The deal is to provide power to more than half a million homes: Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced today that it has entered into a series of contracts with BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of solar thermal power. These power purchase agreements, covering seven projects, supersede the agreements PG&E executed […]
This week marks International Composting Awareness Week, a week meant to be celebrated in Canada and the US, but which as far as I’m concerned should be truly global in scope. Though I’ve been in transit on the West Coast, I’ve commemorated the week by throwing my food scraps in the city issued scrap […]
(Melting like crazy: compare image of arctic ice cap from 1979 to that from 2003. Something seem off to you?) Last year he was in Israel encouraging Israel cleantech companies that they could be part of the solution. But according to latest research and images of glaciers receding, Al Gore’s call to arms in the […]
(Aerial view of the Burj Hotel in Dubai, UAE) Following the news of Etihad, a United Arab Emirates airline that is reducing its carbon footprint, a number of companies based in the UAE are following suit and are making green efforts thanks to help from firms like the Dubai-based EcoVentures. EcoVentures is a company – […]
The earth is warming up. There is no doubt about that. And carbon dioxide levels are increasing too. New research from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Carnegie Institution in the US suggests that if things get worse, coral reefs will start to dissolve. That’s millions of years of evolution that will simply melt […]
A little industrial design can make a product go a long way. Take the design of Apple computers, iPhones and accessories. Discriminating consumers often purchase these products for the “look and feel” and not necessarily the technology that makes them tick. With experience working for the US-based frogdesign firm, and now major clients, some looking […]
Reporting on a story about the coral monitoring stations in the Persian Gulf, Green Prophet mistakenly labeled the major Middle East waterway the Arabian Gulf. A reader wrote us asking for a correction on the name which has deep historical and new political roots. Today we interview Daniel M. Pourkesali, an Iranian-American who is working […]
Green Prophet has presented some solar-powered air conditioning technology developed in the Middle East. While we like to support local innovation, the practical ones might come from afar: A company located in Denver Colorado, USA, have developed on of the most practical solar powered air conditioning systems made to date. Named the Coolerado, after the […]
Israel has already done it. Now the governments of China and Vietnam are conducting their own safety tests on some baby bath products, such as Johnson and Johnson (J&J) No More Tears, found to be contaminated with formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in a report issued March 12 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Some major Chinese, […]
With people losing their jobs in America left, right and center, effects of the global economic crisis are being felt in the Middle East too. Israelis, whose Gross Domestic Produce relies so much on exports has to scale back dramatically when America loses spending power. Yet people are asking here, why isn’t there more recycling. […]
Just when we thought the whole world was in an economic slump: The Jewish Funders Network just announced a $750,000 pool of funds earmarked to match first-time major gifts by JFN members to Israeli non-profit environmental organizations, according to eJewish Philanthropy. The Jewish Funders Network and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Matching Grant Initiative for […]
Sivan Borowich-Ya’ari founder Innovation: Africa As Westerners, there are some things we really can’t understand about Africa unless we’ve been there. That’s what Sivan Borowich-Ya’ari discovered over the last decade. While working for a clothing manufacturer and then the United Nations, the Israeli woman fell in love with Africa. She understood how very small things […]
If you’re a regular reader of Green Prophet, you’ll already know that the US and Israel have forged ties to co-develop renewable energy products. And that top US energy leaders were in Israel a few weeks ago. Now Globes reports, that the $800 billion US stimulus package launched by President Barack Obama will affect both […]
Shai Zakai: Self portrait 4X2 m. photograph on canvas purchased by the Ministry of Environment. Since nature can’t speak for itself, Israeli environment artist Shai Zakai has appointed herself as the human moderator. For more than a decade she’s been working as an ecological artist, to communicate and record humankind’s impact on our fragile world. […]
Other announcements made at the conference include the Timna Renewable Energy Park, which will be a center for R&D, and the AORA Solar Thermal Module at Kibbutz Samar, the world's first commercial hybrid solar gas-turbine power plant that is already nearing completion. Solel Solar Systems announced it was beginning construction of a 50 MW solar field in Lebrija, Spain, and Brightsource Energy made a pre-conference announcement that it had inked the world's largest solar deal to date with Southern California Edison (SCE).