"An Israeli device resembling a spider should improve the ability of wind farmers to measure the breeze and make the most of their wind power.

Why is an Israeli device that resembles a computerized spider attracting international attention in the field of alternative energy? As Bob Dylan might put it, 'the answer is blowing in the wind.'



Pentalum Technologies' SpiDAR system, still in development at the company’s Rehovot headquarters in central Israel, is creating a buzz. That's because of its potential improvement over existing LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and other remote systems, which wind power plants rely on to monitor wind conditions.

Constantly varying wind speeds and directional patterns present a challenge for wind farms, because these changes have a huge impact on the performance of the turbines that generate energy. That’s why wind farmers invest significant capital in precision wind measurement tools to help them to site their operations and assure optimum production.

Pentalum’s proprietary technology will provide a smaller and less-expensive alternative that is also more accurate than existing methods. It utilizes sophisticated distributed wind sensors that are coordinated and controlled through a central computer. The visual effect of this configuration is what gave rise to the brand name SpiDAR.

More accurate wind measurements

'All the data from the different 'legs' of the spider' are transmitted to the central 'headquarters,' ' says Gil Shamai, Pentalum’s vice president for business development.'It’s light and very easy to deploy by a single person on the ground. You can place several in your terrain and receive measurements up to 200 meters off the ground.'

According to Shamai, the noiseless device is designed to provide more reliable and cost-effective results in three distinct applications.

The first application measures wind conditions for at least one year before a wind farm begins operation. Today, this is usually accomplished by mounting cup anemometers on meteorological masts. However, the height of modern turbines is rising, and that makes for commensurately higher costs for the masts, as well as permits, installation, and maintenance. SpiDAR promises to deliver more accurate wind measurements without those drawbacks.



The second application involves mounting SpiDAR units on turbines to measure approaching winds a fraction of a second before the gusts reach the blades. In response, the turbines can quickly readjust direction and speed to precisely meet the coming wind. Shamai estimates that this application will improve performance up to 15 percent over current systems that measure wind behind - not approaching - the blades.

Finally, the SpiDAR can play a crucial role in helping wind farm operators to predict production capabilities. 'A better understanding of the wind map in the area helps to forecast how much power the farm will produce tomorrow or next week,' Shamai explains. This data allows the farm to make accurate estimations of the amount of energy it can offer the local power grid on any given day.

Keen interest from Spain and Germany

Shamai co-founded Pentalum in 2009 with chief executive officer Sagie Tsadka and vice president of R&D Dr. Nathan Sela. Along with vice president for operations Niv Narkiss, they brought with them the relevant executive-level experience in optics, telecom, fluid mechanics, atmospheric remote sensing and software.

Thanks to $9 million raised in its first financing round from Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners, and an undisclosed American fund, the privately-held company is gearing up for pilot field tests of the SpiDAR system in early 2011 in the United States.

'Our target market is in the US and Europe, since the market in Israel, while growing, is not very large,' Shamai reveals.

Wind farms require large tracts of windy exposed areas, and are therefore most common in the states of Texas, Iowa, and California. Spain and Germany lead the market in Europe's fast-growing wind energy field. Those foreign markets are keenly interested in the product’s promise of greater accuracy and lower price, Shamai notes." (source)

"More than 240,000 Israelis took part in International Clean-Up Day, led in Israel by the Jewish National Fund. Participants picked up trash in woods, parks, and other natural spaces.

Among the cleaners were students, soldiers, and members of various youth groups. Several companies got their employees involved as well.

In the north, soldiers worked side by side with special needs students to clean the Lotem reserve. In the Samaria city of Ariel, 500 schoolchildren cleaned while facing challenges and riddles relating to environmental issues."

"Experts at transforming the disadvantages of the desert into advantages, Israel is sharing its solutions for the growing problem of desertification with the world.

'Desertification' may sound like a course to end a sumptuous meal. But with just one 's', it refers to fertile land becoming dry desert. Many factors contribute to the problem, such as soil erosion, climate change and groundwater mismanagement. Israel, which is 97 percent dry land, was one of the first countries to begin addressing this crisis.



'Desertification remains the orphan of global environmental problems on our planet,' declares Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev professor Alon Tal, a desert ecologist at the university's Jacob Blaustein Institutes of Desert Research and founder of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

Tal is organizing the annual International Conference on Drylands, Deserts and Desertification International Conference on Drylands, Deserts and Desertification, held from November 8 to11 at BGU's Sde Boker campus in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). More than 500 government officials and academics from 50 countries, including Palestinian and Jordanian delegates, are expected to participate.

He tells ISRAEL21c that he is heartened by the response. Despite major conventions on desertification signed at Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s, many Western countries persist in relating to the issue as a low priority, he says. The perception started to change four years ago, when the UN and the World Bank re-emphasized that desertification, a problem that affects more than 200 million people, is a major cause of global poverty and hunger.

A world leader in combating desertification

'We believe that by bringing a diverse group of academics, professionals and policy-makers together to confront the myriad critical issues of desertification, the BGU conference can serve as a meaningful catalyst for cooperative and collaborative projects in the future at the global level,' declares Tal, a North Carolina native who moved to Israel 30 years ago.

Israel is one of the few countries that has successfully restored marginal lands and is recognized worldwide as a leader in protecting its dry lands from further deterioration. The Negev desert is smaller than it was in 1948, parts of it having been transformed into a fertile breadbasket.

Forests thrive in places where trees never took root before and salt- and drought-resistant plants flourish, innovated by Israeli scientists. Commercial fishponds dot the desert, and algae grow abundantly for use in pharmaceuticals and health foods.

'The goal has to be to take the disadvantages of the desert and turn them into advantages,' Tal explains. Algae actually grow faster in dry regions, and the desert is the perfect setting for solar and wind power. Sun and open spaces are also attractive to eco-tourists.



Water management is a crucial part of controlling desertification. About half the water used for agriculture cycles through 240 reservoirs built by Keren Kayemeth L'Yisrael-Jewish National Fund, another key player in desertification efforts and education. Israel reuses about 74 percent of its wastewater; Spain, the second most efficient country in wastewater recycling, reuses only 20 percent.

'As the world becomes more urbanized, sewage is both a problem and an opportunity,' states Tal, who coauthored a model for an agreement on environmental cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. 'We made huge mistakes and had the humility to learn from them. Now we have standards that can help other countries recycle their sewage.'

