The conference will take place on May 20-21. Separately this morning a joint conference with Italy - Israel and Italy will cooperate in the development of renewable energy technologies including solar cells, wind turbines and biofuels
Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA, will deliver the opening lecture at an international conference on renewable energies, which will be held at Tel Aviv University on May 21-20, 2008.
Gore is making a special visit to Israel, as a guest of the Dan David Prize, to receive the prize for 2008 in a festive ceremony to be held at Tel Aviv University on May 19. The Dan David Award for 2008 will be given to Gor, in the present time dimension, in the field of social commitment with an emphasis on the environment, for his enormous contribution to raising international awareness for the preservation of the environment and the prevention of a global ecological disaster.
In the reasons for the decision to award Al Gore the Dan David Prize, the jury noted, among other things, that Al Gore is the leading politician in the world in this field, and his extensive activity, which includes political influence, lectures, films and books, created a real change in the consciousness of people and governments.
Tel Aviv University is organizing the first international conference on renewable energies. The conference will deal with all aspects - technological, economic, political and other - related to the transition to the use of renewable energies, as a substitute for oil and coal.
In addition to Al Gore, President Shimon Peres, Minister of Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Minister of Environmental Protection Gideon Ezra will also take part in the scientific-economic-public event.
Prof. Zvi Galil, president of Tel Aviv University, says: "Tel Aviv University, the largest and most diverse among the universities in Israel, which has become a leading academic institution in the fields of the environment, due to extensive research activities in the fields of the environment, is a natural home for this conference. The organizers of the conference managed to bring together the best researchers and a number of leading decision-makers for a ground-breaking international meeting that will contribute to increasing awareness of the issue of renewable energies in Israel and around the world."
Prof. Hagit Maser-Yeron, Vice President for Research and Development at Tel Aviv University, says: "Tel Aviv University's extensive research activity forms an infrastructure for applications in accordance with the needs of society and the economy in Israel and the world, and is reflected in this conference that deals with various aspects of the renewable energy issue - scientific / technological, social, business and political - in all of them, and in combinations of them, there is an academic specialization at the university."
Prof. Avi Kribus, an international expert on renewable energies from Tel Aviv University, will present innovative Israeli developments in the field of renewable energy which he will reveal for the first time. Social aspects inherent in the climate crisis in the Middle East will be discussed in the lecture of Prof. Danny Rabinowitz from Tel Aviv University. In addition, leading experts from the world will present: new technologies that are on the horizon in the field of solar energy (Prof. Yogi Goswami - co-director of the Center for Clean Energy Research at the University of South Florida), on the production of hydrogen from the sun - Solar Hydrogen present and future (Prof. Aldo Steinfeld - Aldo Steinfeld - from the Center for Energy Technologies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), the possibilities for a world with low carbon levels (Prof. Michael B. McElroy - expert in environmental studies from Harvard University in the USA).
In addition, Alexander Karsner, US Undersecretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Dr. Corrado Clini, CEO To the Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea of Italy, Dr. Israel Clabin (President of the Brazilian Foundation for the Development of Renewable Energies) and Dr. Michael Idelchik (Vice President for Research in Advanced Technologies at "General Electric" (GE) ).
The session, which will be dedicated to business opportunities in the field of renewable energy that have just opened up to the business sector, will be moderated by Prof. Yehuda Kahana from the Faculty of Business Administration and the Akirov Institute for Business and Environment at Tel Aviv University. Among the lecturers will also be the president and CEO of Solel Solar Energy Company, Avi Bernmeir.
On Israel's path towards independence in the field of energy - long-term policy aspects, questions concerning national security and the economic consequences - a special session will be held, which will be chaired by Dr. Miki Haran, former Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and with the participation of Ministers Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Gideon Ezra, Director General of the Ministry of Infrastructure Hazi Kugler, MK and Colonel (res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben-Israel and Colonel (res.) Yom-Tov Samia, currently CEO of the Israel Green Energy Company.
Attached is the conference agenda
Press release - April 23, 2008
Israel and Italy will cooperate in the development of renewable energy technologies
A representative of the Italian National Energy Research Institute will come to Israel to participate in a joint scientific-technological forum, which will be held in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state
Israel and Italy will cooperate in the development of renewable energy technologies, including solar cells, wind turbines and biofuels. The cooperation aims to provide a joint response to both the global warming trend and the increase in energy prices. The price of a barrel of oil rose yesterday to a new record of 119.5 dollars per barrel.
The main advantages of using alternative energy derive from the relatively low cost of the raw material and its non-degradable and environmentally friendly nature. However, the development of alternative energy requires a high investment in infrastructure. The availability of this energy is also low, which requires the presence of conventional energy sources at hand as a backup when needed. About two years ago, the research company Clean Edge estimated that the scope of the use of alternative energy in 2015 would rise to about 167 billion dollars.
In order to promote cooperation in the field, Prof. Piero di Porto, one of the senior managers of ENEA - the Italian National Energy Research Institute and the head of the Institute's foreign relations, will come to Israel. Prof. Di Porto will meet in Israel with government and academic officials and will speak as part of a special gathering of the scientific-technological forum shared by both countries, the establishment of which was initiated by the Italian Embassy in Israel on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state. The forum will present the achievements of the scientific-technological cooperation between the two countries so far and outline the way for its strengthening and empowerment in the future.
According to the scientific attaché at the Italian Embassy in Israel, Dr. Stefano Boccelli, the two economies, the Israeli and the Italian, are in many ways complementary economies and that the purpose of the seminar is to create the conditions for continued scientific cooperation between the two countries, with a strong applied orientation, in a way that will enhance the interests of both The countries in the fields of industry, science and technology.
