This is because in addition to the direct cost of oil there are also environmental costs that its price does not cover, and most importantly - global warming * The state of (energy) wind and the possibilities of rehabilitating the damage caused by oil pollution in the Evrona Reserve
The term oil spill has two meanings, one: the flooding of an area and its contamination, and the other is the distribution of oil markets to cause its price to drop. Both of these things have happened recently.
Due to a local disaster - the oil spill in the past, discussions about the feasibility of generating electricity from renewable sources are rising and floating. The pollution caused by the flow of oil into the southern reserve has given renewed validity to the demand to switch to electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind or solar.
It is worth noting that a field of solar collectors is developing not far from the location of the leak, which already provides a large part of the electricity consumption of the surrounding kibbutzim, and the expectation is to supply electricity (solar) to Eilat as well, but when oil prices fall, there are voices and a tendency to stop projects to produce electricity from renewable sources mainly because of the high price of the initial construction of the facilities. Considering that solar collectors provide electricity only during the day there is always a need for an additional source, such a source could be wind. There are already wind turbines in the Golan that produce electricity and there are those who propose to build wind turbines in the vicinity of Eilat, but this is where the Greens come into the picture and set reservations and conditions that are not easy to meet, reservations mainly because of the proven fear of killing birds (see below).
Two events are related to each other in an impure connection, one is the oil spill event in the south of the Arava, a spill that is rightly described as an environmental disaster. The second event is a process in which the price of crude oil falls, meaning fuel becomes less and less expensive. The connection is that as the price goes down, the chance of oil flowing through the ruptured pipeline increases, even though in recent years no new oil has flowed through the pipeline (unless the same oil is being flowed back and forth). With all the sadness and anger over the damage in the past, it is worth remembering that there were much bigger environmental disasters such as Exxon-Valdez on the coast of Alaska, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps the bigger and less talked about disaster is the ongoing pollution of the Niger River Delta in Nigeria,
Israel is "ours" and hence the current discourse that is common in the media, so it is probably not by chance that in the economy section of YNET a list of The drop in oil prices will undoubtedly affect the development of alternatives. Prices are falling, among other things, due to the development of cheap and efficient production methods of sources that were not available until now, as well as due to the lack of agreement in the OPEC countries. It is clear that when oil prices fall, those who finance projects for the production of energy from renewable sources make a short-term calculation and consider the viability of the financing even if in the long-term calculation the project is worthwhile. A stoppage of funding resulting from short-term evidence harms the development of alternatives to polluting oil. Even if environmental hazards (such as those mentioned above) are not taken into account, the climate hazard exists and is intensifying - burning oil continues to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the gas that causes global warming.
The disaster in the past is difficult, sad and infuriating, therefore the reference is not always correct and accurate. For example, there are many different assessments of the damage and most of the evaluators forget that the damage was in the northern quarter of the reserve, many of those referring to it "worried" about the Dom palms, which are far from the horror and in no case were they expected to be in immediate danger.
The disaster is severe and yet the fear of a flood that would pour oil into the Gulf was exaggerated since the wadis that go down to the north of the reserve are small, the flows in them are local and they all drain to salinity. It is clear that the salinity would pollute but not flow the pollution into the bay. Others stated that signs of a leak that occurred in 1978 were found and based on this one can expect restoration. Who is the expert who knows how to determine what the damage was in 1978, how the reserve was restored and more importantly - what was the condition of the flora and fauna before the current spill if there had been no spill in 1978?
Those who are on the ground see and know how to measure the immediate damage, so for example on 11/12 a list is published in which it is quoted Roi Talvi Ecologist Eilat district Because "because of the oil pollution, the number of deer is expected to decrease." Taleb goes on to detail the severe damage to reptiles and birds invertebrates, let's recall, damage that comes from an oil leak from a pipeline that has not been carrying oil for many years.
