Photo by spanginator

Newswise — Solar power must become more efficient and less expensive to compete with energy produced by fossil fuels. Silicon-based solar cells are the dominant technology in the field, but the widespread adoption of these cells has been slowed by their high costs. Solar cells that use inorganic nanocrystals or "quantum dots" could be a cheaper alternative, but they are generally less efficient at turning solar energy into electricity.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have now found a new way to generate an electrical field inside the quantum dots, making them more suitable for building an energy-efficient nanocrystal solar cell.

In their report in the October 9 issue of Nature Materials, Professor Nir Tessler (of the Zisapel Nano-Electronics Center in the Technion Department of Electrical Engineering) and colleagues describe how they "tuned" the electrical properties of quantum dots before testing their capabilities in a model solar cell.

Nanocrystal or quantum dots "are promising materials for low-cost and high efficiency solar cells" due to their unusual electronic properties, Tessler said. For instance, the size of a quantum dot is uniquely correlated to its light absorption, so changing a dot's size can maximize its ability to harvest light within a solar cell.

To live up to their promise, however, the dots must share electrons efficiently-a feat that has been difficult to control. The Technion study offers a new way to bring an electrical charge to the dots-each about one-millionth the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Tessler and colleagues were able to generate strong electrical fields within the dots by capping them with two different organic molecules. The chemical groups that attach the molecules to the dots' surface generate the electrical field, they show.

Tessler said the findings give researchers one more method of controlling the building blocks of nanoelectronics. The dots are produced in an optoelectronic "ink" solution, he noted, which could make them suitable for future applications in "the field of printed electronics that will produce sheets of light or sheets of solar cells."

The researchers hope to combine these findings along with their previous experiments that mix different kinds of nanocrystals, to discover whether combining the two methods might lead to even more efficient energy production.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is consistently ranked among the world's leading science and technology universities. Home to three of Israel's five winners of the Nobel Prize in science, the Technion commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in computer science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy, water-resource management, medicine, drug development, and aerospace. Headquartered in New York City, the American Technion Society (ATS) promotes scientific and technological research and education at the Technion.

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com via http://www.newswise.com/

While solar energy companies throughout the world are competing for the relatively few vast land areas required to house solar farms, Israeli startup Solaris Synergy has found a new terrain to use. Instead of a land-based solar system, the company decided to develop a water-based technology. In other words: a floating solar power plant.

The company’s founders say they realized that the large lands required for thousands of solar panels are nearly impossible to find, especially in a small country like Israel. Solaris Synergy’s Business Development Manager, Dr. Elyakim Kassel, tells NoCamels: “In many countries there is a competition between land for construction and land for large solar farms. Our system comes as a solution to use water surfaces instead of using valuable land.” According to Solaris Synergy (http://www.solaris-synergy.com/home.html), any fresh, salt or waste water surface can be turned into a solar energy platform.

Solaris Synergy’s flagship product is a floating concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system – a system that concentrates a large amount of sunlight onto a small area to generate electricity by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity. The system features a modular design that supports power output ranging from several kilowatts to dozens of megawatts, depending on size. (To see video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl8dfRuR10s&feature=player_embedded)

According to the company, their solar-on-water solution dramatically lowers the cost of renewable energy production since the water surface is also used for cooling the solar panels. This cooling system keeps the silicon elements used as semiconductors at a low temperature and therfore increases their power generation efficiency and extends their lifespan.

Solaris Synergy was founded in 2008 and awarded an R&D grant from Israel’s National Infrastructures Ministry. The company is also backed by private equity funds in the United States. They recently got a permit from Israeli water company Mekorot to build their first facility near the city of Netivot.

The company says they are currently negotiating pilot projects with companies in the United Kingdom, France, South America and India.

Kassel addresses the challenges his company faces. “The main challenge, at the moment, is lowering the costs. People will not use our technology if it is not cheap enough.” He also admits that “as a small company, if we want to spread our technology around the world, we will have to join a global company.”

Kassel says they are not the only company focusing on energy on water. “The competition is good for us since it proves that we have a good idea. We just have to show that we are the best.”

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

By Hanna Szekeres

The Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem, Israel is a 30-acre oasis where you can see, smell and even taste over 10,000 species of flowers from around the world. But the educational department of the gardens also focuses on another type of seed: “the seeds of peace.”

