Today we speak with Oliver Steinmetz. Oliver’s a co-founder and volunteer board member for the DESERTEC Foundation, a small NGO founded in 2008 by private persons – with money from their own pockets – to promote the DESERTEC concept of supplying clean energy from desert regions to regions with less sun, like Europe, via international grids.

The project is expected to have important implications for Europe and Africa, and hopefully also the Middle East. Looking to technologies that can make energy out of desert regions, DESERTEC hopes to set an eco-standard and technology certification, like the FSC forestry label.

Let’s learn more about Oliver, and this phenomenal idea of DESERTEC, and how countries and companies can get involved.

“The DESERTEC Concept,” says Oliver “is based on scientific research work done at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) since 2004, and was originally funded by the Club of Rome. “I make my living at the European Investment Bank (EIB, the EU’s financing institution), so my working day consists of cycling to work, then managing the Risk Management IT systems of the EIB, then cycling home.

Here’s our Q&A with Oliver (pictured above):

We’ve been following the importance of Desertec for N. African nations. How can oil-free countries get involved?

The main resource needed for solar power is … sunshine. Most North African countries have plenty of that. DESERTEC is not exclusively about Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) – it also advocates using all other forms of renewable energy wherever they can be applied most effectively, e.g. Wind power is very good on the Western shores of Morocco. Not having oil is actually an advantage in this sense, because it makes countries more interested in alternatives.

How can nations get involved? One good example is Morocco, whose government has now announced a $9 billion plan for installing 2 GW of CSP capacity in five well-defined locations. They plan to start Calls for Tender in 2010. Morocco, in turn, is following the example of Spain.

What sort of partnership opportunities would be available to Middle East countries?

The same as for North African countries and all other countries with deserts: Both the DESERTEC Foundation (as an NGO it works mainly on a personal/societal/eductional level) and the Dii, DESERTEC’s Industrial Initiative, stand ready to help interested governments and the private sector in setting up development plans. Dii concentrates on the EU-MENA area, while in the rest of the World the Foundation aims at starting regional and national industrial initiatives similar to the Dii.

Are there opportunities to the oil-producers to join in some way?

Oil producers haven’t exactly made a name for themselves in renewable energies (though they have tried). But DESERTEC is not ideological about that: Anybody interested in realising the gigantic potential of renewable energy from deserts is most welcome. There is so much work to do that we need a lot of large-scale investors.

We have a lot of entrepreneurship rising from the region. What kinds of technologies are you looking for? And grants?

Technologies: Neither Wind nor CSP are not rocket science these days, but there is still a lot of cost reduction potential in concentrated solar power (CSP). A lot of the parts and labour can and should come from companies in the producer regions, which should also have a big educational effect and a wealth / gross domestic product (GDP) effect.

We mainly seek grants from governments and the EU, but there are also a lot of foundations and state funds that might help us promote the idea worldwide, pay for the research and studies to be written.

Would you be looking for partnerships with governments, companies, institutions? Please explain.

The answer is a simple “Yes”. All of them. Whoever wakes up first. That’s different per country. For example, in Morocco we can work directly with the government, in Tunisia that’s starting, and in Algeria the government sector is still sceptical. But please consider that DESERTEC is a private-sector initiative, as opposed to e.g. the Mediterranean Solar Plan. So our grass-roots approach depends on personal contacts, which are growing continuously into new geographical areas.

How can Desertec benefit the givers, and not just the receivers, of solar energy?

As mentioned above: The key words here are “human capacity building” and “local content” in the energy-producing areas. It’s a common misunderstanding that DESERTEC is just some sort of neo-colonialist approach. On the contrary: Producing solar energy in deserts suddenly gives a value to areas that were so far considered utterly useless, and produces a new source of export revenues for the desert economies, plus internal growth of skills and revenues.

What kinds of environmental surveys are being done? Solar companies like BrightSource in California have been getting a lot of criticism from environmentalists. Will similar green networks be in place to survey which areas are most suited for installations?

The DESERTEC Foundation aims at becoming a provider of certifications for Environmental and Social standards in connection with the installation of power plants – a bit like the FSC label for wood. Only a plant that has respected local and international environmental and social standards will be allowed to use the name DESERTEC.

What’s your green vision for the Middle East, as a visionary who realizes and who is now enabling opportunities?

