Members Writing: Is Israel Becoming the New Hub for Clean Technologies? / Tobias Mendelovici
A crave to become fossil fuel independent and accomplish OECD environmental targets is pushing several countries to develop clean technologies. Will Israel stand as a major global player in these race? Find the answer in this article why we think that it will.
Global warming, water scarcity and waste associated pollution and finding alternatives to fossil fuels are some of the major challenges facing humanity. In order to address this complex issues regulators and international organizations are setting new standards and there is a race against time to develop new technologies that can lessen the impacts on the environment. Many countries are developing a range of environmental technologies and competing to become providers for a thirsty growing world market. Israel is one of them.
Israel has a long history and reputation in the development of efficient technologies for agriculture, particularly drip irrigation and sewage treatment and reuse. Also the water purification and desalination sector has international recognition.
However there is another "brother" field being developed in Israel that is less known by the international community despite important developments over the last decades: environmental technologies particularly those associated with energy efficiency, waste to energy and renewable energy technologies. The Global Cleantech Innovation Index 2012, a new report published by the Cleantech Group, ranks Israel second highest in terms of its Cleantech innovations. Many innovations come from the energy and water sectors. And this is not a coincidence: an educated worksforce, world class research institutions, the creation of supporting programs by the government and a culture of entrepreneurship makes Israel as one of the most promising hubs for the development of water, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and this is why global investors are targeting Israeli energy and water start ups.
An example of Israeli success, are local start ups that are tackling the 800 billion dollar market of energy efficiency. One of the sub sectors of these field is illuminations technologies. Illumination represent 19% of all electricity consumed around the globe. Metrolight, is an example of a successful Israeli start up, that has developed a state of the art solution that can
save up to 70% energy in indoor and outdoor applications.
To learn more about this and other clean technologies developments in Israel, a new blog has been developed for the Spanish speaking market: http://www.oceanbusiness.com.es/
Mr Tobias Mendelovici, the author of the article, is an Israeli clean tech expert. He is the CEO of a business development firm that helps Israeli clean tech companies reach foreign markets. Email: cleantech@tobiasmendelovici.com
