SeaNergy

Inspired by children playing with a beach ball at the seaside, Shlomo Gilboa an Israeli politician-turned-inventor has invested millions of his own dollars in SeaNergy, a new company and product that share a name. SeaNergy harvests the energy of ocean waves through an offshore farm of buoys.

The technology now being tested off the coast of Haifa can harness 20 times more power from wave energy than any other similar technology in existence today.

Usually, the wave comes and goes in a second, but SeaNergy harvesting system manipulates it, holding the wave level in a reservoir in the buoy, to capture it.

The buoy literally shoots up when it reaches the crest of the wave With the same impact as a ball put underwater in the swimming pool pops up in a huge burst of energy.

SeaNergy is currently working with the Israel Electric Corporation and has been endorsed by engineers at the University of Haifa.

While generating electric power, the system also produces a significant amount of carbon-free desalinated water. It is estimated that a million cubic meters of desalinated water will be produced by a SeaNergy farm that covers a 300 square meter (about 3,229 square foot) patch of water at sea. While traditional desalination plants can produce orders of magnitudes more water, unlike SeaNergy they require an extensive amount of energy input to the system.

Currently a number of large and small companies around the world are negotiating with the company about a first facility, which will require a $2 million investment for four, four-buoy clusters. According to the most conservative projection, the SeaNergy buoy system, which sits below the surface of the waves and pops up as it collects energy, can pay for itself in feed-in tariffs within three years.

Although the company was officially formed in 2008, the idea has been in development for about 15 years, and millions of dollars of personal financing were invested in the prototype. Based in Haifa, SeaNergy employs a small staff of four, but has worked with more than 100 consultants and specialists to get its prototype to ‘float.'

At the Haifa National Museum of Science SeaNergy is presented as an important and radical new green technology. In the near future, you may see its buoys bouncing around a coast near you.

Source: Israel21c

Israel's Military And Farmers Save Birds

Israel's environmentalists and Israel Military Industries (IMI) are working together to help farmers and the environment and to boost the declining population of predatory birds.

The joint project turns old ammunition crates into nesting boxes for owls and kestrels, which then feast on the rodents that plague farmers' crops. Use of predatory birds rather than pesticides is both beneficial to the environment and saves the birds that were often poisoned themselves after devouring toxic prey.

At 700 shekels a piece, wooden nesting boxes were proving prohibitively expensive for the farmers, but IMI offered them all the boxes they wanted, free of charge.

The project is run by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Agriculture and Environmental Protection ministries.

It started in 1983 with 12 boxes and now there are 2,000 boxes all over Israel, many of which are made of recycled wood.

One of the project's goals is to encourage farmers to rely on predatory birds to curb the rodent population rather than on rodenticides, which are harmful to humans and the environment.

The project was recently expanded into Israel's Arab sector.

Source: Israel21c

Bill to Restrict Import of Animal-Tested Products

The Knesset plenum passed in a preliminary vote a bill to ban the import of cosmetic and cleaning products that were tested on animals. The bill specifies that the proposed law would not restrict products used for purposes relevant to health. The bill was approved by a majority of 43 lawmakers, while 9 opposed.

Source: Israel National News

Israelis Against Fur

Recent public opinion poll commissioned by the International Anti - Fur Coalition and Let Animals Live has shown that vast majority of Israelis oppose fur industry.

Killing animals for their fur is immoral
Agree - 86%
Disagree - 8%
No opinion - 6%

Fur industry in Israel should be prohibited
Agree - 79%
Disagree - 12%
No opinion - 9%

The survey, conducted by the Maagar Mohot polling company, questioned 542 Israeli adults and had a margin of error of 4.5%.

Among Israel's general Jewish population, 92% believe killing of animals for fur is immoral; 85% of new immigrants are also against the fur industry, as are 64% of Arab-Israelis and 61% of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews want to preserve the round fur hats known as "shtreimels", which are made from rabbit, sable, stone marten, baum marten and American gray fox.

Source: YNetNews