Clean Energy's posts with tag: environment
January 16, '08 (IsraelNN.com) Jerusalem's municipality has placed its first solar-powered garbage dumpster on Jaffa Road, in the city center, according to Globes.
The solar-powered dumpster can accommodate 750 liters (200 gallons) of compacted waste even though it is only 150 liters in size.
The dumpster has a built-in solar-powered compression system that can compress garbage to up to a fifth of its volume and operates for up to five days on the power supplied by just one hour of sunlight.
Link: http://greenprophet.com/The Green Prophet is a green lifestyle blog dedicated to promoting an environmentally-sound future for Israel and beyond.
Our contributors are not here to preach to the choir, but to offer some words of wisdom and then some, on how to make Israel and its neighborhood a better and healthier place for all.
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December 26, '07 (IsraelNN.com) Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee Chairman MK Ofer Paz-Pines (Labor) has submitted a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Israel. The bill aims for Israel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2010, and 50 percent by 2050. The Ministry of Environmental Protection will have to formulate a national emission reduction plan within six months of the bill entering into law.
| Israel And The US Partner For Clean Energy Posted: 20 Dec 2007 12:49 AM CST (Image Credit: Amazon.com) With many nations looking for ways to reduce the gas price hike that has afflicted much of our planet, it looks as if the United States is teaming up with Israel in order to explore new ways to produce clean, green energy. (Globes Online) The US Senate has approved cooperation with Israel in clean energy - the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Act - as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. [...]
Israeli sources in Washington predict $20 million in allocations a year over the next five years for joint US-Israeli energy projects. The US Department of Energy and Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructures will formulate an agreement and settle related issues.
The Energy Independence Act includes financing grants for the production of energy from biofuel, biomass, wind, ocean waves, and geothermal sources. Projects will include joint basic research between US and Israeli academic institutions and applied research projects between companies from both countries. This new bill (which will probably be signed into law, if not already) may help the US and Israel to finally gain their energy independence upon foreign oil. Israel already has the lead when it comes to developing clean technology, which includes everything from turning fungus and cow manure into energy to building better solar houses to even recycling nuclear waste into energy. With the help of US funding, America and Israel may not only be able to help themselves become energy independent by relying upon cleaner technologies, but also half of our planet as well. |
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| December 21, '07 Investments in ‘Green’ Industry has Tripled (IsraelNN.com) Finance Ministry officials have announced that investments in Israel’s environmentally friendly, or “green” industries have tripled in the past three years. According to ministry official Yarom Ariav, approximately NIS 100 million was invested in green industry in 2007. Given Israel’s success in hi-tech, Ariav said, the country could become an international leader in the green technology field as well. He called on the government to do more to support environmentally-friendly technology by creating a long-term plan for encouraging green industry and by giving priority to green businesses for government affairs. * * *
Israel is Worth '15 Exxons' in Human Resources by Gil Ronen  In a "Globes" sponsored talk at a Tel Aviv Hotel, financier and philanthropist Michael Milken heaped praise on Israel for its human capital. Milken is in Israel trying to foster connections between the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, and Israeli life sciences and cleantech industries. He stated that in terms of assets, Israel is worth a third of the Exxon-Mobil corporation, but that Israel is worth 15 Exxons in terms of human resources. According to the Milken Institute, Israel's human capital is worth $7.15 trillion. 'Israel could be the "research laboratory for the world'
Milken also spoke highly of Israelis' level of education, noting that 32% of Israelis are graduate students, and 56.5% of students are women. He also pointed out that Israel has the world's highest per capita number of life sciences patents, and said Israel could be the "research laboratory for the world." He mentioned the training medical doctors receive in Israel and the enriching effect that the wave of immigration from Russia had on the sciences as additional advantages. "Every single one of your research institutes is an oil well, of the kind that is never depleted," Milken told the audience. A drawback of the Israeli economy, he said, is the fact that too much of the wealth is in too few hands, too many of which are institutional. "All global trends are operating in favor of the Israeli economy," Milken told the audience. "Let the human assets break through," he advised, "nurture them, and Israel will turn into an economic power within the next few years." Elvis impersonators
Milken explained that in the human assets race, Israel is competing with fast-growing countries like China and India, and small but ambitious countries like Singapore. He said that if the present growth rates continue, China, India, Russia and Brazil will be among the 10 leading economies in the world, edging out countries like France and Canada. Still, Milken advised caution against predictions based on present growth alone. He noted that the number of Elvis Presley impersonators has gone from 50 to 3,500 since his death, and that extrapolating from this could lead one to the unlikely conclusion that in 50 years, one out of three people will be an Elvis impersonator. The conclusion, he explained, is that the present growth rate is only true of the present. |
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December 17, 2007  Renewable Energy Powers Italian Town and Its Economy by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent Varese, Italy has added 140 jobs in the past ten years. That's pretty good for a town with a population of only 2,400. The town, which is located in Liguria in the northern part of Italy, is experiencing an economic boom fueled by renewable energy. The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network.