The Middle East has (in parts) become rich thanks to oil. But now it’s time to understand what can be the sources of wealth for future generations, in a sustainable way. It’s a lucky coincidence that most countries there also have more than enough desert areas with very high solar irradiation. CSP plants will spread, starting near the sea shores, where they can also produce desalinated drinking water and the cooling is cheaper.

The water èproduction will suddenly enable agriculture in areas where it was heretofore impossible. The deserts grow by 60,000 km2 per year, and all we need is twice that area to supply the electric power the whole world needs! So my vision is a re-greening of areas that we currently define as “lost to desertification”. That would in my view be a dream come true for humanity and for securing human life – and that of all other species – on this planet in a sustainable way.

Interested in DESERTEC:

You can meet Oliver at events coming up:
In Cairo, Egypt at MENASOL 2010 on May 4-5

And in Valencia, Spain, (with several others from DESERTEC Foundation and from Dii) on May 10-12 for these two conferences:
EIB Energy in the Mediterranean Region: the Challenges Ahead
The Mediterranean Solar Plan Conference

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, wind, and water – to generate, store, and use power. The set also contains building instructions for a variety of models such as a solar-powered car and a wind turbine.

The renewable energy set, comes with a new activity pack, which lets students explore renewable energy sources; investigate energy supply, transfer, accumulation, conversion, and consumption; and use measurements and data analysis to describe and explain outcomes through hands-on activities and real-life models.

The new set is part of Lego Education, a branch of Lego which aims to provide pre-schools to high-schools, with an educational package for exploring topics such as robotics, mechanics, electricity, math and even Aerospace.

If the last time you saw a piece of LEGO was in your childhood, I encourage you to check out some of the amazing things that can be done these days with the modern LEGO Mindstorms, it makes the LEGO Technics of my childhood look like naive child’s play by comparison. It is great to see the Legos of this generation, are just as relevant today, as they were for my generation.

And if there is a child in your life (your son or daughter, a niece, nephew, or spouse), pull him away from the TV and computer screen, and build something together.

We’d reported last month on the Peace Parks conference hosted by Tel Aviv University. The idea is to create a nature reserve out of the occupied Golan Heights now under Israel sovereignty, and to return the land to Syria, of which one third would be a peace park and nature reserve open to both Syrians and Israelis.

Could a Peace Park use nature and our natural environment to broker peace between Syria and Israel? Tel Aviv University’s Syrian expert Prof. Eyal Zisser doesn’t think so. Here’s a Q&A from the AFTAU website on what Prof. Eyal Zisser, head Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, thinks about the concept:

Rounds of indirect talks between Syria and Israel ended without resolution in 2008. To re-open a channel, Tel Aviv University hosted a conference last month to explore the possibility of a Syrian-Israeli Peace Park.

The proposed park would turn one-third of the disputed Golan Heights into a nature reserve to be managed by Syria and enjoyed by both Syrians and Israelis. The remaining two-thirds, now under Israeli sovereignty, would be returned to Syria. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Israel, the conference sessions attracted a full house of academics, politicians, NGO leaders and diplomats from countries across a diverse spectrum of opinion and expertise.

Prof. Eyal Zisser, head of Tel Aviv University’s influential think tank The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, appeared at the conference. He approves the positive thinking of proponents of the Peace Park, but finds it hard to see the project becoming a reality. An internationally renowned analyst of Syrian-Israel relations, Prof. Zisser explained why in a recent conversation:

Q: What makes you so skeptical about the prospects for a Peace Park?A: While it’s a positive and creative idea, remember that the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since Israel was established in 1948. The Syrians and Israelis have vastly different mentalities. For the Syrians, national pride is important and complete sovereignty over land is crucial.

In Israel, there are politicians, academics and NGOs are seeking a way to convince the public to return the Golan Heights to Syria, but that kind of one-sided negotiation is destined to fail in the current political climate.

Q: What would it take to make the concept a reality?
A: The whole idea behind a Peace Park would work after you’ve established peace, to help normalize relations. It would help develop warm bonds between the two peoples. But that’s not the sequence that’s being explored — and escalating security concerns between Israel and Syria mean that it could take years before the conditions are ripe for a peaceful resolution.

In Israel, the public well remembers a decade of brutal attacks with Syrians firing at civilians without provocation, a prelude to the Syrian assault in 1967. For us, giving back the land of the Golan Heights comes with a huge security risk that most Israelis would hesitate to take.