Five years ago the department started a project called “Coexistence” that brings together nine- to 11-year-olds from the city’s Jewish and Muslim schools and teaches them about the production of spices, olive oil and herbal remedies in the gardens.

The project consists of 10 sessions throughout the school year and ends with the children visiting at each other’s schools and planting trees, symbolizing the fruits of their cooperation and mutual learning.

“Nature is everybody’s and nobody’s,” says the project director, Leah Gerson. “The Garden serves as a neutral ground, as a charming atmosphere with wonderful tasks that allows room for openness and listening.”

Due to the language barrier, the teachers act as translators for the children and bridge the gaps between the sides. “My initial fear was for nothing,” says Gerson, “because the children found their own ways to communicate, as children do.”

In the past year alone the project has brought together 160 Jewish and Arab children for combined studies. “We have the largest collection in the country and are a living showcase for biodiversity,” says Sue Surkes, director of development. “We translate the plant biodiversity into trying to encourage human diversity as well.”

Coexistence is just one of several programs blossoming at Israel’s largest botanical garden, adds Surkes.

To reach broader audiences, including Christians and Muslims, the JBG is also opening a newly upgraded Bible Path, complete with new plantings, outdoor classrooms, interpretational aids and innovative programming.

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo by Sustainable sanitation

It may look like mud, but sludge – the “leftover” semi-solid part of the stuff we flush down the toilet or pour down the drain, is a creature unto itself. Far more toxic than plain old mud, sludge has the potential to bust a city's budget, as it needs to be treated and disposed of. But it doesn't have to be that way; in the hands of Israeli startup Global Recycling Projects Ltd. (Ecoarrow), sludge pulls its own weight – providing “free” energy by turning sludge into – electricity!

It's a neat trick that GRPL pulls off using solar power – giving the system the distinction of being truly “green,” using solar energy to produce the power needed to operate the system – unlike many other green projects (such as electric cars) which may produce environmentally sound results, but have a large “carbon footprint” in the energy they require to produce those positive results.

The system – designed to be built adjacent to a waste disposal site – is based on harnessing solar energy to power a solar biomass reactor, which turns the sludge into gas that powers electricity-generating turbines. A field of tracking mirrors (called heliostats) directs concentrated solar radiation towards the facility, powering the biomass reactor. With this system, waste processors can get rid of their sludge efficiently and easily, avoiding the need to dump it in landfills (a very expensive proposition these days) – and possibly even earning money from their sludge, selling electricity to local utilities.

And if that weren't enough, GRPL even has a way to nudge sludge that just won't go into the processing plant; the company has developed a unique robot – “the only one of its kind in the world,” says company CEO Boaz Zadik, who was at Watec 2011 this week showing off the project – which can actually enter tough sludge patches that no human, or even lesser robot, dare approach.

“Sludge is often toxic, which makes removing it essential, if a facility is going to continue operating and not get shut down by environmental authorities, says Zadik. “But removing that sludge is very difficult and time consuming.”

Not with GRPL's Predator robot, though. “The robot has extraordinary pumping capabilities: up to 200 meters cubed per hour. It is activated by remote control making it operable a safe distance away from the actual working area to protect the operators. Explosion proofing can enhance safety,” Zadok says.

The project is deploying part or all of its technologies at numerous places in Israel, including for large companies, among them the Israel Electric Company, Israel Military Industries, Mekorot, the Haifa Municipality and Frutarom.

Members of the company's team have been involved in water rehabilitation and green technology for decades – Zadik has been in the business for over two decades – and says that there is plenty of opportunity for expansion. After all, as Zadik says, “sludge is everywhere, and we are working to make sure it disappears into electricity.”

This article appeared on www.nocamels.comvia www.israelnationalnews.com/

Photo by Gates Foundation

Israeli agro-biotechnology company, Rosetta Green, has developed a new technology to develop plants that are better able to withstand prolonged periods of severe drought. The company aims to develop new plant varieties resistant to harsh climatic condition, maintaining an increased yield.

The company, based in Rehovot, Israel, experimented on tobacco plants that were irrigated with seawater instead of freshwater. The genetically modified plants created by the company were able to grow under seawater irrigation, as opposed to the control group of plants.

