I exit the Better Place center in Pi Glilot excited, thrilled, full of ambition and energy.

Great, well, those who read this right now probably have no idea what I’m talking about, since this project is mostly mentioned in business magazines, and the truth is that my generation prefers to read magazines that are focused on a younger audience, dealing with simpler issues.

The reason I decided to write this article is that I believe wholeheartedly in the project that I’ll describe in more depth soon, and I really do think that a significant part of its ultimate success will be dependent on our generation – the younger generation that will define at the end of the day how the world will look tomorrow and the coming years. In short, if you care, keep reading. And if you don’t care, read it and you’ll start caring. read more >>

Three weeks ago, Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent representing Connecticut, took time on a visit to Israel to stop by the Better Place Center and learn how Israel, as its Prime Minister put it on Jan. 21, 2008, “set itself a goal of making our lives better and cleaner…[and by 2020, being] completely free of petroleum and its by-products as the fuel which powers transportation.”

During his visit, Senator Lieberman marveled at the impact that Better Place’s success could have on the two issues that many would say have defined his long public service – security and environment. While his emphasis on the former has historically landed him in trouble with Democrats, his passion to combat climate change dates back to long before it was in vogue, often irking Republicans. What everyone can agree on is that ending oil dependence resolves a broad swath of problems that cut across traditional partisan ideologies. read more >>

The giants of Silicon Valley are typically of the information technology type, from Google to Intel, Facebook to Microsoft. Now that the cleantech industry is running alongside the IT industry as the high-growth place to be, we see human talent migrating from one industry to the other, and finding different practices when they get there.

Unlike most of the IT-related companies that can achieve instant propagation through internet and software tools (and often with smaller required investment), many cleantech startups operate in a more capital-intensive environment often characterized by long time horizons and capital outlays for hardware development, testing and deployment. Given these differences, cleantech companies require investors with a different profile: the ability to deploy large amounts of capital, often over multiple rounds, and to look beyond a 5-10 year timeframe. read more >>

A great indicator that disruptive innovations are nearing the all-important tipping point is when powerful incumbents start peddling nonsense masquerading as facts, to sow doubt about the viability of the emerging technology or business model. There’s nothing particularly sinister about this. By scrambling to erect roadblocks to new market entrants that threaten their hegemony, oligopolies are only doing what comes naturally to an organism under attack by an existential threat. And if your job is to find, extract, refine, distribute and sell liquid fuels, then electric cars certainly qualify. read more >>

For two generations, political leaders from both major political parties have identified oil dependence as a major vulnerability, and have asserted the need for the U.S. to break that addiction. But despite all of the passionate rhetoric, precious little has been proposed by way of a tangible strategy.

Today, there is hope that this is about to change.

Democratic and Republican members of the House and the Senate just introduced the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act (EVDA), a plan to speed mass adoption of zero-oil, zero-emission electric vehicles, and to put the U.S. into the global race for sustainable transportation. read more >>