Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: Alternative Energy, Energy, Green, Solar energy, turbines, Wind, Windpower
I know I seem a little obsessive on wind energy, however it is with good reason. Yes, Israel has lots of sun and lots of companies attempting to harness it, but i still strongly believe that we should also be looking at other alternative energy sources like wind. There was an interesting article in yesterday’s Jerusalem Post entitled “Draft tender published for Negev wind farms”. This article discusses the latest initiatives being worked on to develop wind farms in the Negev.
Today Israel has one Wind facility in the Golan which produces 6 MW and two more in the works to produce another 22MW.
The article also talks about the efforts to measure the wind flow in Israel and how it has taken years of labor to achieve this. It also mentions israeli start-ups involved in developing methods of harnessing electricity even at low wind speeds. These are all interesting topics that I will hopefully delve more into over the next few months.
I would really like to see Wind power succeed in Israel and would be willing to invest efforts in this direction.
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: Alternative Energy, cost savings, Energy, green costs, Incentives, Israel, jobs, renewable energy, Solar energy, solar panels, turbines, Wind, Windpower
Over the last few months there has been a lot of activities in Israel to promote the installation of Home based Solar panels.
A recent posting to a community group that I am subscribed to went something like this ……. “We have done the leg work , have met with 5 different companies and found the company with the largest output of these systems with the most experience and then got the best price.”
Sounds good so far…….
“Join the group. you need at least 28 square meters facing the south
approx. does not need to be direct. With 40 square meters you can put in the largest tax free system up to date.”
Still sounds reasonable and something worth looking into – but wait here is the clincher…..
“Your money will be returned in 8.7 years“……… 8.7 years that’s Eight years and seven months. At least in my book that is a huge amount of time to have to wait for a realistic Return on Investment (ROI) on your solar panels. This also assumes a best case scenario. What if the system needs to be fixed over that time period. What you think they won’t break? Wont need any maintenance over 8.7 years? Of course they will I have a solar panels on my roof to heat my hot water (as most Israeli homes do) and I have had to replace panels more then once.
Now lets look at technology advances – without even looking at google I am sure that as we speak new, improved and much more efficient systems are being developed and I am sure they won’t take 8.7 years to become available. I, as most people can’t find too many electronic components in my house that have not become obsolete in 8.7 years. For example I have replaced my computer 3 times in that many years and each time I have gotten significant performance improvements for comparable money. Again this further makes me wonder how I could commit to 8.7 years just to break even on a solar system.
So now that we have established that 8.7 years is too long a time to recoup your investment – what can be done about it?
Lets take a minute to look at who benefits from installing solar panels on your home. Obviously you benefit as you lower your energy cost and what you are paying the electric company. Believe it or not the electric company benefits by getting more output from their grids. Over the last few years the IEC (Israel Electric Company) has suffered from peak time brown outs and a growing inability to support the growing energy need. Lastly lets not forget the government, the Israeli government who owns almost all of the IEC.
Now lets take a look at other countries. In the US alternative energy subsidies are widespread and growing. In the UK the government is willing to pay up to 50% of the initial cost of the solar panels (and that is in a country not known for its sunlight).
If you took this model in Israel and if the government was willing to subsidize the Solar panels then perhaps we could cut the ROI to something more reasonable and thus making it a more viable option. I think that the Israeli Government must make this a matter of policy to find innovative ways to encourage alternative energy and to make it viable.
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: affordable, cost savings, Energy, Green, Israel
I attended a presentation on Sunday byShai Avivi & Dan Shirai to Israeli personalities that have set up a company called “Green Enterprise” dedicated to promoting Green friendly activities in Israel (sounds like another company I know 
. The bulk of there presentation was showing a really thought provoking video entitled “story of stuff” the video raises a number of good points and perhaps I will address that in a future posting. Today I want to talk about one of the questions that Shai answered.
A question was raised how can we as individuals make an impact when governments and large industries are doing so much damage? How can my switching my light bulbs, or starting to use green friendly bags, or even something as simple as shutting off a light when you leave a room help the environment? There is so much damage being done how can my small changes make a difference? I was extremely impressed by Shai’s answer (although I will take poetic license and paraphrase – as I don’t remember his exact words yes the small changes do add up and its critical that everyone of us makes these changes.
We all know that to be totally carbon footprint free is a near impossibility and we are not all able or even willing to stop all of our non-green activities however we need to start somewhere.
I was talking with someone yesterday about this concept and he told me that he also didn’t feel that he was ready to make any significant life changing green friendly activities, I told him that I feel strongly that we must all begin to do the small things that don’t affect our day to day lives but will in fact help the environment and lower our natural resource consumption. Most people won’t feel the difference using a green friendly light bulb and most people won’t even realize that plastic silverware that they buy is made from bio-degradable materials rather then not. I am a true believer in start small and succeed rather then aiming too big and ending up failing. What’s your thoughts?
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: affordable, affordable energy, cost savings, Energy, green costs, Israel, renewable energy
In his recent article “Don’t Talk About Green” Richard Serreeni, discusses the idea that to sell “green” it should come down to the cost savings. This is an emerging trend that needs to be seriously discussed.
To better understand this a number of questions have to be asked? Is cost savings the main driver to adopt green practices or just a side benefit. Are companies driven by an urge to help the environment? How does helping the environment measure up to being able to lower their costs? What if adopting green practices will in the short term raise costs? Can this be justified to investors?
According to a survey of businesses at Storage Expo 2008, 70 percent of respondents said green IT and efficiency is a priority, as long as it saves money. This is a very telling statement. Basically 70 percent felt that the number one driver is to save money and helping the environment is just a side benefit.