According to the company’s CEO, Amir Avniel, “the frequent droughts afflicting the world in recent years and the motivation to expand to arid lands containing brackish water require the development of plant varieties resistant to drought and irrigation with salt water.”

Rosetta Green is using a technology that can identify MicroRNAs, which are short RNA molecules that play an important role in the regulation of key genetic traits in major crops. The MicroRNAs identified by the company were used to develop prototype plants with significantly improved drought tolerance. The genetic modification was performed by plant tissue culture methods that result in genetic transformation, and this “improved trait” survives from one generation to another, according to Avniel.

Plants that were modified by this micro-RNA gene and control plants that did not undergo such modification were irrigated with salt water with triple the salinity level of seawater. Subsequently, both plant groups were put back on a regular irrigation conditions. Researchers found that only the genetically modified plants were able to recover from the severe stress and continued to grow, while control plants completely wilted.

The company’s CTO, Rudy Maor, told NoCamels that “the extreme conditions under which the experiment was conducted reinforce the importance of these genes and their advantage over other techniques used to improve plants.” Maor added that “agricultural areas constitute only about 10 percent of global land area and the development of advanced technologies that may render plants capable of growth in additional areas, such as deserts, is critical for food supply to the ever growing world population.”

CEO Avniel added: “This experiment is another step in the company’s progress towards production of improved plants that will provide farmers with excellent yield even in drought conditions, and allow the growth of crops in wide areas that are currently unsuitable due to soil salinity and weather conditions.”

According to Maor, part of the de-regulation process ensures that the modified crops will not lose on quality. As to the pricing of these crops, the company explains that their business model relies on licensing their technology to large seed companies who will be responsible for commercialization. Therefore, the pricing and marketing of the new product will be done by the seed companies.

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

By TechIsrael Staff

Photo by yumtan

There are now seven billion people in the world, and as in the past, experts are wringing their hands over the possibility that Malthus could finally have his day. Malthus was the English philosopher who expected the world to starve eventually because of a lack of resources, and so far he's been wrong. But seven billion, now… that's a lot of people!

All those people do have to be fed. So far, the world has been able to (more or less) supply its population with food, and in fact most people – even in many third-world countries – are better fed today than ever. But still, the system is showing strain: Grain prices have skyrocketed around the world, the seas are overfished, and pesticides are being overused because pests have been building up resistance to smaller, safer doses. Scientists are working overtime trying to come up with new breakthroughs in food production, before Malthus' prediction comes true.

While much of the work on expanding the food supply is taking place on farms and in labs, Israel's Bio[pack] (http://www.biopack.biz/) is taking a different tack – preventing the loss of food after it's been produced.

Supermarkets and other foodsellers lose a significant portion of their stock each year because of insect infestations in warehouses, manufacturing plants, and store shelves. As everyone knows, getting rid of bugs that have taken up residence in a home or office isn't so easy, and usually requires copious applications of insecticide – an option that is less than ideal for places where food is processed, handled, and stored.

Bio[pack] preserves food by keeping bugs away from the places where it is handled and from the packages they are stored in – safely and efficiently. Using advanced technology, Bio[pack] has developed packaging and storage containers (retail and industrial) that keep bugs away using naturally-occurring bug repellents in fruits, vegetables, grains and spices.

“Our solution is safe and natural, based on natural occurring elements,” says Bio[pack] co-founder Shlomo Navarro. “We have managed to distill many of the elements in plants, grains and spices that repel certain insects, and we have thus been able to develop products that repel insects from factories and warehouses, as well as make sure they stay out of packages on supermarket shelves.”

The product is based on research Navarro did with several colleagues at the Vulcani Agricultural Research Center. That research showed that there were many fruits, vegetables, grains and spices that seemed to have a built-in bug repellent; certain insects just seem to stay away from certain plants.

For example, spearmint plants are known to repel ants; the bugs just cannot stand to be in the presence of spearmint. The same holds true for many other plants, like coriander (repels aphids), horseradish (Colorado potato beetle), and even tomatoes (Cabbage maggot) and potatoes (Mexican bean beetle).

“These properties were known for thousands of years in many cultures around the world,” Navarro says, but it was only recently that scientists began studying which elements in plants repel insects. “Our innovation is that we know which elements to remove, and how to integrate them with other solutions – such as packaging that in and of itself repels bugs.”