Israel's status should be public policy

Tal gives much of the credit for all these accomplishments to Dr. Uriel Safriel, a professor of ecology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the world's leading authority on desertification.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose Safriel and Tal, among other experts, to represent Israel at previous UN conventions on desertification. 'The other representatives have learned to respect Israel - even the Arab countries in this forum are cooperative and there is lots of formal discussion,' Tal tells ISRAEL21c.

Attendees to the conference this year will hear presentations about the public health aspects of desertification; sustainable building in desert environments; remote sensing to assess how flora are responding to anti-desertification attempts; grazing and the Bedouin community; the future of the Dead Sea; environmental education and dry-land agriculture; and soil and water restoration.

Tal relates that the UN expects developed nations to provide assistance to developing nations, which is an ideal shared by MASHAV, the Foreign Ministry's agency for international development, which works with ecologists and forestry experts from several countries, particularly in Africa.

'If you do nothing about desertification, people will starve and die,' Tal declares. 'So there is a need for Israel's status as a leader in this field to be expanded into public policy. We have to dig into our pockets to make the world a better place.'" (source)

"Green architect Michal Vital-Baron is at the forefront of a movement that's introducing natural building techniques to the Bedouins in southern Israel.

In the shade of an expansive mulberry tree at the bottom of her family's rambling garden in leafy Karkur, in northern Israel, Michal Vital-Baron points to a pie chart on her laptop screen. 'You see how much energy is wasted in quarrying, transporting and building with these materials?' she asks.



A group of 15 burly Bedouin men from the southern village of Quasr Al-Sir soak up the data like diligent schoolchildren. They have been bused in from the distant Negev, and want to cram as much knowledge into the day as possible. Minutes earlier, they had returned from a visit to a nearby community garden, full of admiration for the local residents who had transformed a waste plot into a blooming organic vegetable garden.

Forty-seven-year-old Vital-Baron is one of a handful of Israeli architects specializing in 'natural building' - construction using materials such as straw bale, adobe, cordwood, stone and granite. She doesn't mind getting her hands dirty, cares about the environment and is concerned about society, which is why helping the Negev Bedouins to help themselves is so important to her.

She also walks her talk. When the time came to renovate the family living room, she chose to rebuild the walls using compacted earth blocks. These are bricks made from highly-pressed soil that contain mineral, rather than organic substances.

Having completed several design courses conducted by Israel's permaculture guru Talia Schneider, Vital-Baron is about to hold her own (third) four-month permaculture design course - one of which was held for 15 Bedouin men and women in the southern city of Beersheba.

'She's opening our eyes'

Blue-eyed and soft-spoken, she somehow manages to penetrate male-dominated mindsets. 'The Bedouins have a lot of respect for me,' she tells ISRAEL21c. 'They have a term jaddah, which means a woman with power. It's mutual - I see in them people from whom I have much to learn: How to accept life when it's hard, without complaining. They are very optimistic people with boundless patience. It's hard to break their spirit. The Bedouin women see me as an example of what a woman - a mother - can achieve.'

Earlier that morning, she had introduced the Bedouin men to the concept of the ecological footprint. 'She's opening our eyes,' exclaims Ibrahim Elhwashla, head of the village council.

'Michal has taught us about green construction methods, heating and cooling of structures, energy consumption and waste reduction - things we didn't think about before.

'We don't have this knowledge - how to build permanent homes,' Elhwashla admits. 'Meeting Michal has introduced us to a different way of thinking, an ecological mindset. We want to strengthen this. Look at the young men - they want to learn. I'm convinced that this is the right way for us - closer to nature. The whole world is beginning to understand the ramifications of everything we do. If God made us from nature, we should protect it.'

Vital-Baron was a professional weaver ('one of the last weavers in Israel - the textile market is dead') for 15 years while raising three children. 'All that's behind me now - the last of my children left the nest two weeks ago.'

After studying interior design at the Hermelin College of Engineering in Netanya, she joined her mother's company, Edith Baron Interior Architecture, in 1995, following a family tradition. 'My grandfather, Zalman Baron, was one of the first designers of Tel Aviv. My father is an engineer and my mother an interior designer. I was a conventional architect who specialized in redesigning the interior of hotels,' she says.

Discovering the Earthships

In 2001, during a trip to the US, she first came across Earthships - sustainable homes made of natural and recycled materials - while working in a Jewish summer camp in Colorado. For three months, she watched how a complete Earthship, designed by green construction pioneer Michael Reynolds was built. She also travelled to Taos, New Mexico, to see up close the Greater World Earthship Community being constructed.

'I took plenty of notes. During this process I came to realize that we can do things naturally, with an added value to the environmental. These houses are pretty, but also practical, sturdy structures. I learned how to do things properly, taking into account both the environment and social factors.'



Upon her return, she completed Israel's first green architecture course, held under the auspices of the Environment Ministry, at the Israel Building Center on Kibbutz Ga'ash. 'The very concept was an urban legend in Israel at that point - something people talked about but had never actually done. The field was still in its infancy here in 2002.'

Vital-Baron focused on 'natural building' technologies, 'but I had no idea what to do with this knowledge at that point. The economy was in recession brought on by the second intifada, and my work at the family business was cut to three or four days a week. This left me with time to do other things.'



The breakthrough came when the NGO Bustan, which promotes sustainable community action among the Bedouins of the Negev desert, contacted her. The proposed project: To build a medical clinic in one of the dozens of Bedouin shanty settlements that dot the Negev, following a High Court decision that 'unrecognized' villages must receive medical services.

Together with the late architect Yuval Amir, she designed a 9x7 meter (29.5 x 23 foot) straw-and-mud structure for Wadi Na'am, a rambling collection of cinder block-and-tin shacks near the Ramat Hovav hazardous waste dump. An outer enclosure wall, built from adobe-covered tires filled with gravel and garbage, was built to protect the clinic from the Sharqia, or eastern desert wind.

Not a paradigm shift, but a strong trend

'The pracice of adobe/straw building has a history in Bedouin tradition, and this project reintroduced these sustainable, low-budget techniques. It was an amazing experience that brought hundreds of Jewish Israeli volunteers to unrecognized villages and made them aware of the problems the Bedouins face, and also exposed them to natural building,' she says.