Although this may sound like a negative trend and that the death of the trend to save enviorment being just a Bull market away, I don’t believe this is the case , in fact I think this is a healthy development. Obviously the cost savings “sell” is critical to a company, very few CFO’s will sign off an investment in Green technology or practices that won’t result in a cost savings and a justifiable ROI. However this will cause two critical things to happen. Firstly the green innovations that are emerging will need to develop technologies that are not just green friendly but will also be cost efficient and secondly in the end the environment will benefit as companies incorporate these cost efficient solutions. In my opinion the bottom line is getting from point A to point B (i.e lowering Energy usage) and the reason doesn’t matter as much. What do you think?
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: Alternative Energy, Energy, Israel, renewable energy, turbines, Wind, Windpower
In a recent article byJeff in the Cleantechies blog he writes about the new technology that utilizes radar to track bird migration patterns that can then shut down Wind Turbines as birds approach. I think this is a very interesting development as Israel is on a major migration path for birds and as such would need to look at this carefully. The question is also raised about the need for this solution if the wind turbines were placed correctly in the first place (I will answer this later).
The first question that comes to mind .. is this against the whole principal of an ECO Friendly power alternative? Without even addressing the harm to birds issue, does it make sense to increase power usage and to add radiation to the area just to make this a viable source of energy? Also will the additional cost of installing and monitoring the radar make this to cost prohibitive? Bottom line the numbers need to make sense both in terms of costs and energy generated vs. energy consumption. If the net gain is greater then maybe it should be considered. This can all be avoided by properly investigating and planning your wind solution.
In general I am in favor of Wind power and I believe that it is one of the cleanest energy sources available, yet it has to be planned and developed in a way that will not cause additional energy consumption. As for offering this as a solution to poorly placed and planned wind farms…I think that if the costs can be justified then it will add to the acceptance of Wind as a true green solution by protecting the birds. I believe this is important but I will not go so far as to say that this should be mandated or enforced. What do you have to say?
Just a quick post – I read a great article highlighting how wind energy is truly one of the growth fields in today’s shrinking economy. The article entitled Want a job? Think wind by Anne B. Butterfield the full article can be read here . In the article she talks about a recent WINDPOWER Conference held in Chicago. The event attracted over 23,000 attendees (which in today’s shrinking economic climate is a very large turnout). It seems that this is a worldwide trend and that a number of suppliers for other more traditional industries (i.e. Auto Suppliers) are looking to move into this growing field.
As I posted before I think that to date Wind has not gotten the attention it deserves and should be more in focus today. I am still at the early stage of understanding the ROI on this vs. Solar but as I advance that I will keep you posted. Also as I am generally focused on the Israeli market and I am sure there are more wind friendly areas out there I believe that there is great wind potential and this should be further developed.
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: Alternative Energy, Energy, Israel, turbines, Wind, Windpower
One camp that is weary of Wind power in Israel is the SPNI. Among there reasons is the fear that as Israel is a flyway for millions of migrating birds heading to Europe via Africa and vice-versa this can cause irreparable damage to these migrating animals. This fear may have some merit when we are referring to large wind turbine farms that will encompass vast acres, however when we are talking about individual wind turbines that are not concentrated in one area I believe the danger is mitigated.
Wind is clean, free, availble and safe. Its time to start thinking in this direction.
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: affordable, alternative, Energy, Israel, turbines, Wind
I just read an interesting blog post Entitled Winding Up for More Wind Power in Israel
Feb 17th, 2008 by Karin Kloosterman (
http://greenprophet.com/2008/02/17/148/desert-wind-power/). In it she states that there are a number of issues with Wind power being a viable energy source in Israel. This is despite the acknowledgment that Israeli businessman Shlomo Shmeltzer is planning on developing $100 million wind turbine farm in the Arava desert to produce 50 megawatts of energy.
Personally I am intrigued by wind energy. True that Israel has lots of Sun and as such Solar power is a great option, I also believe that Wind (even the warm dry ones that Israel usually has) can be a source of renewable, affordable and clean energy. I can envision a time when every house has its mini turbine(s) on the roof and is feeding power to its house and possibly even back into the national grid.
Filed under: Alternative Energy | Tags: affordable energy, Energy, Israel, renewable energy, turbines, Wind
As the world’s natural resources get used up and the demand for these resources increase there is a growing need to find renewable resources to replace the old traditional ones. In this blog I will look to discuss innovative Green solutions.
Just to give you some statiscticsfrom Wikipidea;
Between 1980 and 2004, the worldwide annual growth rate was 2%. [1] According to the US Energy Information Administration’s 2006 estimate,
| Fuel type | Average power in TW[1] | Energy/year in EJ |
| Oil | 5.6 | 180 |
| Gas | 3.5 | 110 |
| Coal | 3.8 | 120 |
| Hydroelectric | 0.9 | 30 |
| Nuclear | 0.9 | 30 |
| Geothermal, wind, solar, wood |
0.13 | 4 |
| Total | 15 | 471 |
Coal fueled the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th century. With the advent of the automobile, airplanes and the spreading use of electricity, oil became the dominant fuel during the twentieth century. The growth of oil as the largest fossil fuel was further enabled by steadily dropping prices from 1920 until 1973. After the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, during which the price of oil increased from 5 to 45 US dollars per barrel, there was a shift away from oil.[12] Coal, natural gas, and nuclear became the fuels of choice for electricity generation and conservation measures increased energy efficiency. In the U.S. the average car more than doubled the number of miles per gallon. Japan, which bore the brunt of the oil shocks, made spectacular improvements and now has the highest energy efficiency in the world.[5] From 1965 to 2008, the use of fossil fuels has continued to grow and their share of the energy supply has increased.
To be continued