Bio[pack]'s innovative packaging may not be the innovation that ends world hunger, but it's definitely a poke in the eye at Malthus!

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo Courtesy of Tel Aviv University http://www.tau.ac.il/index-eng.html

Leave it to Israeli scientists to figure out a way of growing trees in the barren sands of the Arava Desert.

The trees aren't just meant to look pretty. This pollution-reducing forest planted over the summer is soaking up harmful excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releasing beneficial oxygen. Another "green" bonus is that the trees are nurtured with recycled sewage water and saltwater.

The project is a research collaboration between Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Science (http://www.environment.tau.ac.il/mainen.asp), the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (http://www.huji.ac.il/huji/eng) and the University of Tuscia in Viterbo, Italy. The Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea is financing the study, which is outlined in an article soon to appear in the "European Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology" (http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/Journals/EJPSB.html).

The environmentalists involved are hopeful that the project will not only help reduce humanity's carbon footprint but will also demonstrate how all countries could establish a local plant species on land thought unusable, in order to improve air quality. India, central Asia and Africa in particular have large swaths of such land available, including the vast Sahara Desert.

Once the trees are mature, it's possible that they could become a renewable source of biofuel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This is another area of great interest to Israel and just about every other country on the planet.

Finding a hardy species.

TAU Life Sciences Prof. Amram Eshel explained that maintaining current forests is not enough to offset harmful human carbon output. Many countries have therefore been converting fertile agricultural lands into forest in an effort to diminish carbon dioxide and increase oxygen in the air.

This new Israeli project is based on the belief that it's much better to encourage growth on seemingly worthless land with seemingly worthless water.

"When you take the overall carbon balance of converting agricultural land and freshwater into energy products, you may not gain that much," said Eshel. "You're investing a lot of energy in the process itself, thus releasing a lot of carbon into the atmosphere."

To conserve precious stores of fresh water, the researchers chose to use low-quality recycled sewage water as well as saltwater that's the by-product of desalination plants. Then they searched for a plant species hardy enough to successfully grow in desert conditions.

They settled on Tamarix, a botanical genus that includes salt cedar trees and is indigenous to old-world deserts. In the Arava — a section of the Great Rift Valley running from the southern end of the Sea of Galilee down past the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba near Eilat — they planted 150 different varieties of Tamarix in a common garden setting and also in denser fields the way commercial crops are grown.

Now the researchers are starting the hard work of analyzing the amount of carbon dioxide the crops have successfully captured from the atmosphere. If that can be quantified, they will be able to recommend specific growing guidelines to other countries.

If they can also be used as biofuel, the potential is almost limitless. Until now, growing crops dedicated to fuel production has been controversial, since converting agricultural land could have the side effect of creating food shortages.

Arid and previously unused desert lands provide an ideal solution, Eshel says. Israel doesn't have enough of this land to make a large-scale operation economically feasible, but places like the Sahara Desert could be ideal.

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

From the first moment I heard about the WaterHackathon (an exclusive event at the Tel Aviv University that brought together dozens of engineers, program developers and other professional, who worked for three full days on solutions to problems in the water field) it was clear to me that I will take part in it.

The reason was obvious, this special event brings out the three biggest advantages of Israel: The trial and understanding of material, infrastructure, and water resources management – derived from years of water shortage; the successful hi-tech industry; and the creativity and achievement hidden deep inside the Israeli DNA.

As a member of the group that won the first place at the event and dealt with the development of a product designed to be used as a preliminary alert to floods, it was an amazing opportunity to take part in this important industry and help to reconstruct the StarTau success (the entrepreneurial center at the Tel Aviv University) that has taken the responsibility to organize the event and has done so successfully.

The group which I incorporated included Yigal Mushnik and Eden Cohen from Intel and Ran Biton from Aviv Engineering Management. We had a connection-at-first-sight, very spontaneous and flawless, and created a mosaic of an idea mosaic into one clear picture in less than 48 hours. We chose to deal with the challenges of floods which constitute the world’s deadliest natural disaster. If you are not convinced, just think of the tragic floods in Thailand these past weeks.

The idea which we developed and wanted to promote focused on the attempt to create an online system that can alert in “real time” about floods around the world using aggregations of reports being received on social networks in general and on Twitter specifically. Today there are already some GIS based hydrological models which can predict the behavior of the floods, but these systems are naturally based on weather forecasts and not on any “real time” information.

