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clean technology
Clean Electricity Flows From The Negev Desert
Close to 60% of Israel’s land mass lies under desert. Lots of sand. And lots of sun. Resolving to view how Israel exploits that solar abundance, I traveled through the Negev on a late-winter day in March with Ofer Tsimmering, head of the demographics department of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. I watched the highway […]
Solar Impulse flying longest leg of round-the-world-journey
As of posting time for this story, pilot André Borschberg had been flying for over 24 hours on Leg 7 (of 12) of the Solar Impulse 2 trip around the planet. He’s completed about a quarter of his journey from Nanjing to Hawaii, the longest segment of this record-shattering expedition. And it’s all made possible […]
Practical Solar Powered Innovations for Developing Countries
Solar energy projects for developing countries in Africa and the Middle East MENA Region have often been put on the backburner due to financial considerations as well as lack of attention by local government bodies. Whether it has involved sophisticated solar “farms” or small solar devices for barefoot Bedouin women, more attention is being focused […]
Israel’s Mapal Promotes Peace by Treating Palestinian Sewage
Finding a solution to the problem of raw sewage reclamation in rural Palestinian communities continues to be an ongoing issue. A new peace project between an Israeli treatment company Mapal Green Energy and the Palestinian Authority could sweeten tensions behind a stinky problem.
Masdar Wind Project May Blow Back Into Egypt
An ambitious collaboration between Egypt and renewables giant Masdar may be coming back to life following a two year hibernation. Is this a bona fide resurrection of a visionary joint venture or just a soundbite to broadcast the commercial ambitions of Masdar?
Green Investment Bank and Masdar Ink Agreement to Link Mideast to Britain
The UK Green Investment Bank and the United Arab Emirates Masdar have inked a new agreement that will see the UAE-based company work toward new investment opportunities in the United Kingdom, taking their expertise in renewable energy to Britain.
Happy 2013! A Good Year for Electric Cars
Not a head turner but Mitsubishi’s new “buggy” MIEV all electric car is one of the best EV car deals The year 2012 has been a mixed year as far as the success of various models of electric cars and hybrid cars go. Regarding the Middle East, where the luxury Fisker Karma electric vehicle hit […]
Welcome 2013 at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Kick off the new year with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week to be held January 13 through 17. The world’s leading symposium committed to promoting the advancement of alternative energy and efficient, clean technologies, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2013 is expected to attract 30,000 participants from over 150 countries. Hosted by Masdar, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week provides a […]
We Interview Better Place Car Owners in Israel
Inside a Better Place battery switching station. Maurice interviews two Better Place electric car buyers who defend their decision to buy electric, and support the company which is flailing financially. Better Place international CEO Shai Agassi has been fired from the company he founded ; and in the wake of his departure, the company may also […]
Protei Designs Sailing Robots to Clean the Sea
It is estimated that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster spilled 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Local fishermen and other cleanup workers suffered from the toxic oil and carcinogenic dispersants, but at best only 3% of this oil was ever recovered. The absorbent booms were never designed for open water. When Cesar […]
Interview with Izhar Gafni, Inventor of the Greenest Cardboard Bike
We interview Izhar Gafni, the inventor of the cardboard bike.
New Green OLED Lights Could be Printed on Plastic
An Israeli is part of a team to invent a new kind of “green” LED light called the OLED. If brought from theory to practice they could be manufactured from plastics and made by ink jets. Valy Vardeny and Tho D. Nguyen from the University of Utah (Salt Lake City) worked with Eitan Ehrenfreund from Technion-Israel […]
Japan Wants Israel Clean Tech Experts to Rebuild Fukushima
Japan is seeking Israeli clean tech experts to help rebuild Fukushima, which was devastated by both an earthquake and a tsunami last year. The Japanese company in charge of rehabilitation recently sent a delegation to Israel looking for experts and entrepreneurs, especially in the fields of water management and recycling. According to the company’s liaison […]
Saudi-Led Consortium Nears Contract for $500 Million Moroccan Solar Project
ACWA rumored to win the contract to build a 160 MW CSP project in in the south of Morocco. “We are going to opt for the offer made by the consortium of ACWA,” a source close to Morocco’s solar energy agency MASEN told Reuters. The source asked not to be named pending an official announcement […]
Visionary Masdar CEO Named “Champion of the Earth” by UN
Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the Masdar CEO, is the recipient of this year’s United Nations’ Champions of the Earth award. The award honours individuals whose actions and leadership have had a far-reaching positive impact on the environment, in advancing clean energy technologies to mitigate the threats of climate change. Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted renewable energy […]
Why Did the Saudis Just Go Big in Solar? Oil Prices.
