Meet Egypt’s new Solar Energy Association hoping to turn a country’s power crisis into eco-innovation. It’s dark at an upscale Cairo café. It’s not closed and service continues despite the only light coming from windows along two walls. The cause was an electricity outage. While it only lasted around 15 minutes, it was one of […]
Saudi Arabia is looking to continue to ensure their promises of bolstering the Gulf Kingdom’s alternative energy is maintained. This month, Masdar CEO Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber said publicly that his United Arab Emirates-based company is discussing potential investments in Saudi, and will likely be focusing on solar energy. For Masdar, which has boosted its clean […]
Morocco’s Solar Energy Agency has announced that the Saudi-led consortium ACWA has won the bid to build a 160MW concentrated solar power plant in Ourzazate. Although MASEN head Mustafa Bakkoury only made the official announcement at a recent conference, news of the win has been floating around for a couple of months. Teaming up with […]
Where’s a charger when you need one? My device-addicted household is always running short on chargers for cell phones and laptops and iPods. I plug in my phone and come back to find it’s migrated to someone’s Kindle. What’s the impact of all this techno-juicing on the environment? A co-worker just nabbed the coolest birthday gift: the […]
The Masdar Institute (MI) has teamed up with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) headed by Denmark’s former Prime Minister, and the Research Institute for Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) from South Korea to develop a 100% renewable energy micro-grid in Abu Dhabi. MI initially proposed the micro-grid idea to GGGI, which is chaired by […]
Despite its vast solar and wind energy potential, Turkey’s renewable resources have only been developed in small pockets of the country, such as the windy Aegean island of Bozcaada (pictured above). With European countries having already tapped most of their low-hanging renewable energy development opportunities, Turkey is perfectly poised to become the new renewable energy […]
Africa’s largest wind farm to date is slated to begin construction as soon as a long-delayed financing agreement is completed, according to Wind Power Monthly. Morocco’s state utility Office National d’Electricite (ONE) awarded a $350 million, 20-year PPA contract for the 300 MW Tarfaya wind power plant to a consortium consisting of the local firm Nareva and […]
When the Union des Associations Europeennes de Football’s (UEFA) fair play rules come into effect in 2014, Turkey’s Trabzonspor club may be among the few that will be financially self-sufficient. The UEFA’s new rules are designed to ensure that no clubs have an unfair advantage over another due to wealthy owners who can afford to […]
Drilling for natural gas is one thing, but getting it safely ashore with terror elements in the region is another. Ever since the news broke a few years back that natural gas exploration companies, headed by entrepreneurs like Yitzhak Tshuva had located large deposits of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean, the race has been […]
If you think renewable energies will become an increasingly cheaper alternative to petrol – think again now that there’s peak minerals. As the world moves toward greater use of zero- carbon energy sources, the supply of certain key metals needed for such clean-energy technologies may dry up, inflating per unit costs and driving the renewable […]
With more than $20 billion worth of renewable energy projects currently being developed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the upcoming Mena Renewable Energy conference in Dubai will look at boosting investment in this sector.
The relationship between Qatar and the UK keeps getting cozier – at least in the realm of architecture. First The Shard, which is owned almost completely by Qatar, was recently unveiled in London, and now the country’s first experimental eco-villa will be designed by a UK-based firm. Curtailed by the recession in their home country, […]
Finally poised to embrace renewable energy generation, little-known Algeria is accepting tender bids from solar and wind energy producers. Along with Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, which are either in the process of or are planning to build solar plants in their home countries, Algeria supports the Desertec Foundation vision to line the Sahara with solar thermal […]
The disruption to Jordan’s natural gas supply from Egypt has finally awoken a sleeping giant: renewable energy. Long focused on oil shale and nuclear energy instead of renewable sources, the Kingdom has recently entered negotiations with no fewer than 20 international wind and solar-energy suppliers. These are mostly small or medium-sized firms that will provide […]
Bifacial solar panel can boost energy yield by 50%. Researchers have been trying to develop double-sided solar cells that can capture both direct and reflected sunlight for the last forty years, and now an Israeli startup believes they have come up with the winning formula. bSolar, a venture-backed project founded in 2007, showcased their bifacial […]