All along the activity we imagined a rural isolated village in a third world country. According to the scenario which we worked on, we assumed that the village has limited resources and our mission was to maximize the efficiency of cheap solutions in order to save lives. In other words, we understood that we have to do more with less and thus decided to leverage the available cellular infrastructure (it is important to point out that 75 percent of India’s population is connected to cellular networks) in order to alert in real time on the rise of water level, using text messages on one side and social network scans on the other.)

WaterHackathon is an international “marathon” of brainstorming and programming, where software developers and designers collaborate to create new tools for solving water problems facing developing countries, such as: access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, flooding and drought (i.e., climate change issues), irrigation and watershed management and environmental pollution.

Via www.nrg.co.il

Photo by ER24 EMS (Pty) Ltd.

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo by Anat Markram, CDEGlobalTags:

Environmental legislation and its enforcement require industrial plants to take care of the sludge created during the purification of their waste, which at times can be poisonous and dangerous.

So far, disposal of the harmful materials in Israel included transfer to the southern, less inhabited part of the country, where they were burned and buried.

“Ecology Serviced,” an Israeli plant, has readjusted an existing technology to work towards reducing the harmful substances and recycling another part of them.

And the cost of treatment was lowered in the process.

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“This is a method we refer to as 20-80: 80% decrease in volume, 20% saving in costs. Instead of burning 100% of the material, we burn only 20%. The cost for treating one ton of sludge as is prevailing in today’s industry is 1,000 to 1,200 dollars. The cost we suggest is 20 to 40 percent lower.”

It appears that the technology is not a new one.

[Oded Kakhla, System Designer]:

“Here we have a technology of a double-jacket drier built of two layers. The substance is inside, and is surrounded by hot water. The hot water causes the evaporation of the liquid inside the sludge, which evaporates in the form of gas. After the gas is condensed into clear liquid, it is sold to be reused in industry. The solid material may use as a source of energy, or be buried as a harmful substance".

The process is supervised by a computing system which enables control to prevent any mishaps in the plant.

The system can handle different kinds of sludge, from the printing industry or the pharmaceutical industry, for example.

What, for instance, would be the advantage for a printing manufacturer such as Hewlet Packard?

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“The law today does not exempt manufacturers from their responsibility for their waste after the product has reached the client. Therefore, HP is still responsible for its waste at the end site".

The unique technology will be presented for the first time in the WATEC, the international exhibition of water technologies and cleantech technologies, which will take place in Israel in November this year.

[Oded Kakhla, System Designer]:

“We took an existing technology from the food and pharmaceutical industry and adjusted it to the treatment of wastes.”

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“Our dryer was previously used in the American toothpaste industry, by the Colgate company, where it served to thicken the paste.”

The plant handles not only sludge, but also other kinds of industrial waste, and is operating according the principle of the “4 R’s” – Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Recover. There is a visitors’ center at the plant where these principles are explained to groups, among them are of school students who come to visit.

Treatment of sludge is economically beneficial to industrialists.

No less important, perhaps, is that we leave a cleaner world for future generations.

NTD News, Beer Tuvia, Israel

Reporter: Aviva Grunpeter

Photographer: Anat Markram

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

Batteries make the world go round. Not just in cellphones and laptop computers, but in all sorts of other devices, many of which need to run 24/7. There are two problems with batteries, though – they cost money, and they need to constantly be replaced or recharged.

While this isn't such a problem for consumer devices and gadgets, it is a major issue for always-on monitoring systems, used in hundreds of venues – security systems, utility monitoring, farms and factories. In those venues, managers are forced to keep strict track of when batteries were installed and when they need to be changed, and a foul-up could cost an organization time and any money.

Israeli startup Sol-Chip has a solution: an eco-friendly renewable battery power technology using photovoltaic energy (PV), integrated with low power electronic devices (VLSI). All those alarms, monitors, game devices, and many others can now use a low-cost, disposable, solar-powered batteries that can be recharged with the power of the sun. The batteries are integrated with chips that are designed for a specific device or product, so the batteries are actually part of the device itself. It's a green, low-cost solution that takes the burden off managers, and puts it on the sun, which is “responsible” for powering and recharging the batteries that make these devices go. And, thanks to Sol-Chip's patented technology, the company can produce solar-renewable chips for half of what the competition does.