Saudi Arabia will save an estimated 690,000 barrels of oil a day by investing in renewables. Wonder just why Saudi Arabia finally got serious about solar with a $109 billion plan to solar-power a third of the Kingdom? I did. After all, for a long time, while its greener neighbors have been adding thousands of […]
Israel Invests in Domestic Solar Power
The World Wildlife Fund and the Cleantech Group recently published a report saying that Israel is the second best place in the world to develop green technologies, second only to Denmark. Israel has long been a major exporter of such innovations, a leading developer of water-saving technology, such as its agricultural inventions, and solar power. Now Israel is starting to […]
Why BrightSource Did not Need that IPO
When BrightSource withdrew its IPO this month, the death knell for solar was sounded, as always. The truth is more mundane. According to the always inquisitive Katie Fehrenbacher over at GigaOm who managed to snag a Q&A with the company, BrightSource just doesn’t necessarily need the extra money right now. Its Ivanpah solar thermal project is already fully funded […]
Robot Sex the CleanTech Future of Tourism?
Are android sex workers the future of tourism or an absurd use of clean technology? People will soon be having sex with robots as the latest in sex tourism, suggests a recent news report. This novel twist on ‘clean technology’ (the inventors point out that the androids will be made of bacteria-resistant fibers) is enough […]
World Centric’s Compostable Toothbrush Bites Into Dental Product Waste
450 million toothbrushes wind up in landfills every year in the US alone, says sustainable-products company World Centric. The utmost natural and biodegradable toothbrush is a twig from the Miswak shrub and about which we’ve reported. New York-based Lebanese designer Leen Sadder has even tried to make miswak twigs available commercially (read about it here). […]
Solar-Rich Saudis Running after Nukes
It has no uranium, but lots of solar – yet Saudi Arabia plans to double down on nuclear capacity. As we covered previously, working with China, Saudi Arabia will spend more than $100 billion to build 16 nuclear energy plants within the next few years, as part of ramping up its electric capacity. But the […]
Dubai Might Buy Solar off Roofs
Dubai’s electric utilities are considering buying back power generated from solar panels on the roofs of houses and office buildings. Last year, the city carried out its first ever study to see how much solar power is being produced outside the grid and it found that local businesses and other private owners were producing around 5 […]
South Africa to Green its Economy in 2013 with Carbon Tax
South Africa, among the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide, plans to introduce its own price on carbon next year. The Treasury said this week that South Africa, which is the continent’s biggest polluter, plans to introduce a carbon tax on annual emissions for all the industrial sectors responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, including electricity, […]
Has Israel Become a Petrostate?
Why does Israel so lag Arab neighbors like Morocco and Egypt in its renewable energy production? I do not understand how the nation that invented CSP solar thermal - the solar energy that now powers much of the worlds gigantic utility-scale solar plants - can be just now announcing some tiny 35 MW solar project as its "largest ever!" - and Spain's Solaer group that is supposedly to build it; doesn't even have a website - when Morocco is building its first 500 MW plant with international energy giant Siemens. Can anyone tell me what's going on? I have never lived in the Middle East region, unlike the rest of the local bloggers here at GreenProphet - perhaps I'm missing something that is rather obvious to the rest of you. In the US, only our fossil states are as backward in renewable energy development.