Vital-Baron is keen to point out why Israelis need green building: 'Because we are exhausting our resources on quarrying, transportation and the accompanying air pollution. Construction is a heavy industry. Natural building has many advantages - that's why we're examining materials that are not quarried. A modern house with all the facilities can be built with natural materials, and be just as functional. Between 20 and 30 such houses already exist in Israel.'

In 2005 she went solo, opening one of Israel's first 'green' architecture companies. 'Only Yuval operated in the field of natural building at the time, and there were about five other companies with a declared environmental approach.'

During the latter half of the decade, interest in this unconventional field - and eventually job orders - began to increase. Now she is fully-booked and employs another architect.

'Most people turn to me asking for 'regular' construction or renovation, but with the added value of minimizing the environmental damage. I talk to them about making their homes solar passive, the importance of shade, insulation and lowering water usage.

'We offer the same services as a regular company but with a green emphasis. For example, conducting a thermal analysis of a house helps the owner decide what is worth investing in. The second group is those who want to build with their own hands. They need closer support, often physically on-site,' she explains.

'There are at least five to eight other companies similar to mine now, dealing with natural materials. It's unbelievable - only a few years ago it looked like a distant dream to me, but now everyone seems to be interested. It's too early to talk about a deep-rooted change of attitudes, a paradigm shift, but it's definitely a strong trend - and it's also coming from above.

Solutions in synch with surroundings

'There's more awareness of energy usage and saving, often the result of local councils and municipalities demanding greater insulation, shading, etc. in building design. It was nice working only with the hard-core environmentalists until now - but it makes me really happy to see official bodies making such demands,' she adds.

Vital-Baron's approach has been adopted by Quasr Al-sir, a neglected, litter-strewn desert shanty near Dimona, home to some 5,000 Bedouins. The rapidly expanding settlement received state recognition in 2006, joining the Abu Basma regional council that unites 11 such villages.

'The regional council has drawn up development plans, with demarcated plots of land, a school, kindergartens and a community center,' Vital-Baron relates. 'Bustan adopted the community center project and I planned it together with local residents - representatives of both the men and the women. It's been an interesting, unprecedented process that will serve as a platform for further development programs. Sustainable development is the way forward for the Bedouins,' she says, adding, 'I took all sorts of techniques that can be done with a local workforce - part of the idea is to train a core group of builders in the village.'

A group of 15, 18-to-30 year-old Bedouins - who would otherwise be unemployed - are working on her projects right now, learning the trade as they go. Earlier this year, they underwent a training course at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava desert, Israel's 'greenest' community, paid for by Bustan. 'The vision is to organize for them a long training course recognized by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry that would give them a professional qualification,' she says.

'We want to set up a community center for the elderly and youngsters of the village,' says Elhwashla, the local council head. 'We intend to start building in the coming months. There's a lack of belief among the Bedouins (the exception being Ahmed Amrani, who has been dubbed 'the green Bedouin') that it is possible, because our economic situation is so bad. But for a low price, we can make it happen. We want to be an example to other Bedouins.'" (source)

"The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, announced the new plan, 'IDF Protects the Environment', to the sum of one billion NIS today, declaring the inauguration ceremony of the Officer Instruction Base as the first 'green base' in the IDF.

The ceremony will be held today with the Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Commander of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Shlomo (Sami) Turjeman, Head of the Technology and Logistics Branch, Maj. Gen. Dan Biton, and Commander of the Officer Instruction Base, Col. Yehuda Fox in attendance. During the event, the Chief of the General Staff will unveil the 'Solar Farm Project', which includes 400 solar panels and which is expected to save up to 90,000 liters of solar fuel a year. Furthermore, the main points of the 'IDF Protects the Environment' plan will be presented, with an emphasis on energy conservation and long-lasting construction in the IDF. The new technological facilities which have been integrated into the Officer Instruction School will also be unveiled. These facilities were built in order to conserve water and electricity, and they include: volume-calculating systems, which save up to 25-35% of electricity, T5 fluorescent bulbs, which save up to 30% of electricity, and rationing water faucets, which save up to 20-50% of water.

The change in perspective which the IDF is currently undergoing, particularly within the Officer Instruction School, is part of the ongoing training process of the future generation of officers. This shift is an important milestone in the implementation of the 'IDF Protects the Environment' plan, which has been authorized by the Chief of the General Staff last week, to the sum of one billion NIS. The plan, which is being carried out under the guidance of the IDF’s Environmental Protection Administration, focuses on amending past environmental damage as well as preventing future harm. The IDF’s educational efforts and encouragement to protect the environment, for all military ranks, are necessary to promote environmental awareness in all of the Israeli Army’s decisions.' (source)

"In the field of environmental awareness, Israel is finally coming of age. ISRAEL21c takes a look at the country's top 10 environmentalists.

Is Israel still a somewhat backward, developing country, with a commensurate environmental policy? It depends who you ask.

With much of its 60 plus years of existence devoted to survival, environmental awareness and conservation efforts took a back seat to what were perceived as more vital issues. But thanks to a growing army of activists, scholars and researchers, the tide has been shifting, as Israelis become more aware of the importance of sustainability and a clean environment.



As Dr. Eilon Schwartz, one of the country's top 10 environmentalists listed below, wrote in an article reflecting on Israel's 60th anniversary, 'In Israel, like around the world, environmental awareness is coming of age. For too long, the debate in Israel about 'peace and security' had allowed decision-makers to avoid central social-environmental issues. As a result, there has been massive damage to the physical environment, and the social fabric needed to sustain it. But crisis often leads to opportunities, and more and more people, in Israel and around the world, are realizing that business-as-usual is not an option.

'What Israel needs most is visionary leadership for the future, which can direct the society on a path to ensure ecological health and social justice for all its inhabitants, and translate the growing awareness of a crisis into true societal change. At this historical moment, it is clear that that leadership is lacking, but also that there is an emerging movement committed to an alternative vision for Israel's future,' he continued.

Let's meet some of the prime movers who are forging a responsible environmental future for Israel.

1. Yossi Leshem

When Israelis mention birds, the name Yossi Leshem is never far off. A world renowned ornithologist, Leshem has been involved in many aspects of nature conservation, with an emphasis on bird research, for close to 38 years.