Q: So after 10 years of discussion, why is there is a renewed interest in a Peace Park now?
A: Researchers, non-governmental organizations, and those involved in the peace talks — including some Americans — think that a peace park would be a confidence-building measure among the Israeli public, a simple way make peace with Syria by giving back some acreage.

I think that’s naive. If there were the possibility of real public diplomacy between Israel and Syria, we wouldn’t need this park to cement our relationship.

Syria’s position is simple — they want the Golan Heights back. Period. They are not showing any signs they are willing to make real, warm peace for this kind of exchange, or even to pursue real public diplomacy, and for their part, Israelis are not interested in compromising with Syria for an empty photo op.

Another aspect of the proposed park is that two countries have exhibited very different levels of environmental protection and awareness. Syria is a third world country with a growing population that has very low environmental awareness.

Q: So why the U.S. interest in establishing a peace park?
A: The American government funded the recent conference as a friendly gesture — but there is no real U.S. interest. Some years ago, well before there was any diplomatic activity, a geographer who is currently a member of the Mitchell team suggested a peace park as an option.

The conference attendance and recent support from the U.S. government was really just a gesture. And the whole idea has progressed with no involvement at all from the Syrian side.

Q: If not a park, what might move the parties forward?
A: In order for there to be peace with Syria, the Israelis would need to see a radical about-face from the leader of Syria. They’d need a leader like Sadat to make a dramatic, historical move. That’s not who Bashar is, and it’s not going to happen. The only other conceivable game-changer would be Israel electing a prime minister who is willing to give up the Golan Heights — but without a change in Syria’s behavior, that’s unlikely.

Q: So is it fair to call the Golan Heights “occupied land”?
A: For all intents and purposes in the eyes of the international community, that’s true — but the occupation by Israel is very similar to the way the U.S. occupied Japan. That wasn’t a greedy colonial take-over to occupy more territory, nor is that the case for Israel in the Golan.

The “occupation” is situational and pragmatic: there was Syrian aggression towards Israel, and the 1967 War was the result. Israel defended itself, captured the Golan Heights, and remains there today because there is no peace with Syria.

It would be nice if a Peace Park were the mechanism to change that — but I’m quite certain it isn’t.

The international conference “Peace parks on Israel’s borders: The Syrian case study from theory to reality”, which took place on January 7th , 2010, was organized cooperatively by the Porter School of Environmental Studies, the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies, and the University Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation of Tel Aviv University.

::Porter School of Environmental Studies

The Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and Abu Dhabi’s green energy company, Masdar, signed a framework agreement on February 18^th for a 200 megawatt wind power plant, slated for Egypt’s eastern coast near Suez. 

The project is the first collaborative venture between Egypt and the UAE in the field of renewable energy, noted Aktham Aboul Ela, a senior official at Egypt’s Electricity and Energy Ministry. “The agreement will allow for the construction and start of implementation of the first 200 megawatt wind farm in the country,” Aboul Ela told Reuters.

Egypt already has wind farms at Zafarana and Hurghada on its Red Sea coastline, with an installed capacity of 430 megawatts of wind energy. The area is one of the windiest sites in the Middle East, with average wind speeds of over 9 meters per sec.

The country aims to generate 12% of its power from wind farms out of a total goal of 20% from renewable sources by 2020. It is seeking to attract $110 billion in investments in its energy sector by 2027, according to Reuters.

The agreement with Masdar comes in the context of enhancing UAE-Egyptian relations in all fields, especially in the field of new and renewable energy, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.

Masdar is already involved in other wind projects, including the London Array offshore wind farm and a similar project in the Seychelles.

See more about Egypt and wind at:
Egyptian Wind Energy Association

Wind Power Works – Zafarana

::Reuters

The Golan Heights, currently under dispute by both Israel and Syria, was thought to become a major location for wind power in Israel when we posted our first Green Prophet article about it back in August, 2008. At that time, there was already a wind farm in place on the Northeastern Bashanite Ridge sector, where ten turbines generate 6 MW of energy, which goes to “wind power” local factories and about 20,000 people.

A new license was granted to the Mey Eden Water Company (the same company that built the original 10 turbines at Tel Aseniya in 1992) to construct a much larger  turbine farm costing $500 million. The 400 MW wind farm of about 150 turbines was to be spread over 140 km of the Golan Heights. Haaretz reported the deal is worth $600 million and that Mey Golan would partner with US energy giant AES Corporation.