Varese became the first municipality in Europe to get 100 percent of its power from renewable energy sources six years ago. It now generates three times more electricity than the people living in Varese need and there are plans in the pipeline for even more renewables. For this pioneering role, the town won a prize from the European Union (EU) in 2004. What has happened in Varese is unusual. On a national level, Italy is set to fall short of its EU objective of generating 25 percent of its gross electrical consumption from renewable energy sources by 2010. Italy's share of renewables was just 13.93 in 2005. But the mayor of Varese, Michaela Marone, and her predecessor, Maurizio Caranza, turned their vision of a town driven by renewable energy into reality by leveraging funds from the EU and using their authority to cut through red tape. The town uses wind, solar and small-scale hydropower, a mix best adapted to its hilly terrain covering a total of 140 square km — and it has plans for more hydropower. Today, renewables bring not only environmental benefits but also improved living standards to a town that had suffered from years of steady decline. An additional 350,000 euros [US $514,000] in tax revenues is handed over to the council each year by the private company that owns the renewable energy network. "We fulfill all the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and are non profit. We use all of our profits towards paying the electricity bills of the people in the town," Michaele Marone, the town mayor, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com. Four wind turbines located on a ridge 1100 meters above sea level — where the average annual wind speed is 7.2 meters per second — generate 8 million kWh of electricity a year that is fed into the local grid managed by Acam, a power company in La Spezia. The electricity from the wind turbines alone reduce carbon emissions by 8,000 tons, representing 0.05 percent of the region's total annual carbon emissions. Photovoltaic (PV) panels have been installed on the town hall and the local school. The town hall has 102 PV panels covering 95 square meters and generating 12,700 kWh a year, which supplies 98 percent of the total energy consumption of the building. Varese's secondary school has 39 PV panels covering 36 square meters and producing 4,600 kWh a year, which supplies 62 percent of the energy used. In addition to that, the town's swimming pool is heated by solar power and a program to promote the use of wood pellet stoves is in the works. In conjunction with the development of a renewable energy infrastructure, the town has also launched initiatives to make Varese 100 percent sustainable. A total of 108 organic farms now supply 98 percent of the town's food; water is purified using environmentally friendly technology and waste has been significantly reduced. The town has seen a six-fold increase in tourists in the last ten years, many coming just to see its renewable energy network. Varese Not Alone Although certainly a pioneer in Renewable Energy, Varese is not the only town in Europe to adopt such measures. The same thing is happening in many towns across Europe. Güssing in Austria with 27,000 inhabitants has also switched to renewable energy sources — and has also moved from poverty to prosperity, underlining the potential of renewable energy for creating new jobs and new investment. And it's not only rural towns that are forging ahead with renewable energy projects. There has been a marked increase in the numbers of cities across Europe adopting initiatives to cut carbon emissions and develop green energy. Following Rome and London, Paris launched a new "Plan Climat" or climate plan on October 1st 2007 to reduce carbon emissions. Munich, Germany has also developed a strategy for cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030. Beatrice Alcaraz from Energie-Cités, an association of European local authorities for the promotion of local sustainable energy policies that represents more than 500 towns and cities, told RenewableEnergyAccess.com that the driving force behind all of this expansion was EU policy. "Municipalities have to adapt their national policies to the European directives, that is the European directive of public building. They also have to develop the renewables to achieve the EU energy and climate objectives," she said. The EU is targeting urban areas because more than 80 percent of the European population lives there, and the energy consumption of cities is growing. The latest figures from French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie (Ademe)) show that the energy consumption of French cities grew by 14.5 percent between 1990 and 2005 from 27 billion KWh in 1990 to 31 billion kWh in 2005. "The rapid development of renewable energy in so many towns and cities across Europe augurs well," said Beatrice Alcatraz, speaking about how cities are combating this increase in energy consumption while keeping down carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Though cities cover only 0.4 percent of the world's total area, they consume 75 percent of the energy and generate about 80 percent of the carbon emissions according to a study by the Münchener Rück. Jane Burgermeister is a RenewableEnergyAccess.com European Correspondent based in Vienna, Austria.
