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Shikun u'Binui Real Estate Ltd. will install solar energy panels on the roofs of its projects under construction. The solar panels will provide renewable energy for electricity to power the buildings' public areas. The solar energy program comes after the company last month obtained Israel Standard 5281 for buildings with reduced environmental impact for projects in Netanya and Karkur.

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Innowattech pilot tests prove electricty can be generated from cars using its generators underneath the road surface with normal driving. The 10 meter pilot will now be tested on a kilometer road. 1 km of road with 4 lanes and enough car traffic on busy highways will provide electricity to power 300-500 homes and up to 1 mw for 2500 homes. It can be used to power lights and signs on the roads. It will not take any extra space and work in any conditions. More development tests will be done with the Technion and Maatz (the national roads company).

גלובס - חשמל בכבישי×�: פריצת דרך בישר×�ל - כביש מייצר חשמל מ×*סיעת כלי הרכב

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New Israeli battery provides thousands of hours of power

A new kind of portable electrochemical battery that can produce thousands of hours of power - and soon replace the expensive regular or rechargeable batteries in hearing aids and sensors and eventually in cellphones, laptop computers and even electric cars - has been developed at Haifa's Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
The unique battery is based on silicon as a fuel that reverts to its original sand. The new invention - with a US patent pending - is not yet rechargeable, but it can supply power for thousands of hours. The battery can also be left on the shelf for years and inserted into a device to provide immediate power.

It was developed over the last two-and-a-half years by Prof. Yair Ein-Eli of the Technion's materials engineering department, with collaboration by Prof. Digby Macdonald of Pennsylvania State University in the US and Prof. Rika Hagiwara of Kyoto University in Japan. The work was conducted with a grant from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and an article on the battery was just published in the journal Electrochemistry Communications.

Ein-Eli told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he has spent the last eight years investigating silicon in all aspects and the possibility of its serving as the major component of a highly efficient and environmentally friendly battery. Five years ago, he met Macdonald, who attended Ein-Eli's lecture on electrochemistry, and they decided to work together, with the American coming to visit his Technion lab once a year. The team obtained from the Japanese researcher an ionic liquid (liquid electrolytes or salts that form stable liquids) that does not evaporate easily. Most of the work was performed in the Haifa lab.

Ordinary portable batteries are composed of a positive electrode called a cathode and a negative one called an anode. They are separated by material containing ions (electrolytes in a liquid form). Some metal-air batteries exist, such as those using lithium, and are cheaper and lighter because they lack a cathode structure. Various big companies such as IBM, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are trying to develop rechargeable lithium-air batteries that could function 10 times longer than conventional batteries, but they have not yet succeeded.

The Technion battery ranges from one square centimeter - small enough for hearing aids and much more efficient than the highly expensive, short-lasting lithium ones used now - to several square centimeters. In another year, the power output can be significantly increased, and in three or four years, said the researcher, it could be made rechargeable as well.

"Think of an electric car battery made from silicon that will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again," suggested Ein-Eli. "This would take about 10 years more and be revolutionary. It could be used in any portable electronic device or be integrated with solar or wind power as well as electric energy." A number of foreign and Israeli companies have already contacted him and
shown strong interest in the battery, he said. The system is "highly promising, as it is capable of outperforming other existing metal-air battery technologies," Ein-Eli concluded.

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railway stations and garages to get solar power:

הרכבת תפרסם מכרז למתקנים סולאריים

בימים אלה בוחנים ברכבת ישראל היכן ובאיזה היקף יותקנו המערכות.
רכבת ישראל שוקדת בימים אלה על הכנת מכרז להתקנת מתקנים פוטו־וולטאיים על גגות נכסיה ברחבי הארץ - כך נודע ל"כלכליסט". בימים אלה בוחנים ברכבת ישראל היכן ובאיזה היקף יותקנו המערכות הסולאריות. "לא מדובר בהצבה של פאנלים סולאריים רק בתחנות הרכבת, שהרי ברשותנו כמה סדנאות ומוסכים שאפשר לנצל את שטח הגג שלהם כדי לייצר חשמל", הסביר ל"כלכליסט" גורם מקורב לנושא. "בכל מקרה, מדובר בפרויקט של עשרות אם לא מאות מיליוני שקלים".

כלכליסט - ב×�רץ - הרכבת תפרס×� מכרז למתק×*×™×� סול×�ריי×�

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על פי בדיקה שערך כהן עם מכון התקנים הישראלי, שהוא הגוף הבלעדי המוסמך לתת תו תקן ירוק לבניינים, נכון לשנת 2009 בכל מדינת ישראל הוגשו בסך הכל 11 בקשות להכרה בבניינים ירוקים.

תו תקן ירוק קובע קריטריונים ברורים לשילוב בין איכות חיים ברמה גבוהה לדיירים, להתחשבות בנושא הסביבתי. התקן הוא תקן וולנטרי ואינו מחייב כמו התקן לממ"ד, למשל, שבלעדיו הקבלנים אינם יכולים לקבל טופס איכלוס.
התקן הירוק מורכב ממספר קריטריונים, שעל מילוי כל אחד מהם מקבל הקבלן ניקוד. קבלן שקיבל ניקוד ממכון התקנים, בין 55 ל-75 נקודות, מקבל תקן ירוק, ומי שמקבל מעל לכך, מקבל תקן ירוק מצטיין.