The state (energy) of the wind
Coincidentally, it was held a few days after the disaster Eilat Conference for Renewable Energies with an emphasis on spirit. Indeed, the winds will channel the conference starting with the words of the CEO of the Israel Energy Forum that by 2040 it is possible to reach a supply of 95% renewable energy, with the sources being wind and mainly offshore wind farms. Above I mentioned the reservations presented by the conservationists for the use of wind turbines, and indeed those who expressed the opposition to the wind turbines were the people of the Nature and Parks Authority who were presented by the authority's chief scientist, Yehoshua Shakdi.
After trying to downplay the damage caused to the Evrona reserve as a result of the oil spill, Shakdi, the chief scientist of the Nature and Parks Authority, claimed that "since the production of electricity from fuel from mineral sources is progressing in the direction of reducing pollution, there is no need to rush and switch to wind technology. The main opposition of conservationists to the use of wind as a source to generate electricity stems from the many victims of birds that are killed as a result of malfunctions in the turbine blades.
The Land of Israel is one of the largest migration routes in the world, more than a billion birds pass over us every season. Leading the world, we know for example that wind farms in Spain kill 3,000 eagles every year. It is understandable that with us the numbers will be much larger and will be around tens of thousands. Shakedi went on to say that the right direction is nuclear energy since a nuclear disaster would be less of a mess than dealing with an oil spill. It is worth noting that due to the awareness of the blades hitting birds there are more and more (partial) solutions, such as reducing the speed in seasons when there are many birds in the environment, marking the blades with flashing lights and more.
In the wake of the disaster in the past, plans that were "hidden" until today become clear, for example Ketsa plans to lay a gas pipeline to Eilat and build reservoirs and a liquefaction facility. Last month, the district committee discussed the request of the Israel Defense Forces to expropriate a 60-meter-wide corridor from the Evrona reserve for the purpose of laying a pipeline. The company representative explained the requirement in the Oil Concession Law from 1968 that allows land expropriation (and we already know that they are allowed almost anything). At first, the mayor refrained from expressing a position, but later brought up again the megalomaniac (and utopian) initiative of the "Canal Port" - to move the port 20 km to the north and, together with the port, to move the KTA facilities. The mayor should take a look at the map and see where the Evrona Reserve is.
It is worth remembering and knowing that above the Shahmon neighborhood in Eilat are huge tanks that at least partially store oil. A similar situation also exists in Ashkelon, a fault in one of the tanks will result in the flooding of residential neighborhoods with oil, not a desert reserve as important and beautiful as it may be, but residential neighborhoods. Maktsa responds that: "Ktsa operates state-of-the-art control systems that know how to detect any leak." Where were the "systems" in the event of the leak in the past?
I will conclude that (in my opinion) when calculating economic costs it is mandatory to include the environmental costs. When oil prices fall, there are voices and a tendency to stop projects to produce electricity from renewable sources mainly because of their high price, so again, whoever does not calculate an environmental price is doing his job a fraud.
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We calculated the cost of refueling an electric vehicle with residual electricity at home. You won't believe it. 30 NIS per month.
The outlet is secured with a lock. For comparison, fuel costs 1500 NIS per month for the same mileage. In Israel, those who buy an electric vehicle save about 5000 NIS per year, including the loss of the battery and the car for scrapping at the end of 8-5 years, and pay 50,000 NIS for the vehicle and 25-35 thousand NIS for the battery. In Israel the vehicle is limited to the city of residence.
In Denmark and the USA there is a regional charging infrastructure, so the vehicle is not limited to the city of residence, and there is no loss of the vehicle for scrapping. The actual cost of the battery is also partially covered by the vehicle manufacturer. Even with the inclusion of the cost of the accumulator, the financial savings are large.
Intelligent companies that will market electric vehicles but still be attractive to the consumer, which did not happen in Israel, will be able to use the vehicle's batteries as a discharge bank of energy for the electric grid, precisely at night when everyone is asleep, but there is no production of photovoltaic energy.