But all this may be changing now, and according to a just published article in Haaretz.com , the huge airliner-sized wind turbines may take a back seat to new projects dealing with photo-voltaic solar panels being installed on both private dwellings and commercial enterprises on the “Heights”.

A man named Shimon Keinan who just installed solar panels on his shofar factory (ritual ram’s horn musical instruments) on the southern Golan Heights, said: “I’m glad to be part of a ‘green’ enterprise in the Golan, in which dozens of systems like mine have been installed”.

Solar panels for individual solar energy electricity systems require much less space than the gigantic wind turbines, some of whom are as large as a 747 passenger airliner. They are also less hazardous to migratory birds, which pass over parts of the Golan by the thousands in their annual migrations.

According to Haaretz, some 150 photo-voltaic systems have been installed on rooftops of the Golan’s poultry runs and cowsheds to utilize the sun’s energy, with another 200 systems approved for installation. Avi Malka, head of the Golan Regional Council, says about 200 systems have been approved for installation. He added that solar panels already installed produce around 7 megawatts of electricity  while the ten large turbines in place on the Bashanit range produce around 6 MW.

But the wind turbine promoters are not about to be upstaged by competition from solar energy panels, however. The Golan has some of the strongest levels of wind energy in the entire region, and with a planned installation of  150 additional wind turbines in the northern Golan, each able to produce around 2 MW.

Avi Malka claims that if these turbines are installed “the Golan will produce enough electricity for the entire eastern Galilee region. The new turbines will be constructed by Avi Zeira of Ruhot HaGolan company (Winds of the Golan) whose original wind turbines were built 25 years ago. Zeira will have even more “wind in his sails” when he replaces to present 10 to 25 meter tall turbines with much higher and larger ones which will be 80 meter high.

As for the birds, they’ll just have to fly higher.

Worth reading articles on Golan renewable energy:
\Israel’s First Golan Wind Energy Developer Gets Windier
Is Wind Energy a Danger to Migrating Birds?
Enlight to Ignite 25 Solar Energy Projects in Israel

Everything is big in the State of Texas. The Stetson hats are big, the oil fields are big, the cars are big, and if state legislators have their way, renewable and alternative energy will also be big in the region – with a little help from Israel. On February 22, companies and investors in Texas are scheduled to hold intimate meetings in Austin with Israeli clean tech firms and investors.

The one-day conference, timed to coincide with other related local events, aims to establish business and trade ties in the alternative energy industries between the State of Israel and the State of Texas, two entities which at first glance don’t appear to have much in common.

In the past, however, the two have cooperated in the fields of medicine and defense. This time, Texas VCs and state agencies already committed to participate in the conference represent over $1b in investment potential.

Adding cleantech to the Texas-Israel partnership

Organized by the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Government of Israel-Economic Mission and the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Texas-Israel Cleanovation Conference is based on models established by similar groups in Atlanta and California, like the California-Israel Chamber of Commerce, which has been instrumental in partnering California utility companies with Israeli service providers and innovators. The Austin event is expected to draw about 200 people.

According to Arie Brish, an Israeli businessman in Texas and founder of the local chamber, there are long and established ties between Israel and Texas and the February event should be a stepping-stone to add cooperation in cleantech to the list.

It’s easy to see what both can contribute in this industry, he tells ISRAEL21c: “Texas is the number one energy state in the US and it is also the number one state in wind energy, producing enough electricity from wind to power the entire state of Israel.”

Israeli solar and water tech for Texas

Sunny Austin is a perfect venue to expose Texans to solar opportunities from Israel. The city is planning a local solar power plant with a 200MW capacity. But it’s not just the sunny solar skills of Israel that could benefit Texas. According to Brish, “Texas suffers from major water problems and it’s thirsty to connect with Israeli water technologies.”

Israeli companies that are already cooperating with those in Texas include Miya, the Arison family’s water conservation company and the IDE desalination company.

On the American side, the Texas water companies are to include the Lower Colorado River Authorities, San Antonio Water, Texas Water Board Department, Advanced Hydro and the Texas Water Resources Institute. Shell and Texas Instruments are also involved.

Utility companies from Texas such as Austin Energy and the Electrical Reliability Corporation of Texas are also expected to attend. Meanwhile, renewable energy firms and investors such as the Chief Scientist of Israel Dr. Eli Opper, Israel Cleantech Ventures and Terra Ventures are all on the confirmed list.

