Shai Agassi, Founder and CEO of Better Place, the electric car infrastructure start-up, was named today to the Time 100, a list of the world’s most influential people.

This is the second year running that a leader of Israel’s cleantech industry has been named to the Time 100. Isaac Berzin, founder of GreenFuel Technologies and the Institute for Alternative Energy Resarch at IDC Herzliya, made the list in 2008.

Agassi was born in Ramat Gan, Israel and graduated from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Better Place has raised more than $300 million and is partnering with utilities and governments to install its electric vehicle infrastructure in Israel, Denmark, Australia, Portugal, Ontario, Hawaii, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Better Place’s primary R&D center is in Israel.

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Many cleantech companies and industry groups are rethinking traditional patent strategies and forming new ones that I call “open patent strategies.” Open patent strategies use patent resources to both protect proprietary innovation and keep new technical domains clear for adoption and use of new technologies.

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The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute reports that water technology exports totaled $1.4 billion in 2008 – double the 2005 amount. The global water market is worth $400 billion annually and is expected to rise to $537 billion next year.

To mark World Water Day, the Export Institute published figures about the country’s water technologies industry. There are 250 companies in the sector of which 200 export their products. 50 companies in the sector are defined as start-ups.

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Happy Earth Day… I hope you rode your bike to work, ate only vegetables, brought your own cup to Starbucks and followed the instructions in the signature line of your boss’ email and didn’t print it unless it was truly necessary.

If you are new around here – I was a Marine officer before running off to Europe for grad school and dedicating my professional life to sustainability. One of my happiest associations is with that group of men and women (the Marine Corps), and I can continue to do so through the Marines’ Memorial Association here in San Francisco. I’m very happy to support bringing relevant discussions to this venue that satisfy both my interests (likely yours if you are on this site) and that organization’s values, so if you have some ideas that need a venue and a good audience, please send me a note and we can chat about putting events together.

That said, next week you might want to mark your calendar for an event there and another fantastic event down the street at the Hotel Nikko.

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