A PhD study on migrating birds in 1980 led the 62-year-old Leshem on a lifelong quest to reduce collisions between aircraft and birds. His doctoral research on migrating flocks based on his oft-repeated slogan 'Migrating Birds Know No Boundaries,' has resulted in a decrease of 76 percent in the number of collisions with aircraft caused by birds, and has saved hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the numbers of lives, both human and avian.

In 2005, Leshem won the Mike Kuhring Prize for his achievements in improving flight safety and for his mission to connect safety with nature conservation. In 2008, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental Protection as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

Leshem has several other bird-related pursuits as well. In cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, he is involved in educational activities in some 250 schools and is introducing owl and kestrel nesting boxes to large farms as a natural form of rodent control. About 2,000 nesting boxes are currently set up across Israel.

Leshem worked at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) for 25 years, as a guide, as director of a Field Study Center, as head of the Nature Protection Department, initiator and director of the Israel Raptor Information Center between 1980 and 1991, and as the executive director of the SPNI between 1991 and1 995.

In addition, he's senior researcher at the Department of Zoology in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, and is the founder and director of the Latrun International Center for the Study of Bird Migration. They don't call him the 'bird man' for nothing.

2. Isaac Berzin

Named one of TIME Magazine's most influential people in 2008. Isaac Berzin is intent on Israel becoming a biofuel powerhouse.

The 43-year-old chemical engineering graduate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev left the country and in 2001 founded the pioneering GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, a US company that aimed to use algae to eat up carbon emissions and to produce renewable energy. He returned to Israel recently to establish an international institute to formulate alternative energy policies under the auspices of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, where he serves as a Senior Fellow.

Berzin looks to collect the best-fit alternative energy solutions from across academia and the industry in Israel - about 10 different technology platforms - to build a center of excellence, '10 times bigger and stronger than GreenFuel,' he told ISRAEL21c last year.

According to Berzin, government bureaucracy has stalled the rapid implementation of new clean technologies, despite the more than 250 companies and university bodies currently engaged in growing algae as a source of energy, which is why he's decided to focus on setting policy.

The new institute he is currently establishing will develop sustainable and strategic global alternative energy policies and will collaborate with the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) based in Washington, where Berzin is also a senior fellow. 'I want Israel to become an international center of knowledge in the realm of alternative energy. The world is looking for solutions in this sphere, and in my view Israel is in a very special position. The toolbox that is needed to create solutions of this kind is here.'

3. David Faiman

David Faiman is not afraid to look straight into the sun.

The 66-year-old engineer and physicist has become synonymous with solar power over the past 30 years. He's director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sde Boker. The immigrant from England also assisted in establishing the Blaustein Institute in 1976 and has been working ever since in the field of applied solar energy.

His concentrated photovoltaic cells systems collect sunlight and use it to generate electricity.

'What we've done is simply split those two functions, so that the sunlight is collected and concentrated by a dish-shaped mirror, and a small number of concentrator cells generate electricity from that highly-concentrated sunlight,' Faiman tells ISRAEL21c, describing his apparatus which resembles an enormous satellite dish, and rises high above his modest offices in the middle of the Negev desert.

The country's first solar energy farm was launched this year by the company ZenithSolar, based on the Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) systems developed by Faiman. The system is designed to harvest more than 70 percent of incoming solar energy (as compared to industry norms of 10% to 40%). In its first stage, the solar farm, based at Kvuzat Yavne, will generate electricity and hot water for the kibbutz. At later stages it will provide energy for other neighborhoods as well.

Faiman lives in Sde Boker in a 'passive solar' house, which is built with angles and window sizes precisely calculated so that all of the house's heating and cooling needs are taken care of by the sun.

4. Alon Tal

A young environmental visionary, Alon Tal's undertakings have produced tangible accomplishments in reshaping Israel's clean air, water, and soil policy.

At age 29, he founded The Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva V'din, in Hebrew), to fight for Israeli environmental rights. Considered Israel's most effective environmental organization, it has won countless legal actions, garnered more stringent regulations, tougher enforcement policies, and increased environmental initiatives.

A member of the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology of Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes of Desert Research in Sde Boker, Tal is also the founder of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. His primary research focus is in water management and policy, with an emphasis on joint Israeli-Palestinian environmental projects.

An American immigrant to Israel who ran for the Knesset in the last elections on a 'green' ticket, Tal received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Environmental Protection from Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection, recognizing his work on behalf of safeguarding Israel's environment as part of the country's 60th anniversary celebrations. BGU president Prof. Rivka Carmi described Tal as 'both an exemplary academic and an environmental leader, who transformed Israel's environmental movement and its approach to ecological challenges.'

Tal has coauthored and signed a model for an agreement on environmental cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with Dr. Mohammad Said Al-Hmaida from Bir Zeit University, covering all aspects of the shared environmental issues, including environmental impact statements, hazardous materials, air quality, nature preservation and solid waste.

5. Naomi Tsur

For years, Naomi Tsur has seen her mission as balancing the demands of modern and ancient Jerusalem, while safeguarding the historical city's environmental standards. The 58-year-old grandmother has been spearheading campaigns to keep Jerusalem of Gold, green, for 13 years as director of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, and founder of Sustainable Jerusalem. Under Mayor Nir Barkat, the British immigrant has taken on the position of deputy mayor in charge of Jerusalem's planning, environment and preservation.

One of Israel's most important green advocates, during her time with Sustainable Jerusalem Tsur has helped to organize 75 green groups together under one umbrella, teaching activists how to lobby in the government, and how to hone in on specific issues worth fighting for.

'Ensuring a sustainable environment in Israel is a pre-condition for sustainable peace, and a sustainable economy,' she tells ISRAEL21c. 'If from the realm of civil society you perceive environmental sustainability as an essential goal, then it has to be essential for whoever holds the reins of the government, doing from the inside what I did on the outside.'

6. Eilon Schwartz

Called the 'philosopher' of Israel's environmental movement, Dr. Eilon Schwartz is executive director of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership, dedicated to the building of a sustainable future for Israel rooted in environmental health and social justice.

The center runs a number of important programs - including the Environmental Fellows Program for developing the next generation of environmental leadership in Israel; a nationwide network of schools focused on environmental education and activism; Israel's Local Agenda 21 - a global network of municipal governments and citizen groups devoted to integrating social, environmental and economic interests into a holistic vision of local development; and the Media Initiative - engaging senior Israeli journalists with social-environmental issues.

