New solar energy plant in the desert? Don’t disturb the soil
Deserts may not look like much, but there is a slow building up of life organic and inorganic in the soil. We need to preserve them from damage.
United States
SolView’s targeting solar energy rooftop potential on a massive scale
Solar energy panels are an important investment for planet earth, but also for residential homeowners that want to cash in on attractive feed-in tariffs. Homeowners that invest in solar energy can feed the power they generate back to the energy grid and in time make money after their initial investment in panels is paid off. […]
Israeli Sunshine Girl Gets United Nations Prize for Jewish Heart (video)
Seeing the enormous potential for Israeli clean technologies in solar energy and water for the developing world, Sivan Yaari-Borowich started an NGO to help Africa. She puts two and two together by taking Israeli technologies and matching them with Jewish donors in the United States to fund real world green energy projects in Africa.
Ancient Egyptian Blue Pigment Leads to Nanotech Breakthrough
For ancient Egyptians blue was the color of rebirth. Today their chemical invention of artificial lapiz lazuli means new advances for lights, lasers and more. According to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society the ancient pigment known as Egyptian blue may have important new applications in nanotechnology. Researchers at […]
Earth Architect Nader Khalili’s Book: Racing Alone
In the book “Racing Alone”, Nader Khalili pursues his own revolution using fire, earth, air and water. In “Racing Alone”, the late Iranian earth architect Nader Khalili who died in 2008 recounts the years leading to the realization of his dream; building a dwelling that infuses Persian culture, history, art, and ingeniousness, and a structure […]
Red Tide Blooms Threaten Gulf of Oman, Shut Down Kalba Desalinization Plants
Is red tide a man-made pollutant or a natural phenomenon? Is it a plant, animal or chemical? The answer is all of the above. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Environment and Water indicates that red tide may be present in the waters of the Gulf of Oman. As a precautionary measure, Sharjah Electricity and […]
Write for Sustainability and Win $10,000 in Creative Writing Contest
Unleash your inner Thoreau, show the human side of sustainability and and win $10,000 for a creative nonfiction essay. Have you been lucky enough to Dance at the Dead Sea but then couldn’t help but notice its destruction? Or you’ve have had the rare chance to travel and surf through unknown parts of Iran. Perhaps you […]
Coursera’s Free and Green Harvard, Princeton and Stanford University Courses
Got internet access? Then you also have admission to university-level education, absolutely free and with fully flexible class times. Been itching to up your game in an area of science or energy? Want to be more confident when jumping into the climate change debate? Check out some of the excellent university courses offered free and […]
USA Fracking Will Top Saudi Oil Production in Five Years
The United States is poised to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020 thanks to increased output of new exploration technologies such as fracking. But what does this mean for politics? The World Energy Outlook 2012 released by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that America will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as […]
White House Honey Beer Recipes
Drinking beer is definitely more of a Western tradition than one of the East where wine is preferred, but beer has its place where tradition allows. Miriam has covered beer expos in Israel where there is a rise in boutique breweries like the Dancing Camel and a demand for organic beers. My mom always said […]
EcoBasalt’s Volcanic Rock Fabric to Clean Oil Spills
Volcanic basalt is a rock which can be turned into oil-absorbent fibers. A company named EcoBasalt was founded in Israel in February of 2012. Its founders are leveraging Russian space technology to create a new product for cleaning up oil spills. Their product is named SB-1 and is based on the absorbent properties of basalt. […]
Embracing a Greener Ramadan
Green iftars, and sustainable ways Muslims can approach the holy month of Ramadan. The holiest month of the Islamic year, Ramadan, began last Friday, 20 July. This Ramadan, many Muslims are looking at a new dimension of the month: our impact on the earth. This is particularly important as we learn more about the effects […]
Novel-tee Charges Your Phone, Someday