Although the chips can be used in all sorts of devices, inside or outside, they are ideal for things like identity tags used for products in a warehouse, which currently use, for the most part, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. As a pilot project, Sol-Chip has developed a series of chips for use on dairy farms; the chips can be attached to cows and other animals, allowing farmers to monitor their animals. “If the system costs 100 dollar per head and the farmer has 10,000 heads of cattle you can figure out the time, effort and expense in replacing such systems,” says Sol-Chip CEO Dr. Shani Keysar. “With our photovoltaic-PV renewable battery especially designed for small, low power devices, farmers can save themselves all that work and money, on maintaining their herd management solutions.”

“We are concentrating for now on the agricultural market, where there is a great opportunity,” Keysar says. “For example, one application we are working on is for Israeli company Netafim, a large maker of plant watering systems. Our technology will allow sprinkler systems to work almost indefinitely, without the need to change batteries.”

It's a major breakthrough for small devices, says Keysar, and one with many applications. “There are all sorts of devices in farms, agriculture , infrastructure and homes that will benefit from this technology,” she says. Take, for example, medical equipment used in emergency situations. “Battery performance and replacement is a major headache for medical personnel responsible for ensuring that life-saving equipment is ready when it is most needed,” Keysar says. “Our technology ensures that staff have one less thing to worry about.”

This article originally appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

How many drops of water does it take to wash your hands, or a single glass? Bware, a new Israeli Patent by a2design, is a simple digital device to be installed on any faucet and can count in real time the amount of water in liters or gallons for every use.

The Bware not only shows how much water you have used on the LED display, it can also also help detect different kinds of leaks, say its creators, Ariel Drach and Alex Sudak. The device, made from recycled materials, uses flow of water to generate enough electricity for the LED display.

a2design is still looking for investment for the development of their device, which was nominated for the Danish Index reward – one of the world’s leading awards for design. The theme of this year’s competition is environmental issues.

This article originally appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo stevendepolo

Phoebus Energy, an Israeli startup, has come up with an innovative technology to heat water, by using air. Hydra is an intelligent heat pump that delivers energy to heat water in large complexes such as hospitals and hotels that need enough energy to sustain hot water in all rooms, pools etc.

Hydra technology absorbs the energy from the air turning it from thermal to kinetic energy. On its own, the traditional methods to heat water, such as gas and heating oil are costly and polluting. Phoebus Energy’s system works as a hybrid; connecting its network of heat pumps with the traditional systems, creating a broad infrastructure to heat large quantities of water.

While using the heat in the air for energy is not new, Phoebus Energy’s innovation lies in their sensors that are installed in the pumps to measure everything from the heat and humidity in the air outside to the flow of water and price of fuel and electricity. The system then calculates which energy sources should be activated at any given time for the most cost-effective results.

The variables are measured every fifteen minutes and are then updated on the internet. “The goal is to reduce both costs and carbon emissions,” said Yaron Ben Nun, Phoebus Energy‘s head of marketing.

Unlike other renewable energy sources that require a minimum of sun radiation hours per year, this system does not require straight-on sun radiation. The sun heats the air all the time, even during the night and therefore the heat pumps can continue producing energy 24/7. A downside is that the air temperature needs to be at minimum five degrees Celsius – below that, the system loses its effectiveness.

That is why Phoebus Energy created a heat pump system that cooperates with the traditional one and does not replace it. “The heat pumps work most of the time instead of the traditional stoves cutting money and energy wastes, but the stoves can be activated when the heat pumps cannot provide the full production,” Ben Nun said.

There are 3 basic conditions in which the system will activate the traditional stoves instead of the heat pumps, Ben Nun told NoCamels. “When the weather outside damages the efficiency of the plumps (below five degrees), when the demand is too high and the pumps alone cannot supply it and when the electricity prices are so high, that it is not economically wise to use the plumps system.”

He added: “Phoebus is based on the philosophy that measuring is everything, One of the main purposes of Phoebus cloud technology is to provide its customers with a full up to date report of the activity inside their facilities, enabling them to stay in control and to have tools for understanding their energy demands.”

The installation and the maintenance of the system is free. Phoebus Energy takes a percentage of the client’s cost reduction as a result of using Hydra. Clients then get access to the Phoebus’s website to retrieve all the personalized data information.