The Heschel Center receives its inspiration from the work of the great 20th century Jewish thinker and activist Abraham Joshua Heschel, who worked for social justice and the integrity of the natural world.

An American immigrant to Israel, Schwartz is also a faculty member of the Melton Center for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he teaches advanced degree courses in Judaism and environmental education, the interrelationship between Zionism and the environment, environmental policy and ethics.

Regarding his work at the Heschel center, Schwartz says, 'We bring together Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Oriental and European Jews, believing that environmentalism should reflect a larger, inclusive vision for the society.'

7. Ahmed Amrani

The municipal chief of staff of the Bedouin city of Rahat, Ahmed Amrani is at the forefront of raising environmental awareness in Israel's Bedouin community. The 29-year-old organizer has succeeded in setting up a green organization - the Green Rahat Association, and convincing all the local school principals to include a green project in this year's curriculum, as well as some serious neighborhood improvement projects.

The Rahat native first became interested in the environment in 2003, when, while at Achva College in the northern Negev, he met environmental activist Eran Ben Yemini, who helped him to introduce green thinking to the Bedouin population.

The Green Rahat Association has been responsible for a number of clean-up campaigns in the area, including the establishment of a community garden by local children. Trees donated by the Jewish National Fund have been planted around town, and an ongoing environmental workshop is empowering young people to shape their city's future.

Amrani's latest effort - in collaboration with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is to rehabilitate Wadi al-Hazan (known in Hebrew as Nahal Garar), a dry riverbed to the east of the city, beyond which a new residential neighborhood is planned. The valley is slated to become a large regional park.

'Ahmed has already achieved the near-impossible,' says Amrani's friend Ben Yemini of his efforts in Rahat. 'Environmentalism is in his blood. He's immersed himself in the issue - and he's very determined.'

8. Tzipi Iser-Itzik

Another woman with an environmental mission, Tzipi Iser-Itzik was executive director and senior attorney at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED, in Hebrew Adam Teva V'din), the umbrella organization for Israel's environmental groups.

IUED works to protect Israel's environment - as a public watchdog, as a catalyst for policy reform, as a source of free legal counsel to victims of environmental hazards, and as an initiator of strategic campaigns to further environmental goals.

Iser-Itzik joined the IUED in 2003 because of an ideological commitment to improve environmental protection in Israel. She worked with the organization on three fronts: Litigation and planning actions; legislative and policy reform; and environmental justice in the community. Among her accomplishments were working with Knesset members to craft new legislation promoting air quality - the IUED-sponsored Clean Air Act, which the Knesset enacted July 22, 2008 and which was endorsed by more than 70 Knesset members.

A mother of three, she has received numerous honors for her work, including a 'Women of Influence' award from Israel's Globes financial newspaper. She was also named one of the country's 'Women Making Changes' by another local financial magazine, The Marker. This year she was among the honorees awarded the 'Knight of Quality Government' title by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, at its annual conference.

9. Benjamin Kahn

Named one of TIME Magazine's 45 'Heroes of the Environment,' a few years ago, Benjamin Kahn focuses his energies on Israel's coastline. As founder in 1999 and board chairman of environmental coastline watchdog organization Zalul, the marine biologist by profession has always had a love affair with the ocean.

A fan of snorkeling at the Red Sea as a child, Kahn left the country to study marine biology and lived in both the US and Australia. When he returned to Israel 10 years ago, he was dismayed to discover that the amazing coral reef had drastically deteriorated, as the result of years of human contact.

'I knew that if the reef was going to survive, someone had to fight for it,' Kahn told TIME, explaining what prompted him to launch Zalul.

In addition to winning major environmental victories in Eilat which resulted in forcing giant fish farms out of the gulf, Zalul has had numerous successes in its campaigns regarding Israel's coastline and marine life, which have had a direct impact on Israel's nascent environmental policies as well as on the country's awareness of the issues.

Chief among these was clearing waste from the waters surrounding the Kishon River near Haifa. In 2005, Zalul conducted an investigative report on the river, 'Contaminated Ground in the Haifa Gulf,' and presented it to the Environment Ministry. As a result, the Israel Ports cleared out 75 tons of sludge from the banks of the Kishon.

One of Zalul's main priorities for the future is to raise awareness of and involvement in the environmental issues at hand among Israeli youth. That's why Kahn started a project in which he and other divers collect reef fragments that have broken off in stormy weather, and give them to 5,000 school kids to grow like saltwater saplings for a few months in classroom tubs. Later, divers carefully glue the living fragments back onto the reef. It's all part of Kahn's tikkun olam ('healing the world') for the sea.

10. Gidon Bromberg

The Israeli director of EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), Gidon Bromberg is at the forefront of fostering environmental ties between Israel's neighbors in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Bromberg (47) founded EcoPeace in 1994 as the first regional organization dedicated to peace and sustainability and has been the Israeli director ever since. In 1997, he led the entry of the organization into Friends of the Earth International, the largest grassroots environmental organization in the world.

The environmental lawyer has also developed the cross-border, community peace-building project 'Good Water Neighbors', which is now seen as a model for other programs in conflict areas.

Speaking regularly about water, peace, and security issues in various forums, Bromberg has presented papers before the UN Commission for Sustainable Development, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the European Parliament and the advisory meeting to the UN High Level Panel on Security.

'The purpose of our bottom-up community work is to create a grassroots constituency for cross-border cooperation in solving concrete environmental issues on the ground at the community level,' Bromberg told the Tree Hugger website. 'We see this as a first step toward developing a broader vision for each ecosystem.'" (source)

"Israeli drivers will be the first in the world to test a fleet of 100,000 electric cars and the sceptics will be watching closely.

The Renault Fluence ZE, or zero emission, looks nothing like the weird-shaped machines some might associate with early electric cars.



It looks and runs like your typical family sedan.

Israeli entrepreneur Tal Agassi runs the company Better Place, one of the world leaders in developing electric car technology, with his brother Shai.

If they get their way, the Renault Fluence may well go down in history as the electric equivalent of the T-model Ford.

'The tipping point is going to be faster than what the market thinks,' he said.

'We believe that once people drive those cars and understand [that they are] not limited and have a better car for a cheaper cost, it will be a no-brainer for people to move from gasoline cars to [electric cars].'

