices: for the environment and for your health. If you’re anything like me, you don’t know what’s good to eat anymore. Long after giving up red meat and chicken, I continued to eat fish, but now I don’t dare. Thanks to the Monterey Bay […]