Charging our clothes to credit cards is nothing new. Now our clothes may be doing the charging. Scientists at the University of South Carolina (USC) have devised a way to turn the material in a cotton T-shirt into a source of electrical power. They envision a future where electronics are part of our wardrobe. A […]
Apple Admits Dropping EPEAT Eco Standard Was a Mistake
Apple product releases are delayed in the Mideast shortening the supported product life in this part of the world. Apple also practices planned obsolescence. In an open letter to customers, Apple’s senior VP of hardware engineering admitted that it was a mistake to remove Apple products from the EPEAT environmental rating system. He writes:”We’ve recently heard […]
Four Gulf Countries Are Among the World’s Fattest
Ramadan period expected to add to weighty population Eat less, and go to the gym more. Alas, easier said than done in some Gulf states, especially during Ramadan. Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are among the world’s top ten overweight nations, a new report by BMC Public Health has found. The extra […]
Leap-second Bug Consumes Megawatts of Electricity
Was it the leap-second bug that pushed America’s power plants beyond their capacity? A 61 second minute was added to clocks around the world on June 30, 2012 at 23:59:60 UTC in order to compensate for slight variations in earth’s rotation speed. This triggered a number of software bugs one of which caused a spike […]
American Energy Experts Go Green in Israel
Project Interchange attendees Brian Wynn and Stephen Walz tour Ashkelon Desalination plant with Israel Desalination Chairman Abraham Tenne. Advances in green technology are reported here often, including advances in solar energy, electric car technology and green bio-fuel from algae for future military and space programs. Interest in Israeli green technology programs came to the forefront […]
The Middle East Environmental Law Project Kickstarted By Vermont Lawyers
Environmental law has proven to be quite dynamic in the Middle East. Some countries have made great strides toward protecting resources and preventing pollution. Others have done little to tackle environmental problems head on due to competing interests or public funding shortfalls. Although the majority of countries in the Middle East are Arab and Muslim, […]
Could America’s 250 Percent Tariff on Chinese PVs Help the Mideast?
The United States Department of Commerce ruled yesterday that Chinese photovoltaic panel prices were below production costs and therefore their sale constituted dumping. Proposed antidumping tariffs ranged from 31 percent to 250% and would come into force sometime after October 2012. The tariff is expected to significantly increase the cost of solar installations in the […]
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 […]
Ormat Rising Stocks A Boon For Israel Geothermal
For years, the goldmine for Israeli cleantech companies has been the American economy. And as Israel deploys innovative technologies across the Atlantic, it is increasingly breaking ground and gaining profits ahead of American companies. Just last week, shares of the Reno, Nevada-based unit of Israeli geothermal company, Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA), rose more than 2.7 […]
Saudi Arabia Dumps Oil in Time for US Election Season
A fleet of oil tankers is heading from Saudi Arabia to the US in order to drive down “unjustified” oil prices of $127 per barrel. Saudi Arabia’s current capacity of 9.9 million barrels per day already exceeds self-imposed OPEC quotas. Saudi Petroleum minister Ali Naimi said production could go up another 25% to 12.5 million […]
Going Bananas Over Food Miles – Putting the Eco Back in Economics
Food miles explained: I know the best option is to grow and buy locally. But when that isn’t possible, what is the least worse option? It was like one of those weird trivia quizzes, What do these places have in common: Israel, Egypt, Chile and the United States? The answer is that berries from these countries were […]
Time to Drink Water From Air Con Units
Water from air! AC water conversion and treatment unit illustration. Photo: Watergen Ltd A while ago I wrote about the possibility of creating drinking or agricultural usage water from the cooling coil condensation from air conditioners. This idea has been around for years, and has in the past been met with more than its share of […]
Cleaner Cookstoves for a Cooler Planet
Nearly 3 billion people lack safe and efficient cooking gear. It’s time to make the problem in the kitchen sexier. Half the world’s households prepare their meals over open fires or with jerry-rigged cookers fueled by scrap wood, coal, combustible waste and dung. Fatal burns are common and foraged fuel dangerously degrades indoor air quality. […]