Mr Agassi's company plans to roll out the first of 100,000 fully electric cars onto Israeli roads next year.

'We have signed today, up to date about 150 companies, big fleets that have thousands of cars,' he said.

'We have about a potential of 50,000 to 60,000 cars. They're already lined up and signed up today.'

'In 2011 when we launch the market we will have low thousands of cars, but from everything we're seeing today, the demand for those cars is going to be very high, [we are] probably not going to have enough cars here in Israel to supply all the demand in year one.'

What makes this electric car different from earlier prototypes is the system for recharging or changing the battery so that drivers can stay on the road even after the battery goes flat.

Better Place will own the battery and drivers will sign up for a package of kilometres, not unlike a mobile phone plan.

Instead of having to recharge the battery on long trips, they would simply drive into a switching station and swap it for a new one.

'You will go to a petrol station but you'll switch your battery. The way people will get energy is by going to a charge point,' Mr Agassi said.

'We will install thousands of charge spots at homes, at work, public locations and most people will charge overnight.

'But in addition to that for those people who drive for long distances they will go through a switch station.'



Mechanics at the company's headquarters near Tel Aviv will happily show you that a battery can be changed in less time than it takes to fill a petrol tank.

Within two years Better Place plans to install 70 switching stations all over Israel, meaning motorists could drive as long and as far as they want.

But there are plans too to roll out the same infrastructure in Australia from late next year, starting in Canberra and southern New South Wales.

Evan Thornley, the chief of Better Place Australia, predicts Australia's entire car fleet will be electric within 20 years.

'For 80 per cent of all Australian drivers we're confident they'll look at the network coverage map and see nowhere that they would want to drive that they couldn't do in an electric car,' he said.

'But there'll obviously be some people, the remaining 20 per cent, for whom that won't be the case on day one ... but I'm sure we'll reach out to the rest of them over the coming decade.'

In the longer term Better Place, in both Israel and Australia, says the car's popularity will in turn provide an incentive for power companies to switch to renewable fuels like wind or solar or hydro-electricity.

But as convincing as the company's advertising might be, there are sceptics.

Nitzan Avivi, the editor of Israel's Auto Magazine, says even the best car battery cannot match a full tank of petrol.

'The official range of the car is 200 kilometres which probably will mean that you can drive about 150 kilometres more or less, and that means that every hour or so you'll have to be looking for a replacement station and that's a problem if you're driving outside the city,' he said.

Mr Avivi says electric cars are not the environmental solution they are cracked up to be.

'Transportation consumes about 10 to 15 per cent of energy in the world,' he said.

'Even if all the cars will be, let's say solar, which can't happen, still you have 85 per cent electricity in houses, for industry.

'So even if all the cars will be electric and all of them will be powered by wind electric, electricity, it would still not be enough. It won't save the world.'" (source)

"Green housing in Israel to save 25% in electricity consumption.

For most Israel real estate contractors (‘kablanim‘), environmentally friendly construction has in recent years not been much more than a popular logo or slogan adorning signs or brochures. The global trend of green housing mainly in residential building could now slowly be starting to take shape in Israel.

Israel already has a 'green building standard' in place which works something like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) does in the USA, but is completely voluntary and not binding and does not include any financial incentives. The standard was launched in 2005 and covers issues like energy, water, land, waste and transport. At the same time, the government is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 in a number of ways out of which the encouragement of green building could be a major one."

"It’s no secret that Israeli cleantech companies and their products are hot commodities. Now in: the Cleantech Group just announced their global list, the Global Cleantech 100 for the second year running, and it’s no surprise that Israeli companies earned 8 of the 100 spots (I correct myself for the 7 I had originally posted). Six are based in Israel; two of them, though founded by Israelis are based in the United States. I have interviewed and written feature stories on all of them, except CellEra. The list is: drumroll please…

1. BrightSource – based in the US: solar thermal energy company now building a power plant in California. They’ve been all over the press recently thanks to the Obama plug. Just announced business with Siemens.
2. Tigo Energy – develops a box solution to monitor solar power output. In short, they make solar installations more efficient. (Great management, very friendly and accessible).
3. Aqwise – I was one of the first to write about Aqwise, a company that uses plastic knobs to makes wastewater treatment plants more efficient. The founders then went on to form Emefy. See below.
4. Better Place – This company needs no introduction. Switchable batteries. Electric cars. Shai Agassi. Hot.
5. CellEra – Never returned my interview request. That was last year. Developing a fuel cell technology.
6. Emefcy – The founders of Aqwise went on to build this company. Use electric currents to digest microbes in wastewater.
7. GreenRoad – Develops a solution to help truck drivers reduce fuel consumption. (Great management, very friendly and accessible).
8. TaKaDu – A company with a catchy name has developed “brains” for a smart water grid.

This is the second year that the Cleantech Group put out the Top 100 list. Presumably all of the companies listed above are members of the forum.

According to a press release I’ve seen Emefcy says this: 'We are honoured to be one of the Global Cleantech 100. The growing interest in Emefcy’s breakthrough technology enhances our confidence in Emefcy’s ability to revolutionize the energy economy of wastewater treatment by utilizing the organic contamination in wastewater as a new source of renewable energy.' (Eytan Levy, CEO at Emefcy)

CNET acknowledged Emefcy as one of the 5 companies that will contribute to the reduction of the world dependence on fossil fuel. Sustainable World Capital described Emefcy as a Cleantech startup that one should keep its eyes on and Artemis -BlueTech Summit qualified Emefcy as a top 50 water technology company.

According to the Cleantech Group, the Global Cleantech 100 highlights the most promising private clean technology companies – those companies which are the most likely to make the most significant market impact over the next 5-10 years, in the eyes of the world’s cleantech experts. Winners are chosen by a 60-strong, international expert panel. I’ve always suspected that those companies who are members of the forum make the list, but I’d have to do more research to say that definitively.

'The second Global Cleantech 100 shines a spotlight on which companies and which technology areas the global innovation community is currently most excited about, from a commercial standpoint,' said Richard Youngman, MD, Europe & VP, Global Research at Cleantech Group.

The list is produced as part of the Global Cleantech 100 program, run in collaboration with the Guardian News. You can go over to the Guardian for an interactive map (links to blog), and more about the companies.