| |  | | A UN panel of scientists and national delegations has agreed on an "instant guide" for policy makers, declaring unequivocally that climate change has begun and threatens to irreversibly alter the planet. The document, to be published Saturday, summarizes the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change. It will be the first point of reference for delegates at a crucial meeting in Indonesia next month that is intended to launch a political process on international cooperation to control global warming. Negotiators from more than 140 countries wrangled for five days until dawn Friday before approving a 20-page summary of data and computer projections. Then they labored throughout the day to finalize a longer 70-page version. Both papers synthesize research compiled over the last six years by the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will address the IPCC when it releases the report Saturday. "It's done. They have come up with a really strong report," said Hans Verholme, of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The papers describe how climate systems are changing and why, the impacts it is having on mankind and ecosystems, and various scenarios of future impacts, depending on how quickly action is taken to slow the trend. Another WWF climate scientist, Stephan Singer, called it a "groundbreaking document that will pave the way for deep emissions cuts by developing countries." The report does not commit participating governments to any course of action but it is important because it is adopted by consensus, meaning those countries accept the underlying science and cannot disavow its conclusions. It provides a common scientific base line for the political talks. "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," the summary begins, in a statement meant to dispel any skepticism about the reality of climate change, said participants in the meeting. In a startling and much-debated conclusion, the document warns that human activity risks causing "abrupt or irreversible changes" on Earth, including the widespread extinction of species and a dramatic rise in sea levels before the end of this century, they said on condition of anonymity because the details are supposed to remain confidential until Saturday. "I think overall it is a good and balanced document," said Bert Metz, an eminent Dutch scientist and one of the 40 authors of the draft. "In the end, a lot of people had to compromise," he said. Though it contains no previously unpublished material, the summary pulls together the central elements of three lengthy reports the IPCC released earlier this year. Boiling down the 3,000 pages into about 20 was "quite a challenge," said Metz. "I think this will be the scientific imperative" propelling action, said Stephanie Tunmore of the Greenpeace environmental group, an observer at the talks. The agreement was seen as a personal triumph for the IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri of India, who presided with no-nonsense efficiency and bulldozed through compromise language. Pachauri, who will accept the IPCC's Nobel Peace prize in Oslo on Dec. 10 along with former US Vice President Al Gore, is expected to stand for re-election as head of the IPCC next year, delegates said. Delegates said the talks this week were difficult, and sometimes bogged down for hours over a brief phrase. The outcome was "much better than I expected," said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the chief scientist of the Belgian delegation. The report was not just "a cut-and-paste" job from earlier papers, but it highlighted more clearly than before the risks faced by the Earth's most vulnerable systems, he said. The meeting in the Indonesian resort of Bali starting Dec. 3 will discuss the next step in combating climate change after the measures adopted in the Kyoto Protocol expire in five years. Kyoto obliges 36 industrial countries to radically reduce their carbon emissions by 2012, but has no clear plan for what happens after that date. Organizers say the new "road map" emerging from Bali should draw in the United States, which rejected the Kyoto accord and which has tried to enlist other countries in voluntary schemes to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and invest in technology research. | |
| Tuesday, October 23, 2007 by Staff Writer
Peres to turn 'President House' into green zone (israeltoday.co.il) Israeli President Shimon Peres has embarked on a mission to transform his official residence in Jerusalem into an environmentally-friendly compound.
|  Google Solar Carport | | | An Israeli company specializing in solar power has been contracted by Peres' office to install a system that will eventually provide Jerusalem's "President House" with clean electricity. Most of the power will be supplied by solar panels installed over the large car port adjacent to the residence.