Intimate panels provide networking potential

While Brish says this will be the first cleantech conference for Israelis and Texans, the chamber is hoping to build on the success of previous conferences that focused on other areas where there is a natural fit between the two, such as the medical and defense industries.

The upcoming conference, designed to foster networking, will focus on three areas for cooperation, each to be represented by its own panel – one for investment opportunities, one for water technologies and one for smart grids.

The day following the event, the Israeli participants are expected to mosey on over to the other side of the street to the “Renewable Energy World” conference, so that those who didn’t attend the previous day’s Texas-Israel event will have a chance to familiarize themselves with the new clean technologies from Israel waiting for them at the Israel pavilion.

(This story was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)

::The Texas-Israel conference website

When we think of wind turbines, we tend to picture the standard massive turbine fans the size of airplane wings. While they’re an important carbon-free component to supplying countries with renewable energy solutions, there are those – including environmentalists – who find the massive turbines unsightly and somewhat controversial. Sometimes, new roads have to be laid to secure the mega-blades into the ground near windy shores. And the unsightly wind stations devalue property and real estate.

Meanwhile, an Israeli company is proving that there’s more than one way to catch the wind. Looking to the French mathematician, Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis, the team at the company that bears his name has developed a medium-sized scalable wind technology that can grow with one’s energy needs, investment potential and the changing winds of time.

Based on a single unit that rotates three blades vertically, like a barber’s pole, Coriolis Wind’s solution which we’ve reported on earlier, is scalable – each unit of 50 kilowatts can be stacked together with others to generate as much as one megawatt of power, enough energy to run an industrial park. The product is currently in the prototype stage.

With a name derived from the Coriolis effect – the deflective effect of the earth’s rotation on all free-moving objects, including oceans, the atmosphere and wind – the company’s solution lies in extremely lightweight vertical turbine blades, each only about six and a half feet long. Developed from a lightweight plastic material, the molded turbines are linked together in a “pod” of three, to form a module. Modules can be connected together to scale, as more power is needed.

Tapping into a $40 billion market

Coriolis sees itself as ultimately offering a new paradigm to tap into the medium-scale wind power solutions market, estimated at about $40 billion. Its approach is to move away from the massive blades and over to small- to medium-sized units that have less effect on the environment and their surroundings.

“You know it’s very subjective,” Coriolis CEO Rafi Gidron tells ISRAEL21c. “We believe that the environmental impact of our system is not as disturbing as the big turbines.

“Ours is designed for a distributed wind environment in industrial parks, commercial parks and small communities in the wind environment,” he explains. With Coriolis, you won’t see “big wind farms with dozens of turbines, but a smaller installation,” he adds.

Coriolis is focusing on the niche where the big wind turbines are not the appropriate solution. The company can reduce the overhead costs incurred by cranes, and doesn’t require any special type of delivery transport for installation like the larger turbine fans do.

“Our system is designed so it doesn’t require training, it can easily be maintained and can be transported by small standard trucks,” he says, stressing that the units’ prices will be competitive with the industry standards.

Born in a cowshed

Some companies, Gidron continues, will be able to park the system behind the electricity meter and sell the power back to the grid at retail prices. At other locations the units can be tailored to meet the energy needs at any given time, and can scale up as a company or factory grows. And theoretically, the turbines can also be moved if wind intensity should change or if a company relocates.

The company of 13, founded in 2008, has an ambitious plan to be a leader in wind energy, supplying power to large buildings, schools and industrial parks all over the world.

The company’s pilot site is located at the Israeli agricultural village of Kfar Yarok, where its office and test lab are housed inside a cowshed. “That’s where the sh** literally hits the fan,” says Gidron (pun intended).

With a $10 million investment Coriolis will build its beta site in the US, along with a strategic partner – a major American energy company that has not yet been named. The site is expected to be ready by 2011.

Coriolis was founded by Precede, a group of four entrepreneurs who also founded the Pythagoras and Solar Power solar energy companies. All the founders now hold full-time positions at Coriolis and offer their support as board members to the other two companies since launched.