Last year Aqwise, Solel (bought by Siemens), EnStorage, IQWind, Better Place, BrightSource and Tigo made the Global Cleantech 100 2009 list, with an Israeli connection." (source)

"A coalition of Jewish organizations in California is waging a campaign against a ballot proposition they say would hurt efforts to wean the United States off foreign oil.

Proposition 23 effectively would repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act, a California law that established a timetable to bring the state in line with environmental standards set in the Kyoto Protocol. While the United States is not party to that treaty, California has sought to go beyond U.S. requirements and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020."

"Within three years, an Israeli scientist and his American research partner plan to develop a cost-effective self-sustaining nuclear reactor.

Though the very mention of nuclear energy makes many people nervous, it's no secret that we will come to depend on it more and more as highly-polluting and costly fossil fuels go the way of the dinosaurs from which they derive. That's why the world's best minds are focused on finding efficient and inexpensive methods of generating nuclear energy.



Israeli nuclear engineer Eugene Shwageraus is one of those minds. The 37-year-old Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev lecturer and his research partner, Dr. Michael Todosow of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, received a three-year Energy Independence Partnership Grant last May from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation to develop a self-sustainable fuel cycle for light water reactors.

Speaking to ISRAEL21c from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is working during the first year of the grant, Shwageraus explains what this means.

Building on proven nuclear technology

The most common type of nuclear reactor in use for the past 40 or 50 years is the light water reactor (LWR). It is powered by uranium fuel and cooled with plain ('light') inexpensive water. The trouble is that LWRs are quite inefficient in natural resource consumption, using less than one percent of the energy that could potentially be extracted from the uranium.

'In the 1970s, when the availability of uranium was feared to be a real concern, people started to develop 'fast breeders' that produce fuel at a faster rate than they consume it,' says Shwageraus. 'But in order to engineer such a system, they had to move away from cooling the reactors by water. They were cooled by liquid metal, typically molten sodium, requiring complex engineering. That complicates the system to the extent that fast breeders become much more expensive than light water cooled reactors.'

Both due to the cost factor and because - as it turns out - uranium actually is quite plentiful, fast breeders never came into widespread use. Despite its energy inefficiency, the standard is still the LWR, found in about 450 civil and naval installations around the world.

And that's where the Israeli scientist's innovation comes in. By taking advantage of proven LWR technology, he and Todosow intend to make a cost-effective light water cooled reactor that will be as efficient as a fast breeder in extracting energy from the fuel.



'The process of development is three years, and at that time we'll choose from among several ways to see which is optimal to combine safety, economics and resource utilization,' Shwageraus relates.

Collaborating on alternative, renewable solutions

The goal is a self-sustaining reactor, meaning one that will produce and consume about the same amounts of fuel. This isn't possible with uranium and light water coolant. The better choice is thorium, whose nuclear properties offer considerable flexibility in the reactor core design. Some experts believe that the energy stored in the earth's thorium reserves is greater than what is available from all other fossil and nuclear fuels combined.

Thorium in the earth's crust is estimated to be at least three times more abundant than uranium, and not difficult to extract, according to Shwageraus. It can be found in large quantities in India, the United States, Australia and Turkey, as well as Norway, which is where a Swedish chemist first discovered the element in the 19th century and named it after the Norse god of thunder. While it has long been considered theoretically possible to use it to produce nuclear energy, this potential has yet to be realized.

The competition for BSF Energy Independence Partnership grants was tough, and Shwageraus admits he was pleasantly surprised to receive one. The program enables scientists from Israel and the United States to work collaboratively on finding alternative and renewable energy solutions. Supported by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, the initial phase awarded $1.2 million in funding for six projects in solar energy, biofuels and clean, safe nuclear energy.

Shwageraus, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at BGU and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at MIT, came to Israel at age 20 from his native Russia. He and his wife and two young children plan to return to Israel next year, where he will continue the project.

'I see it as a mission,' he states. 'Nuclear energy is a strategic option for Israel and I want to be part of it. It's a good thing for the country and for global society.'" (source)

"Gov. Ted Kulongoski will lead a small delegation late this month on a trade mission to Israel, where he will meet with clean tech companies, venture capitalists and visit an Intel facility slated for expansion.

By the time the governor leaves for the eight-day trip on Oct. 25, he'll have about three months remaining in office. So the trip will be one of his last opportunities for pushing economic initiatives his administration has championed.



'I've always recognized that there was a connection between Israel and Oregon, an economic tie,' Kulongoski said in an interview Tuesday.

'They are as far ahead as any country in the world on renewable energy,' he said. 'It's a country we can partner with very easily on these things that we are trying to make part of our economic structure.'

Details of the itinerary are still being set, but the trip will include a visit to Intel's state-of-the-art semiconductor factory in the southern city of Kiryat Gat. Intel brings employees to Oregon from that facility to train them on new manufacturing technology.

The Kiryat Gat factory is slated for a $2.75 billion expansion, Israel announced this week, financed in part by a $200 million government grant. Intel is in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity, and Oregon chip industry insiders say an even larger project is on the drawing board here.

The governor's office said he will fly coach, as he usually does on trade missions. The office said it's budgeting $5,000 per person on the trip, which will also include two representatives from the Oregon Business Development Department and one or two members of the governor's staff.

The Port of Portland will also send a delegation, led by Director Bill Wyatt and Diana Daggett, a Port commissioner and Intel corporate affairs director.

Oregon's exports to Israel totaled $107 million last year, 21st among the state's biggest trading partners. By comparison, the state's top export destination -- China -- purchased $3 billion in Oregon goods last year.



And yet this is the governor's second trade mission to Israel in a little more than two years.

'Most people wouldn't think of Israel as a major trading partner, but in fact there is a very strong commercial connection,' Wyatt said. 'It just doesn't show up in the statistics.'

Israel is one of the top five destinations for commercial travelers on Northwest Airlines Delta Air Lines' nonstop flight from Portland to Amsterdam, according to Wyatt. That's driven in part by people traveling between Intel's facilities in Oregon and Israel.

On this trip, Wyatt said he will ask how to improve travel connections between Oregon and Israel and inquire about hang-ups current travelers experience.

'When you travel with the governor on a trip like this you just gain so much more access to people who have these kinds of questions or answers to those questions,' he said.

Israel has been in the headlines this year over its raid of a Turkish relief ship headed for Gaza and more recently for troubled Palestinian peace talks brokered by the U.S.