Israel has one gas supplier! Yeftah Ron Tal favors the use of gas only! Which creates a problem in the country's energy security. Someone stop this corruption!
The Better Place model is being replaced by hydrogen propulsion.
The green agenda is not questionable. It brings the well-being of the individual. If everyone produces electricity for self-consumption and sells it to the state as is customary in Israel and the world, he will have welfare and the country will have welfare, because it will reject the construction of a power plant. Basically in a world of technology at our level, if properly routed there is no reason why we cannot harvest 0.0001% of the energy around us at a reasonable cost. FYI. Better Place vehicles are now sold for about NIS 50,000. The cost of refueling at home compared to the cost of electricity because Better Place has fallen and does not issue a coupon - 1/5 or less of the cost of purchasing fuel.
The vehicle is limited to Gush Dan due to the lack of available charging points, but in Denmark and the USA (Tesla vehicles) this is not the case.
The only factor that increases the price of the battery which has a lifespan of 5-8 years and costs about NIS 25,000. Do the math that even with a cost of 75,000 NIS and a monthly fuel cost of 1/5-1/6 of the current fuel cost, you and I = profit. Now Volkswagen is working in Israel with 4 universities to produce a battery with a charge ratio of 500 km for a full charge, and at a cost of about 5000-10000 NIS. They replace the hydrogen with oxygen which greatly increases the mass to volume ratio, and the lithium-ion with something else. When this happens, the battery will also be cheap and will arrive from Tel Aviv to Eilat without refueling. Now the Americans have broken the oil market by a technological innovation of producing fuel from shale gas (not green but high technology) hence those who have high technology break the market economically.
We are talking about fusion energy that will make the superpowers more superior and those who will save energy efficiency to the third world.
In general, enormous levels of energy come from the sun and the wind. If probes sample a fraction of that in every house, we will be prosecuted.
There is nothing preventing every house or second house to have solar collectors and wind turbines in windy areas. These measures are probes for me. The German government subsidizes the installation of solar cells and energy storage batteries at a rate of up to 33000 euros per consumer. As a fact, in just one day in Germany they reached up to 75% of electricity consumption from renewable energy.
You may be right.
Iter talks about 2050 and that's where they are pouring billions of euros.
Lockheed Martin, a manufacturer of fighter jets and passenger planes, took the trouble to make a video about the technology it is developing and they are talking about a demonstration prototype in 2016 that is 15 times smaller than the real thing, a complete reactor in 2020-2025, and application in an aircraft in 2030.
On the one hand Lockheed is a serious company, on the other hand it is a big challenge and difficult to achieve.
An Italian professor founded a venture for 14 million NIS. He seems completely fabricated to me.
Nuclear fusion would be available maybe only in 2040. You should use normal nuclear power.
Renewables are the future, and nuclear fusion energy which lately has been spreading rumors from 3 sources that there has been great progress and it is about building small reactors. Anyone who sees the large turbine farms in the North Sea and the electricity they produce understands that there is a future there. And it makes sense that a person plants needles in the environment he lives in and these produce energy for him which is a fraction of the energy that ran in nature unutilized. Regarding fusion reactors - I saw 3 projects but I was not convinced that they were about spins.
A. Baiter - it is not a spin but it costs billions, is stuck in difficulties and will end in 2050.
B. There is an Italian professor who founded a start-up for 14 million dollars on miniature reactors. In my opinion, this is fiction.
third. Lockheed Martin is apparently a serious company that builds serious airplanes, conducts an experiment in a fusion reactor and claims that it will make it possible to propel even airplanes. We will wait and see.
And one more thing, regarding the canal port. It is not applicable! (engineering). We need to move the road (perhaps in a tunnel) and expand the port inland.
The people of the Hashal economy talk about relying on gas. This is a mistake, we need as many sources and diversity as possible. Diesels, biogas, atomic, coal, and hydroelectricity. In the past we had an Egyptian gas supplier that got us into trouble.
