Though lacking the resources that have enabled richer Arab states, and the UAE in particular, to play a leading role in promoting renewable energy, Syria is also looking to boost its involvement in this field. This week, the Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST) in Damascus is hosting an International Conference on International […]
Get your kids to build tomorrow’s solar power plant or wind turbine, with LEGO. LEGO, makers of timeless bricks of wonder, continue their welcome advance into the classroom with the new Renewable Energy Set. The new set lets students experiment with using energy from their own bodies and the three main energy sources – solar, […]
Shimon Peres from Israel and Lee Myung-bak from South Korea at Davos. (Image via Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) A high-ranking delegation from South Korea is currently visiting Israel to explore possibilities for collaboration between the two countries on renewable energy. The 37-member delegation represents 22 companies, as well as local authorities and R&D centers, […]
Empty land in Israel’s Arava desert. (photo by Jesse Fox) A conflict may be brewing between an emerging renewable energy industry and environmentalists over land preservation in Israel. The heart of the controversy has to do with where to put the massive solar installations that are expected to be built in the arid Negev and […]
Wind farm in Egyptian desert at Zafarana. (Image via windpowerworks.net) The Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and Abu Dhabi’s green energy company, Masdar, signed a framework agreement on February 18th for a 200 megawatt wind power plant, slated for Egypt’s eastern coast near Suez. The project is the first collaborative venture between Egypt […]
With its year-round sunshine and high temperatures, Eilat and the region are a perfect location for the deployment of alternative energy projects. Here, Aora fires up its sun-focusing flower and solar collectors. While Israel generates numerous headlines as a solar energy innovator, the country still has plans to build additional coal plants, and there’s relatively […]
In an historic move, for the first time Jerusalem sent an Israeli cabinet minister to Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. With no diplomatic ties with Israel, National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said that he did not meet with any Emirati officials while at the newly established International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), reports AP. […]
In Israel, kibbutzim (once-socialist agricultural collectives) have risen as a hotbed of environmental activity. Green Prophet has covered Kibbutz Ein Shemer, which holds environmental education seminars in their state-of-the-art greenhouse, and Kibbutz Lotan, which hosts the Center for Creative Ecology, just as a few of many examples. Although not physically based on a kibbutz, the […]
Will Israeli designed recharging stations keep America going? Despite the world economic slowdown, a number of advancements were made worldwide in the fields of alternative and renewable energy. The hottest energy trends of 2009, according to MIT review are: Natural gas drilling technology New batteries for hybrids Carbon capture Smart grid Cellulosic ethanol (biofuel from […]
It can harness 20 times more energy than any other wave technology in existence today and also produce carbon-free desalinated water. How? Seanergy ‘holds the waves.’ To wean America off polluting and politically unstable foreign oil, government members and legislators are advocating technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal and also wave energy to develop new […]
This past weekend I traveled to historic Madaba, Jordan at the first Middle East Green Bloggers Conference. Among this inspiring collection of environmental writers, professionals, and activists, I’ve just met a trio of Jordanian young innovators bringing a special variety of “thin film” technology to the Middle East. Zein Nsheiwat, Sawsan Issa, and Osama Suliman […]
The prospects of solar energy are heating up in Palestine. Rachel reports on a new solar thermal plant at Beit Jala school. The Talitha Kumi school in Beit Jala, Palestine just became home to Palestine’s first solar thermal plant for warm water supply and central heating, Green Prophet learns. The 200 square-meter plant, which went […]
Today opens the two-week round of climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark. From this corner of the world the conference is a meeting of giants – literally, the giant polluters like the U.S. and China, which make it seem like there is little the small countries of the Middle East can do to stop global […]
If any of you were able to make Sunday’s renewable energy conference in Jerusalem or in San Francisco, you may have gained a better insight of the joint renewable energy projects that Israel and the US are involved in. The one-day conference was held in the American Jewish Committee’s Jerusalem headquarters in Beit Moses, and […]
A wind farm in Turkey. Should Turkey look east to oil-rich countries, or west to renewables? Turkey seems to be becoming more interested in renewable energy these days, especially in the areas of solar, geothermal like that of Ormat, and wind energy. But the future of this country, which straddles the link between east and […]