Israel’s Practical Solar Energy Reduces Oil Dependence

On January 21, the Israeli government announced its support of an ambitious plan to install the world's first electric car network in Israel by 2011. The initiative is aimed at addressing global dependence on foreign oil from undemocratic regimes and mitigating the health and environmental damages caused by emissions from gas-burning vehicles. Israeli President Shimon Peres said, "Today is a new age with new dangers and the greatest danger is that of oil. It is the greatest polluter of our age and oil is the greatest financier of terror."

In a joint venture, Project Better Place, owned by Israeli-American entrepreneur Shai Agassi, will provide lithium-ion batteries and the infrastructure to refresh or replace them, while Renault and Nissan will build the cars. With the goal of making Israel a laboratory test for a new model of environmentally efficient transportation,.

The innovative model, developed by Agassi, would provide consumers with inexpensive cars, and they would pay a monthly fee for expected mileage, like minutes on a cell phone plan. Project Better Place will provide infrastructure including parking meter-like plugs on city streets or service stations along highways at which batteries can be replaced.

Peres, who was first heard about Agassi’s idea at a 2006 meeting of the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum, strongly promoted Israel’s involvement. "Oil is becoming the greatest problem of our time," not only by polluting, he said, but "it also supports terror and violence from Venezuela to Iran."
Idan Ofer, chairman of Tel Aviv-based industrials conglomerate Israel Corp., provided the initiative half of its $200 million funding. Building on the idea of Israel as an experimental laboratory for environmental technology, Ofer has begun targeting China and India, two countries with burgeoning oil consumption and attendant environmental hazards. Ofer said that if Agassi's plan works in Israel, "it will work even better in China. Their pollution is killing them and the rest of us, too." And in Mumbai, he said.

source:http://www.pjvoice.com/v33/33006solar.aspx