The first target of the advanced solar system will be the large heating and air conditioning needs of the landmark house.
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|  | Corn Ethanol & its Unintended Consequences for California by Juliette Anthony, M.A., M.S., Consultant. September 10, 2007 Growth of the corn ethanol industry in California is fraught with unintended consequences, none of which are beneficial to the economy or the environment of the state. They include impacts on our overcommitted water resources, on our air quality, on the price of food, and on the financial burden to citizens while private investors profit. | | | Already there are 235 ethanol plants under construction or in planning stages across the county, in addition to 111 operating plants. And there just isn't enough corn to go around. If all the scores of factories under construction or planned go into operation, they will gobble up no less than half of the entire corn harvest by 2008.
All of the water systems upon which the state depends, to serve both agriculture and the urban sector, are oversubscribed. Ethanol requires large amounts of water both to grow the corn and to process it, putting corn into direct competition with our agricultural industry that feeds half the nation with all of its fruits, vegetables and nuts. Corn ethanol requires 3.7 to 5 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of ethanol just in the manufacturing process. Cellulosic ethanol from other plant materials is far in the future and will require 6 gallons of water for each gallon of ethanol to manufacture, though the energy output is 4-5 times greater than for corn ethanol. States such as water rich Minnesota and Iowa complain that the ethanol industry is mining their groundwater, causing some plants to be closed because the groundwater supply has been so depleted. In many places in California, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, the ground has already subsided many feet because of groundwater mining. Approximately 14 percent of the U.S. corn crop is irrigated and this irrigated acreage consumes almost 18 million acre-feet per year of water—much of which is overdrafted from the Ogallala aquifer in the Great Plains. To put this water requirement in perspective, the average annual flow of the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry is only about 14 million acre-feet per year. Almost all of California's agriculture is dependent on irrigation. Diverting millions of gallons of water from California farms to ethanol will disrupt the nation's food supply for growing since corn is a very water intensive crop, and it will also add to the problem of pesticide and fossil fuel fertilizer run-off polluting our waterways. Shifting our valuable farmland from vegetables to mono-cropping corn is already happening in Kern County. If all the vehicles in California operated on E85 [the policy of the Governor and Legislature], the ethanol required would consume 70 percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, but only 13.6 percent of the energy in the fuel would be renewable because of the heavy use of fossil fuel. In Iowa and Indiana, the Sierra Club has sued because ethanol plants have made neighbors ill from toxics in the air and the water. Biofuels are not as clean as they would have us believe. Ethanol molecules are microscopically small and escape from gas tanks and hoses. Its use increases NOX by 5%, and for every 18 degrees fahrenheit increase in temperature over baseline, evaporative emissions double. Ground level ozone is also increased. While the ARB is required by state law to ensure that emissions do not increase, plans for mitigation are years away from being implemented. And corn is not the best raw material for fuel. It takes 10 gallons of ethanol to produce the energy equivalent of about 7 gallons of gasoline, and greenhouse gas reductions are minuscule. Very much like the original backers of MTBE, both from industry and major environmental groups, who adamantly ignored the warnings regarding MTBE's ability to contaminate drinking water, many of these same people are avoiding the unintended consequences of diverting millions of gallons of water into ethanol plants. They fought to preserve the oxygenate mandate so that ethanol could replace MTBE, which delayed MTBE's removal from California's gasoline by several years. Only after many wells in California were contaminated, did they support its removal. Already there are 235 ethanol plants under construction or in planning stages across the county, in addition to 111 operating plants. And there just isn't enough corn to go around. If all the scores of factories under construction