Mideast politics crossed his mind as he planned this trip, Kulongoski said, but he said he believes in Israeli democracy and sees an economic opportunity for Oregon.

This will actually be Kulongoski's fourth trip to Israel. While he was attorney general, he spent three weeks there to observe a war crimes trial of suspected Nazi concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk. Kulongoski also visited Israel on a two-week vacation.

'I've always been taken by it,' he said. 'I'm a student of history.'" (source)

"Obama called it a 'revolutionary new type of solar power plant'. ISRAEL21c takes a look at how Israel's BrightSource will deliver solar power to homes across the US.

Israeli solar power company BrightSource Energy is in the news this week after receiving an unexpected endorsement from US President, Barack Obama.

The company, which is reportedly planning an IPO on NASDAQ, is building solar energy power plants in California's Mojave Desert, which are slated to produce more than 2,600 megawatts of solar electricity, more than doubling the solar thermal electricity produced in the US today.



In his weekly radio address, Obama told listeners that this October, BrightSource will break ground on a 'revolutionary new type of solar power plant'.

'It's going to put about a thousand people to work building a state-of-the-art facility. And when it's complete, it will turn sunlight into the energy that will power up to 140,000 homes - the largest such plant in the world. Not in China. Not in India. But in California,' he said.

'With projects like this one, and others across this country, we are staking our claim to continued leadership in the new global economy. And we're putting Americans to work producing clean, home-grown American energy that will help lower our reliance on foreign oil and protect our planet for future generations,' he continued.

BrightSource, which is based in Jerusalem, was founded by solar energy pioneer Arnold Goldman, the former founder and CEO of Israeli company Luz International, one of the world's first solar energy companies.

In the last two years, BrightSource, which has a solar energy development center in Israel's Negev Desert, has signed the two largest solar power agreements in the world - to produce 1,300 megawatts for Southern California Edison, and 1,310 megawatts for Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

According to Dow Jones Venture Wire, the company is preparing for an IPO in 2011. In May, the company raised $150 million in a fourth round of financing." (source)

"Two scientists, one from Israel and one from Nablus in the Palestinian Authority are working together to improve water purification for the region and beyond.

Clean water is one of the most vital resources in water-scarce countries like Israel and the Middle East, so it's no surprise that two scientists - one Israeli and one Palestinian - are now working together to increase the supply throughout the region.



Dr. Moshe Herzberg from Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev and Prof. Mohammed Saleem Ali-Shtayeh, from the Biodiversity and Environmental Research Center (BERC) in Nablus in the Palestinian Authority have been awarded a Mid East Regional Cooperation (MERC) USAID $650,000 grant for a joint water purification project that will address clean water issues and increase the clean water supply in the region as a whole.

Their project addresses the problems of biofouling of Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes during reclamation of secondary wastewater. Herzberg explains: 'Biofouling is what happens to any surface submerged in water. Take a bath toy that's been in the water for a few days,' he tells ISRAEL21c, explaining that the slimy layer that forms on the surface is the 'water-solid interface' that forms where water meets the surface of an object. Microbial communities of bacteria and fungi grow in that interface, also referred to as a matrix, or biofilm.

Now instead of a bath toy, imagine a piece of equipment that filters organic materials and compounds out of sewage or wastewater. On one side, the treated water is perfectly clean, but on the other, active side that is in contact with the smelly stuff, a biofilm forms and builds up over time, adversely affecting performance and necessitating cleaning and replacement of equipment. The cleaning cycles that the filters undergo to remove the biofilm reduce their lifespan and the equipment is very expensive to replace.

Less energy, more clean water

Oh - 'Reverse Osmosis' - that's 'the most easily applicable technology for removal of salts and small organic compounds from water,' rendering it safe for irrigation and drinking, adds Herzberg.

The researchers plan to characterize and eventually find novel ways to eradicate different biofilms grown on RO membranes. 'If we are able to understand how the biofilm forms and how to reduce its formation on reverse osmosis technology [equipment], we will be able to operate reverse osmosis units for a longer time,' says Herzberg.

Herzberg is confident that he and Ali-Shtayeh will achieve that understanding, since the research, he says, is 'based on solid hypotheses that will enable us to come up with optimized operating and cleaning conditions for reverse osmosis plants.'

The reverse osmosis units will require less maintenance and be able to operate for longer periods. Also, the higher performance will render the whole process more cost-effective. 'You will need less energy - membrane buildup and cleanup, equipment, labor - to get more clean water,' Herzberg declares.



'These techniques can be applied to increase access to clean water supply in the Middle East, especially in the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Purified secondary wastewater is an immediate resource for irrigation and after RO filtration those waters can be used indirectly for drinking,' he adds.

They will also have wider application: 'Other applications include any water and wastewater treatment processes that include filtration units such as ultra-micro- and nano-filtration. Also, ways for biofouling control in other systems such as heat-exchangers and water distribution systems could be improved,' he tells ISRAEL21c.

Applying research to enhance quality of life

The MERC Program funds collaborative research projects between Israel and its Arab neighbors and has funded activities with participation from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the West Bank/Gaza and others. Its goal is to contribute to the development and improvement of the quality of life in the Middle East through the application of research and technology; while at the same time contributing to the peace process by establishing cooperative relationships like this one.

While the five-year collaboration is in its early stages, Herzberg says that 'so far it seems to be working well. We already have a PhD student from Nablus who will hopefully do his research at BGU.'

In Israel, Herzberg believes that the results of the research should have an almost immediate effect on increasing the country's supply of clean water. Change will take longer in the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip, however, he warns. 'First, tertiary wastewater must be made available from plants that will be constructed, and there are many political and bureaucratic factors to consider,' he explains.

Herzberg predicts that Mekorot [Israel's national water company]will be able to use our data within months for better operation of its pilot plants, like the Shafdan Center in Rishon Lezion, the biggest wastewater treatment plant in Israel that treats all the sewage of the Tel Aviv municipality. They have pilot-plants for desalination of wastewater and they have biofilm problems that our findings will enable them to reduce.

In addition to Herzberg and Ali-Shtayeh, the other researchers on the project are Dr. Osnat Gillor (BGU) and Dr. Helen Thanh Nguyen, a grant advisor and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Herzberg and Gillor are both at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research which is part of BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research." (source)