Israel

Better Place going to China

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Do you remember Better Place, the great electric car project ? To Ecogeek : “Better Place has entered into an agreement with Chinese utility China Southern Power Grid to bring their battery swap stations to the Asian country.” “(…) Better Place founder Shai Aggasi sees this partnership leading to a shift in Chinese EV manufacturing … Read more

Climate change unites Mediterranean nations

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Will fighting climate change become the ultimate fight ? If the Palestinian Authority and Israel can sit at the same table to fight climate change I guess we can save ourselves from warming temperatures. To the AFP: ” Some 15 Mediterranean countries, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, agreed Friday to work together to combat … Read more

A brilliant video on electric cars and Better Place

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Better PlaceAt first I wasn’t that convinced that electric vehicles were the solution to end our oil addiction and decreasing carbon dioxide emissions. But reading Sustainable Energy – Without the hot air changed that.

Before proposing you a series of articles on electric vehicles (it will begin after my series on nuclear) I would like to share with you a presentation Shai Agassi did at TED Talks earlier this year.

In less than twenty minutes the video explains very well the history and development of Better Place as well as the tremendous advantages of electric cars.

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Better Place : an interesting project of hybrid cars

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Even if oil prices decreased during the last weeks – as I write these lines they are around $120 at the NYMEX – there is no doubt they will soar again and reach $200 in the very next months.

Since our transportation habits are depending so much on this energy source, it is high time for our societies to change and shift to hybrid or full electric cars.

An Israeli investor, Shai Agassi, is banking on the latter with his project Better Place that may become a reality in his country but also in the UK, Portugal and Denmark.

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90 percent of Israeli households have solar water heaters

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An information that really caught my eyes in my RSS feeds is the fact that 90 percent of Israeli houses have a solar water heater. This is a huge percentage.

It can be explained by the interest of the local government for this energy source as early as the 1950s. In 1983, up to 60 percent of households had these appliances.

Israel is thus taking profit of its most important insolation. But solar energies also work in less sunny places. It is to be hoped that more countries will follow this example.

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Algae, the best solution to make biofuels

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I have never been a great fan of traditional biofuels (nor the World Bank and the OECD) as their yield is quite small and as they require a lot of by-products (pesticides…).

However, some alguae like Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce, pictured left) have a much superior yield than cereals and aren’t as much eaten as their terrestrial cousins.

Le Figaro Magazine and Notre-Planète.info explored this alternative that might really help us in replacing oil when it will be too expansive, and this in a sustainable way.

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