There are already 35 sites using the Phoebus system in Israel, including the Mandarin Hotel in Tel Aviv and Hotel Inbal in Jerusalem. There are also several sites using Hydra in Greece. On average, says Phoebus Energy, these sites have saved 40 to 70 percent of costs to heat water.

Phoebus is funded by Terra Venture Partners (a leading Israeli venture capital fund focused on Cleantech), Galilaea Group (Israel, Italy) andChesapeake Advisory Group (NY).

This article originally appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photos by Irene2005 and Globe Light & Water Systems Inc.

The giant structures line most of our major roads and have become an integral part of the urban landscape. Yet to most Westerners, streetlights are so common they hardly get noticed by anyone.

That is not the reality for most third world countries. Many African countries, for example, have a complete lack of street lighting on major streets, making it extremely dangerous to drive in anything but clear and sunny conditions.

That is why Globe Light and Water Systems (GLW,) an Israeli company, has developed a new standalone light fixture that relies solely on solar energy, rather than on the government-run power plants, which often lose power.

The lighting units, called Orion, do not require any external connection to an electrical source, but rather incorporate all necessary components required to create light energy: sunlight, batteries, and LED lamps.

“Unlike current street lighting which maintains the same level of light emission, our [light fixture's] dimming capability serves as additional power saving,” said Zeev Jakoby, GLW’s Managing Director.

As the sun’s rays hit the Orion’s photovoltaic panels, it charges the internal battery system, producing enough power to automatically turn on the lamps even after sunset. While the system illuminates at 100 percent at evening time, it is reduced to 60 percent at night time and increased again at dawn.

In areas lacking sunlight, GLW created “panel umbrellas” which consist of horizontal panels that are able to absorb the Sun’s energy from different angles and directions.

According to GLW, even if there were enough street lamps, the power stations generating their energy in many countries cannot be relied on.

Globelight 300×200 Israeli Company Brings Light To Third World Countries

Globe Light and Water Systems

In Nigeria, for example, there are nine electricity generating stations, all owned by the government’s Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN,) or otherwise known to many locals as “Please Have Candle Nearby.”

On the Island of Zanzibar, part of Tanzania, power supply was cut off for close to six months in 2010, leaving locals no other choice but to rely on generators, which are expensive and significantly increase pollution.

And according to a New York Times report, homes and businesses of African nations like Zambia and Angola lost power two or three times a week in 2007.

According to Jakoby, one solution is to replace current wasteful HPS (High Pressure Sodium) bulbs for LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamps. “While a regular bulb loses 90-90 percent of its energy on heat, LED bulbs only lose 80 percent,” he said.

GLW started developing its technology two years ago and is already developing lighting systems for Nigeria, Ethiopia and Colombia.

According to them, the advantages of their lighting system include low operating and maintenance costs. “The battery located within the Orion lasts up to five years and the system requires lamp replacement every twelve years, which includes a simple physical installation,” Jakoby said.

“We believe that we contribute to a better world by giving countries a technology that enables access to such a basic service as light for everybody,” he added.

This article originally appeared on www.nocamels.com

Photo by Rennett Stowe

It doesn’t matter which country you live in, the price of electricity is high. So let’s say you want to reduce the monthly electricity bill for your home, or your office — how do you know where to start? Does a fridge consume more electricity than a dishwasher? A dishwasher more than a television? Does it cost anything to leave a device plugged in overnight?

These are all questions most of us don’t know the answer to, because our electricity bills don’t break down electricity consumption for the various devices.

That is why Dr. David Almagor, co-founder of Panoramic Power, says he has created a mechanism whereby it is possible to measure the consumption of electricity from each and every plug or switch inside a building.

Almagor explains: “Today, when a company or a private consumer gets their electricity bill, they just see the final sum. There is no way for them to measure the segmentation of energy. When people get a telephone or water bill, they can know exactly how they got to the final sum. The lack of detailed description in electricity bills leads to unnecessary waste of expensive energy.”

Panoramic Power‘s system, still in its pilot stage, is relatively cheap, simple to install and does not interrupt routine activity inside the building, according to Almagor. “The purpose of this detailed data is to diminish wasted energy usage and expenses, to optimize and regulate operations, and to maintain responsible environmental citizenship,” Almagor told NoCamels.