(This story was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)

More on the potential of wind power for the Middle East:
Turkey Blowing and Going on Wind Power
Does Wind Energy Endanger Migrating Birds?
Harvest Rainwater and Build Turbines With Vertigo Dance Company
Dubai’s Wind-Powered Rotating Skyscraper is Building in Motion

While Israel generates numerous headlines as a solar energy innovator, the country still has plans to build additional coal plants, and there’s relatively little production of renewable and alternative energy on its turf. International media, investors and policy makers have been asking why this is so and hopefully some answers will emerge from an annual coming together of minds in Eilat from February 16 to 18.

Dorit Banet, a co-chair of the upcoming Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference, tells ISRAEL21c that she hopes the conference will help Israel to color itself greener at home, through education, relationship building and business networking. For three days in February, expect to meet international powerhouses and renewable energy innovators as they converge on Israel’s sunny southern city of Eilat.

Banet was head of the environmental unit in the sunny Eilat-Eilot region located in the southernmost tip of Israel. As she contemplated the region’s business and energy potential, she realized that much more could be done with respect to renewable energy.

Israel as the beta site for clean tech

With summer highs reaching a scorching 113 degrees F, the region is perfect for the deployment of alternative energy projects like solar energy. Back in 2007, Banet and her handpicked partner Noam Ilan held the first energy conference in Eilat and followed it up with another energy conference last year.

“The focus here, what we really want to achieve, is to be the place where things are happening,” she tells ISRAEL21c. “We want to improve this field of knowledge. After the first conference in 2007, people put their money into building a strategic plan. Last year’s event was to say, ‘here is the initiative, the government is with us and here is the knowledge.’”

This year, she says, with an estimated turnout of 1,500 people, the conference organizers are saying: “We are the beta site for clean technology. We know the potential after Copenhagen. The world should enter a new era and aim for 350 parts per million greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2050. This is one of our main goals. We want to put the innovation out front.”

Through the conference, she continues, “we want to show how we can be the beta site and how we can be bankable.”

Emphasizing Israeli innovation

In the year 2010 says Banet, the emphasis will be on regulations: “How we can build, and put together big solar power stations. The second emphasis will be on Israeli innovation – how this market can be the mainstay of Israeli income for years to come.

“All the world emphasizes the need for innovation in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Those two together can provide the answer to the energy crisis. We want Israeli clean tech to be at the forefront here and all over the world. We want to give it more exposure, and we want the government to understand how it can help [innovators] take the first steps in Israel.”

The speakers invited are expected to spark discourse about and contribute their expertise to innovation, policy and implementation. Companies such as Siemens, Schott Solar and the Chinese solar company Suntech are expected to attend and participate.

Other high profile guests expected include US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones; Prof. Robert (Yisrael) Aumann, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics from Hebrew University; Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utility Commission; and Prof. David Faiman, the internationally acclaimed Israeli researcher on solar energy from Ben Gurion University.

Local innovators, global goals

Banet emphasizes that the conference is a global event. All discussion about implementation, policy and regulation will be meant to address a global environment, not just what’s happening locally in Israel. Meanwhile, experts such as Kateri Callahan from the Alliance to Save Energy in Washington will explore different financing models for renewable energy. Banet expects this to be of interest to financiers from Europe and North America.

“The interaction between big entrepreneurs, big financers, and local innovators is very important,” she stresses, “and it is these three that the event will attract… a major part [of the attendees] will be from Europe, from large financing and other big companies that want to know what Israel has to offer.”

There will also be time to go outdoors and enjoy this sunny retreat city in the name of business and networking: Local solar energy companies like Aora are expected to strut their solar stuff. Located in the Eilat area, those interested will be able to visit Aora and its ultra-high temperature-concentrating solar power technology that focuses sunlight on a flower-like bulb high in the sky.

::Eilat Renewable Energy conference website

(This article was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org.)

Turkey’s got some renewable energy projects brewing see our recent article on renewable energy prospects for Turkey. Competing with oil from the Middle East, it now appears that the Turkish government has decided to favor more projects dealing with wind and other renewable energy programs. In an abstract for an article in the Turkish Digest called “On Wind Energy in Turkey,” the article had some positive points in favor of wind.

“As wind energy is an alternative clean energy source compared to the fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere, systems that convert wind energy to electricity have developed rapidly.”

No surprise to us.

Turkey’s developing interest in wind energy was aided considerably by an energy efficiency law that was passed by the Turkish government in 2007, that allows 10 years of electricity generation by renewable sources as guaranteed by the Turkish government. With the passage of this law, installed wind power has risen to 131.35 MW in Turkey and it is expected that this value was to be expected be increased to 808.81 MW by the end of 2008.