When talking about inefficient batteries, this is not the solution. Pumped energy is the way to conserve energy. Projects like the Star of the Jordan, the Gilboa, or Menara Cliff. will allow storage and trading of electricity.
I agree with the article, but the USA became an oil power due to the production of oil from shale and they stopped it here.
In Europe they will reach 20% in 2020 and in Germany they reached 75% of the country's consumption from renewable energy in just one day.
Do you also have Lockheed experience? To produce energy in fusion and there is in ITER France.
In Germany, the government subsidizes the purchase of solar and e-storage up to 33,000 euros. And in Israel: 2 stealth squadrons that will never attack Iran for 10 billion dollars, and six submarines for 25 billion dollars. How much economy could be moved in this? and welfare.
Herzl
At the time, the Chinese government heavily subsidized solar panels. Therefore, it is not certain that the prices of solar panels will decrease in such a way that the electricity they produce will be cheaper than conventional electricity production (fossil fuel, or nuclear fission reactors). Also, there is still the problem of storing electricity in batteries, which is also limited and costs money.
Currently, solar electricity generation is not profitable. Even when the price of a barrel of crude oil was 100 dollars, even more so if the price of crude fuel dropped to 50 dollars per barrel.
Maybe solar electricity will pay more than conventional fuels in another 20 years, or another 50 years, or another 100 years. Meanwhile it's a good waste of money that would be better used for other useful purposes.
There is a process of falling prices of silicon solar collectors (under the strong influence of the Chinese government). Soon the price of the collectors will be so cheap that it will be economically viable to install them on roofs or walls to operate air conditioners. Here there is a match between the availability of energy - when there is a strong sun, and the biggest consumer of energy in homes and offices - air conditioning. Other alternative energy sources do not have this compatibility and there is a problem of energy storage.
Silicon solar collectors in a desert area also have the great advantage of reducing the albedo (light reflection) of the desert which is very high so that the sunlight reflected from the white desert sand prevents the formation of rain clouds. Painting a desert gray can make the area more fertile.
And I think no one in the world puts a finger on the suckers who let capital/government take over their property and lives, but this is not the place. Anonymous - maybe you will open a financial website?
Of course it's related! And if we are talking about a dubious agenda, then we should talk about the "Iranian threat"
Anonymous user.
You sound disgruntled. It is true, the recent governments are beating the weak in Israel and working on us with their eyes, but what does this belong to the article?
But what the article suggests is throwing away good money (which contributes to human well-being and basic daily existence) to fulfill a green agenda of questionable utility.
Let them do the Feiglin/Kahlon reform in the administration. And sell all the lands to some Qatari. Then this evil state will end. The Israeli right will join the Republican Party.
The air is polluted, the pension funds are a Ponzi scam, poverty is expanding, but the media is shaken by the credit rating. Israel is a joke, the whole world laughs at this corrupt country. Instead of caring for its citizens, it has become a laundry bleacher for Wall Street and the City of London.
Every technology has advantages and disadvantages, wind farms will kill birds of all kinds
In the perhaps world's largest migration route of birds, solar farms are also quite a catastrophe in the area
on which they are located becomes a sterile fenced area to prevent harm from "unfriendly people" but in general these are huge areas that are taken from nature forever, this is a sterilized area without any animals, and without the ability of the animals to move from side to side, when of course the advantage is that this is perhaps one of the more clean to generate electricity as long as there is sun,
It would be desirable, but of course it costs a lot more money to use the spaces that are already built, such as roofs or above the roads
To deploy it before using open spaces,
But the price will be much more expensive so it probably won't happen, Chernobyl from the animals' point of view is the best thing that could happen, it kept away the humans who are the biggest risk for them,
The forecast is that the prices of the Hoslar cells will drop to viability even without any subsidy and then we are expected to be flooded with it everywhere, it is not certain that what the greens have always aspired to over the years green technology will be in terms of the animals
Something good, maybe the result of pushing these technologies will be much worse than the polluting oil technology,