The company developed a computer-based system which relies on cheap wireless sensors monitoring the electricity consumption inside commercial or private buildings. The system is able to recognize the exact consumption of every electrical device separately. Panoramic Power’s system constantly keeps track of the energy consumption and sends reports and warnings about over-usage and possible dangers, such as fire or electric faults, via text message. The system’s inventors says they hope to enable reduction of up to 20 percent electricity.

“In times when most of the resources are invested in developing solar systems for producing energy, we tend to forget that it is cheaper and simpler to economize the energy we have, instead of always trying to produce a new one,” said Almagor.

Panoramic Power’s system requires installation of sensors that have to be connected to a wire inside each automatic plug. Once connected, they measure the electric flow and transmit the information to a central server. The central server works on a cloud system, collecting the information and analyzing it through a special computer program. The program then prepares live reports based on the collected information and sends them through the web to all client. The reports also include suggestions for reducing the usage of electricity.

Currently the system is being tested in several companies in Israel and the United States — the number of installations is expected to grow significantly in the coming year.

Panomoramic Power grew from a partnership between Adi Shamir, a physicist with over 12 years of experience in the high-tech industry high tech executive Almagor , also a high-tech executive with over 25 years experience in managing complex R&Ds.

In November 2009 Panoramic Power was awarded 1st place in the Qualcomm Ventures QPrize™ business plan competition. In November 2010 Panoramic Power won the IBM Israel Smartcamp startup competition. Investors in Panomoramic Power include Israel Electric corporation, Qualcomm Ventures, Israel CleanTech Ventures and Clal Energy.

Photos by Amir and Liat Shahar

Could children be taught to think that being environmentalists is super cool? Israeli couple, Amir and Liat Shahar, a kindergarten teacher and a Yoga instructor, believe they have found the formula. The couple is working on a animated children’s series, Leafers, which tells the story of 4 super-powered siblings and their friend, who protect and save the world from environmental disasters.

In each episode the kids go to a different location in the world that requires an urgent interference in order to save the natural habitat. By using their super-powers in a non-violent way, the kids always manage to save the planet. In addition to their powers, the green superkids call upon the wise sayings of their nature friends: An old tree, a noble female condor, a grumpy mole and a slightly neurotic mantis.

In every episode, Root, the wise old tree that is connected through its roots to every point on earth, receives a message about a situation somewhere on the planet that requires urgent action from super-powered team. All the episodes are based on real current natural crises. One episode requires the team to deal with the problem of sea turtles on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific ocean, who are constantly swallowing bits of plastic bags. In another episode, a family of tigers in Bangladesh gets sick. It turns out a huge mountain of garbage is blocking vital sunrays they need. ”The stories are real and unfortunately happen every day on earth. Therefore, the number of topics for the episodes is almost infinite,” Liat told NoCamels.

The couple found inspiration for the characters in their own son, Ron: “Ron was actually present at all the important meetings with the investors and the creators of the series,” said Liat. “Ron and some of the kids in Amir’s kindergarten were an inspiration for the characters in the show. Many qualities and behaviors were taken from day-to-day activities in the kindergarten.”

As part of the Leafers brand, Amir and Liat are already planning a line of products escorting the release of the show, such as books based on the episodes, a line of clothing, computer games and a website.

They have partnered with Dori Media Spike Productions, who plan to release the series around the world. “The fact that every episode occurs in a different location on the globe, makes it easy for kids to relate, regardless of their origin. The kids obtain not only the environmental values, but also some knowledge in geography, discovering new places on the planet in each episode,” Amir said.

The Israeli couple is hoping Leafers will turn into a full-fledged brand: Amir runs a private kindergarten in Hod Ha’Sharon, Israel, which carries the Leafers name. The couple has also been working on the establishment of a Leafers center. “The center is a unique site designed to complete the children’s experience by combining environmental education with fun and some quality time between parents and children,” explains Liat. The center includes a natural garden, an ecological Gymboree, as well as activities teaching the benefits of organic food and even Yoga classes for parents and kids.

Liat concluded: “Ultimately, we hope to educate the young generation about ecologic and humanitarian values such as recycling, pollution prevention, nature and wildlife preservation, friendship and cooperation.”

This article originally appeared on www.nocamels.com