Olive waste is something that really does not catch our imagination, as most often it is the edibles and the peace-preaching branches that hog our attention.

An Israeli company is finding new ways to turn the trash into energy source by compressing and using olive waste into solidified rolls.

Olivebar turns waste produced from the olive plant into an energy source that produces 2.5 times the energy generated by burning the same amount of wood.

Using the waste is a double-edged sword that does the planet good in more than just one way. The rolled up stacks can be used in wood-burning stoves and their high efficiency compared to wood, ensures that fewer trees are chopped off each year.

Also, the natural decomposition process makes the waste a lot more harmful for the planet and the local water sources when left alone. Olivebar obviously is trying to extract every last ounce of energy from what we normally discard and that surely is a good thing. Even the residue left over after burning, can be used as manure for your home garden.

“It’s a totally green product, all natural, without any glues or chemicals,” according to general manager Eli Karniel. “Whereas once it was more economical to buy heating oil, today people are looking for all kinds of alternatives. People went over to wood, but now governments don’t want people to cut down forests, so they’re turning to natural alternatives like ours.”

That’s the good thing about editing/writing this blog. You learn as you go, and most of the time it’s pretty interesting stuff. I never knew the good part about olives, other than the benefits of olive oil up until now. Did you? [via Israel21c]

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Considering his visions, some say that Shai Agassi is Israel’s T. Boone Pickens. If the Texas oilman is trying to switch to wind power as the next big thing, the 40 year old Israeli software whiz kid, is obsessed with making his country the world’s leader in electric cars.

Agassi, has an Israeli government-backed plan that runs through his company Better Place, which plans to create an electric car program that will give subscribers access to a car, a battery, outlets across the country and garages to swap the dead batteries with fresh ones.

The program is somehow similar to mobile-phone services but instead of buying minutes each month, you get miles. Monthly miles.

Better Place already secured enough solar energy from Israeli companies – some 2 gigawatts over 10 years to power their whole fleet (~2 million cars), and the whole project is set to start with 500 prototype electric cars by Renault.

“Israel will have the world’s first virtual oilfield in the Negev Desert,” said Agassi.

His dream is to build the project and come up with a cheap and trivial electric vehicle, to the level where people wouldn’t even consider buying a gasoline car. And he could be right. We pay some $600 a month for gasoline in Europe, so if he can offer his car for $600 a month with enough miles included, no other costs for fuel, no extra charges and no CO2 emissions, like many others I will be in.

Trying to reduce the global warming effects and thanks to high oil prices, the energy revolution have just began and spurred researchers and investors to move into clean energy.

I’ll keep an eye on Shai Agassi and tell you what’s going on with his project.

Image courtesy of eirikso