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 […]
Shale gas takes us down a dangerous path – Tunisians are battling shale gas proponents who say it is less carbon-intensive and ‘green’ With Tunisians protesting Shell’s shale gas plans and Jordanians set to finalise a deal to build the region’s first oil shale plant by the end of the year, it seems that the […]
Palestinians want to be more energy independent but will Israeli authorities, which are currently threatening the demolition of solar plants in the West Bank, allow them to be? In light of the Israeli environment minister’s proposal to cut Gaza’s electricity if supplies are running low, it makes perfect sense for Palestinian explore their own energy […]
Had a busy week? Well, why not stop and sample the delights of Sunday’s news nuggets It’s been a busy week here at Green Prophet headquarters and we’ve all been hard at work highlighting the green and not-so-green news of the Middle East. Personally, finding out that Mekkah wouldn’t be replicating the mistake of building […]
No green “juice” for your Better Place electric car? Energy expert says Israel’s infrastructure will never be able to fulfil renewable energy goals. Thinking about buying an electric car like ones being promoted by Shai Agasi’s Better Place? Following my test drive of one of their Renault Fluence ZE Concept cars it turns out that […]
Fresh on the heels of Israel, Egypt, and the UAE, who have all recently made commitments for a renewable energy future, Jordan recently launched EDAMA, an initiative to help Jordan reduce energy demand, water usage, and protect the environment. EDAMA Chairperson Karim Kawar indicates that Jordan is using its energy and water resources in an […]
Green Design – From Theory to Practice (see preview post here), a major international architectural seminar took place this week here in Jerusalem, bringing together leading experts from the worlds of architecture, design, and integrated studies. Despite the recent war in the south, all but one of the international practitioners came, and by doing so, […]
Amidst all its struggles to develop clean and cleaner technologies (and a war with Gaza), it seem that Israelis got a huge gift this week: Israelis were celebrating this week over the discovery of a massive 3 trillion cubic feet natural gas pocket found buried 1.5 km below the sea floor, some 90 km off […]
How pirating in the Middle East affects the state of the environment. Pirates are not just in the movies these days –– a group of Somali pirates recently hijacked a large Saudi oil taker, fuelled up and took off the coast of Kenya on its way to the US. The $120-million ship contained up to […]
(image credit: NYTimes blogs) Man, alternative energy solutions can’t come fast enough. The world is teetering on the verge of runaway climate change (some predictors say there’s less than 100 months), and gas prices are killing us not only at the gas station, but are affecting everything we buy from food to clothes to you […]
From creating the world’s most popular puzzle website (and a Time Magazine top 50), Israeli-British entrepreneur and hightech whiz Gideon Greenspan decided to change gears and put a focus on the environment. A couple of years ago, Gideon (who is based in Tel Aviv) was looking for a way to offset his travel and was […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNY_-1Fsd2k[/youtube] The Israel cleantech world is buzzing over BrightSource and its subsidiary Luz II. The companies recently invited the press to visit the world’s first operating solar thermal field in the Negev Desert, for creating clean and efficient solar energy. The 12,000 square meter test site will generate 1.5 MW of electricity. Cheaper heliostats, no […]