or planned go into operation, they will gobble up no less than half of the entire corn harvest by 2008. Even though last year's corn harvest was the third largest crop ever, food prices are rising in the supermarkets. Hog and cattle farmers are already bringing their animals to market early in an effort to save money on feed because the cost of a bushel of corn has doubled since September of 2006. As the price of grain goes up, people will go hungry. There were riots in Mexico in June because people were not able to afford corn for tortillas. State Senator Tom McClintock (R) summed it up as follows: "The CARB regulations [to enforce the low carbon fuel standard] will undoubtedly hit Californians hard—but they will hit starving third world populations even harder. Basic foodstuffs are a small portion of the family incomes in affluent nations, but they consume more than half of family earnings in third world countries." The Federal Government subsidizes major agribusinesses, such as ADM and Cargill, to grow corn. It also provides funds to build plants, and the refiners are given $0.51 cents a gallon for blending ethanol into our gasoline. Now these same agribusinesses want California's citizens to also pay more at the pump and supermarket by legislating additional subsidies in AB118. A gallon of ethanol is less expensive than gasoline because of its subsidies, but we pay exactly the same amount for it at the pump. The oil companies profit by selling us a gallon of less expensive fuel for the same amount per gallon that we are now paying for gasoline. And we get less gas mileage from that gallon of ethanol, so we have to purchase more gasoline to drive the same number of miles. Everywhere the money flows out of our pockets into theirs. Alternative energy for transportation does not have to be liquid fuels. PV panels will supply energy for 25 or more years with very little maintenance for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Any crop that is grown for ethanol requires energy inputs annually, for growing, processing and distribution. Rather than subsidizing corn ethanol, we should have programs to place solar panels on the top open air layer of parking garages for plug-ins, and devote more funds to public transportation. Let the Venture Capitalists who are seeking subsidies risk their own funds to research better non-food crop solutions and bring them to market when they are ready. | |
By Philip Proefrock Wed, 22 Aug 2007 It's not just for hobbits anymore. The logic of green roofs is becoming more apparent. We can minimize our bills while maximizing the beauty of the urban landscape. And every day it's becoming a little easier to live in a house that just happens to have plants growing on it. 
Vegetated roofs, or green roofs have a layer of living plants on top of the structure and the waterproofing elements. There are really two types of green roofs, intensive and extensive. 
Intensive green roofs often have a soil depth of a foot or more, and require substantial structural elements to support the weight of the whole roof. Intensive roofs can sustain a wide range of plant species and typically require a fair amount of regular maintenance. Because of the additional demands they impose, intensive roofs are much less common than extensive roofs. 
Extensive roofs are much shallower, typically only 2 to 4 inches deep, and are planted with particularly hardy plants. Over the last 50 years or so, this kind of roof has been developed, especially in Europe,. But now they are becoming increasingly common in the United States. Why are green roofs such a great idea? First, they help to reduce roof stormwater runoff. In some cases, this can help reduce the size of stormwater pipes, and the amount of stormwater that needs to be treated by municipal water treatment. In a light rainfall, a building with a vegetated roof can have no stormwater runoff at all. Green roofs also protect the roof membrane from sunlight, which breaks down the roofing material. Having even a couple inches of soil helps to greatly extend the life of the roof, and a longer lifespan means less material ends up in landfills from re-roofing buildings after the membranes have failed. 
Green roofs keep the roof cooler, which helps to reduce the heat-island effect, which contributes to cities being hotter than the surrounding countryside. This can be beneficial to the building in reducing its summertime cooling load. A green roof is also a source of oxygen and provides a habitat for some birds. Birds and insects can find homes much more readily in the living environment of a green roof, where an ordinary roof is nearly barren. And yes, it's even possible to graze goats. 