As in other countries still importing fossil fuels for a large part of their energy needs including, the success of renewable energy projects depend a lot on the assistance these projects receive from governmental authorities as well as outside assistance from financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Turkey received this assistance in May 2009, when the Bank announced it is investing $600 million in developing renewable sources such as biomass, hydro, wind and geothermal. Funding is being channeled through banks, which will loan cash to private entrepreneurs to give the market a boost. Not all of this aid will go to wind energy projects, but will be divided up among the mentioned renewable energy sources.

Still, wind energy is considered by many to be one of the cleanest renewable sources around, and despite the special equipment needed to install the massive propeller shaped wind turbines, many of which are as large as a 747 passenger airliner,  it appears that more wind energy projects will be seen all over Turkey.

Of course, the Turks might consider installing more innovative vertical turbines, such as ones currently being developed by an Israeli company, Coriolis Wind, which are able to produce electricity from a much lower “wind cut-in speed” by taking advantage of natural forces such as the Coriolis Effect.

Whatever types of wind turbines and related equipment will be utilized in Turkish wind farms, it appears that this form of energy will be used more in the future to power the country’s growing energy needs. And maybe the use of wind power will put Turkey in the good books of the EU bloc, of which Turkey has been pining to join.

Photo via the World Bank
::www.turkishdigest.com

More on wind power:
Turkey unsure to look East or West for Renewable Energy Development
Turkey Lands World Bank  “Smart Grid”
Wind Turbines in Cow Shed Test Coriolis Verticle Wind Turbines

Who would ever have thought that wind blower fans in a cow barn would spark an idea to create innovated vertical wind turbines?

It turns out that a small, clean technology startup company located in a kibbutz near Ramat Hasharon, Israel may be developing a new stackable wind turbine that could compete with the giant propeller ones currently in use around the world.

Coriolis Wind is the brain child of its 3 co-founders Dr. Rafi Gidron, an entrepreneur  from Precede Technologies, an entrepreneurship and investment firm focused on high growth markets such as alternative energy; Orni Petruschka, also with Preclude; and Dr. Shuki Sheinman, formerly connected with NASA, Scitex and El Op.

The basis of the technology comes from a scientific phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect named after a French mathematician, Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis who wrote a treatise in 1835about how the earth’s rotation affects the direction and force of  wind. It’s also called the “toilet flush effect.”

A video of the Coriolis Effect:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This theory resulted in Gidron and his partners coming up with a very different type of vertical wind turbine that can utilize the earth’s rotational effect of winds to create the most efficient energy. The “wind testing” idea they use is even more unique as it revolves around a using cow barn at Kibbutz Kfar Hayarok, outside Tel Aviv  to create a wind tunnel for testing their vertical  wind turbines.

The “wind” used in their initial experiments does not come from the cows themselves but from the fans used to ventilate the areas the dairy cattle are living in (which can be quite smelly for obvious reasons).

According to Dr. Sheinman, who used his experience with NASA to help design the special rotary turbine blades, the main idea is to capitalize on what is known as the minimum wind “cut-in speed”; below which no useable power can be produced by a wind force.

Watch this video on Coriolis (Discovery)

Click here to view the embedded video.

By experimenting with different wind speeds in their “cow barn wind tunnel” they found that the minimum cut-in speed is 3.5 meters per second or 12 km per hour. Their idea is to capitalize on using minimum wind velocities, as influenced by the Coriolis effect to create the most energy and with a much lighter weighted smaller turbine device than the standard wind turbines we are all reading about.

By developing very light weight vertical turbine blades of only 2 meters in length, and made from a light weight plastic molding material, the turbines are then placed in a “pod” of three turbine fans, which are then linked together to form a module. The desired wind power is then created by combining enough modules which are mounted on vertical stands, which utilize less space than the large propeller turbines “that are the size of a 747 aircraft and very heavy” according to Dr. Sheinman.

Rafi Godron is banking on the financial potential that his company’s new wind turbine concept may create. He says that with wind turbines already being a multi-million dollar business around the world, their new design should be able to capture “at least 12-15% of the total market” when put into full production. With the idea of  ”building a better mouse trap” as the old innovation saying goes, this new wind energy concept may very well accomplish this feat, once they get past the “cow barn” testing stage, that is. And it looks like they have. Check out the video above.

Photo: ISRAEL Dairy

::Discovery