What is a green roof made of? Starting from the top, an extensive green roof has a layer of plants, which are typically sedums. These are low-growing, shallow rooting, drought tolerant plants. There are many different varieties of sedum, with different different coloration and different flowerings, so that a roof can have a varied appearance, rather than looking like an entire crop of a single variety. The plants are in a growth medium, an engineered mixture of lightweight soils, vermiculite, and other materials that provides a good environment for the sedum. The shallow depth of the soil aids in keeping weeds from establishing themselves on the roof, since most weeds cannot survive in the arid and shallow soil conditions on a vegetated roof. Local plants that can survive in that environment may establish themselves on the roof, as well. Underneath the soil are several membrane layers, rather than just a single membrane roof. There is also a drainage layer (to allow excess water to move freely, rather than lifting the soil and having it flow off the roof in a mudslide, and a root barrier layer, which keeps the roots from penetrating the roof. The roof membrane sits on the roof deck, insulation, or structure of the building much like a conventional roof. 
Can I put a green roof on my house? Green roofs make sense for residential use as much as for commercial buildings. However, retrofitting a green roof onto an existing house is not a simple matter because of the extra weight a vegetated roof adds. Most roofs are not structurally strong enough to support a vegetated roof without some reinforcement. Green roofs also work best on lower slopes. They can be installed on steeper pitched roofs, but the design and installation is more difficult and requires additional care. The added cost of a vegetated roof versus a conventional shingle roof, and the relatively small number of contractors familiar with installing them are probably the biggest limiting factors. A house with a suitably pitched roof would still likely need structural evaluation from an architect or engineer before going ahead with a retrofit, and some structural reinforcement is likely to be needed. 
Does a green roof have to be mowed? A sedum covered roof is naturally self limiting in size. Most sedums grow only a few inches tall. As mentioned above, it is also fairly self weeding, due to the inhospitable environment it offers to most weed species. An extensive roof planted with prairie grasses on the Ducks Unlimited National Headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba uses a controlled burn of its upper roof every three years to repropogate the prairie plants. The 16 inches of soil protects the building from any damage while the grass fire helps remove weed species and assists prairie species which need periodic fires as part of their life cycle. What Does the Future Hold? We were excited a while back to announce Toyota's green roofing tile. These modular, interlockable grass tiles make green roofing an absolute cinch.They're a lot lighter than other methods, and installation is a breeze. At about $34 per tile, they're still expensive, but prices would of course drop if demand were to increase. 
And, second, I and many others would like to see Friedenreich Hundertwasser's vision of every horizontal surface being returned to nature: "The true proportions in this world are the views to the stars and the views down to the surface of the earth. Grass and vegetation in the city should grow on all horizontal spaces - that is to say, wherever rain and snow falls vegetation should grow, on the roads and on the roofs. The horizontal is the domain of nature and wherever vegetation grows on the horizontal level man is off limits; he should not interfere. I mean taking away territories from nature, which human beings have always done." 
Green Roof Resources:
-The EPA on Green Roofs-
-Greenroofs.com-
-Green Roofs on Wikipedia-
-Green Roofs for Healthy Cities-
Image Key:
1. Hundertwasser's Waldspirale, Austria...From WikiMedia Commons
2. Green Rooftops from Swishphotos on Flickr from the Faroe Islands
3. Grass Roof in Oswego Illinois, USA, from Greg Robbins on Flickr
4. Solaire Green Roof in Battery Park City, NY from Birdw0rks on Flickr
5. Goats on a Roof in Wisconsin, from Driftless Media on Flickr
6. Grass Roofs in Iceland from Pietroizzo on Flickr
7. Green Roof in Tokyo from Dissonanc3 on Flickr
8. Toyota Roof Tiles from Toyota Roof Garden
9. Hunderwasser's village model, on display at Kunsthaus in Vienna.
Link: http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/events/view?id=44885It's possible (and indeed necessary) to create human environments that are comfortable, beautiful, and energy-efficient. Living lightly on the earth doesn't have to be dreary. In this course, we'll discuss the latest building technologies and techniques for creating homes that are cheaper to heat and cool and attractive besides.
Company: Solar Energy International
Start date: August 6, 2007
End date: September 14, 2007
Cost: $650 for non-members
Location: World Wide Web
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