Bank Hapoalim and Hudson Clean Energy to establish cleantech fund

Poalim Capital Markets, an investment bank and a subsidiary of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest financial group, said yesterday that it was setting up a fund with U.S.-based Hudson Clean Energy to invest in alternative energy companies.

The fund, called Poalim Hudson Clean Energy, will invest between $50 and $500 million per company in the United States, Europe, and other markets, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg.

Macquarie, Australia's largest investment bank, is also a founder of the fund.

Credit Suisse will invest $300 million in the fund, which will focus on investments in renewable energy, such as wind and solar as well as infrastructure and energy storage, Poalim said.

"The rate of annual growth in the clean energy sector has been above 25 percent the last five years and estimates are that it will continue to be high," Nir Brunstein, chief executive of Poalim Capital Markets, said in a statement.

Hapoalim Chairman Dani Dankner said the new venture will provide the bank's customers with interesting investment opportunities with potential for large profits.

Hudson was founded by Neil Auerbach, a former Goldman Sachs partner who led the firm's U.S. alternative energy business and managed more than $3 billion in assets.

IDE to build $150m desalination plant in Australia

Israel-based IDE Technologies announced last week that it signed a deal to build a desalination plant worth over €100 million in Australia. IDE is a joint venture of Israel Corp.'s Israel Chemicals unit and the Delek Group.

IDE did not identify the company that it is building the desalination plant for, stating only that it is a "major industrial client." In January, Reuters reported that IDE won a tender to build a desalination plant worth more than $100 million as part of an iron-mining project in western Australia.

The 140,000 cubic meter per day facility, which will be based on reverse osmosis technology, is slated for completion in 2010.

"It establishes IDE's presence on the Australian continent, strengthens its worldwide deployment in line with the company's business strategy of global expansion and strengthens IDE's position as a world leader in the seawater desalination market," said Avshalom Felber, CEO of IDE.

The company said the project is one of the most complex in the world and one of the largest of its kind supplied by IDE to a foreign client. According to IDE, the quality of the feed water necessitates more precise and complex treatment than in similar installations elsewhere.

IDE said the Australian client will use the desalinated water for production processes and drinking water.

Established in 1965, IDE specializes in commercial applications of thermal and membrane technologies for desalinating and converting sea and brackish water for drinking and process water. The company has supplied more than 385 plants of different types and capacities in 40 countries, and said the plants produce more than 1.6 million cubic meters per day.

Related posts:

IDE to build 3 desalination plants in Asia

"Australia should learn from Israeli desalination"

A Melbourne University scientist says Australia could learn a lot about water efficiency from Israel.

Ray Ison traveled to Israel with a delegation of Australian farmers, conservationists and government officials, paid for by the Jewish National Fund.

While he says there are some environmental problems with water from the country's desalination plants, Professor Ison says much of Israel's agriculture depends on irrigating desert land, and most of that water is recycled.

"Much of the water comes from recycled urban use," he said.

"Some of it comes from several processes in agriculture, so you may have fish farming, followed by algal production, or bio-proteins and other things in water, it might go onto plants, so they maximise every drop of water in the integrated production systems."

Source: ABC Rural

IC Green Energy to enter Negev solar power plant tender

Sources inform "Globes" that Israel Corp. subsidiary IC Green Energy will participate in the BOT (build, operate, transfer) tender for the Negev solar power plant at Ashalim.

IC Green Energy (ICG), headed by CEO Yom Tov Samia, was founded in 2006 by Israel Corp. to serve as its renewable energy arm. So far, ICG has examined a number of overseas projects in the field of alternative fuel and electricity generation. According to its web site, the company is focused on biofuel (biodiesel & ethanol), solar energy and the production of biofuel and energy from biomass.

Israel's first tender for a solar power plant will be for the construction of two power stations that will generate 250 megawatts altogether, amounting to 2.5% of Israel's power production. The project is valued at $600-700 million.

Other potential builders of the plant include Israeli solar power companies Solel and Luz II, a subsidiary of BrightSource Energy. Spanish energy giant Abengoa and Babcock & Brown Capital Ltd. of Australia have also expressed interest in participating in the tender.

For additional background information on this project, see:

"Israel Plans 250-MW solar power plant"

"Australian fund considers Negev solar plant bid"

New Israeli agritech fund established

"Globes" reports that a new agritech fund, the Central Arava Fund, established with the support of Australian Jewish investors, will begin operating in April 2008. The new fund aims to establish agrotech and agrobiotech companies in the Arava region of the Negev. A second goal is to create high-tech job opportunities for residents of the Arava after their studies.

The Central Arava Fund expects to raise an initial $5-8 million, and raise an additional $40 million in the second stage. The bulk of the financing will come from Australian Jews. Arava residents and companies will be able to invest in the fund with minimum investments of $25,000.

Central Arava Fund's managers will be Eliezer Manor and Gil Lissai. Manor, a physicist, is a veteran venture capitalist, and founder of the Israel Venture Association. Lissai has experience in agriculture. He has worked with farms in both the Arava and in other countries and advised high-tech ventures and exporters.

The fund's mangers and investors discuss their plans in more detail in this YouTube video. The fund is apparently considering investing in biofuels and other alternative energy technologies related to agriculture.

IDE to build desalination plant in Australia

According to an article in Reuters, Israel Desalination Enterprises Technologies (IDE) won a tender to build a desalination plant worth more than $100 million in western Australia, Israeli financial daily TheMarker reported on Sunday.

IDE, jointly owned by Israel Chemicals and the Delek Group, will build a plant capable of producing 50 million cubic metres of water annually as part of an iron-mining project in Pilbarra, the paper said.

IDE officials declined to comment.

The company in November postponed a planned initial public offering in London as a result of prevailing global market conditions. It had aimed to raise up to $200 million in global depositary shares.

Australian fund considers Negev solar plant bid

Sources inform ''Globes'' that Babcock & Brown Capital Ltd. of Australia is considering participating in the tender to build a $600-700 million solar power station in the Negev. The tender is due to be published in 2008.

Babcock & Brown wants an Israeli energy company as a partner. The Australian investment company is the second international company expressing an interest in the tender; Spain's Abengoa Bioenergy SA has contacted the Ministry of National Infrastructures about it.

The 250-megawatt solar power station will be built at Ashalim in the central Negev under a BOT (build, operate, transfer) contract.

Babcock & Brown's portfolio already comprises thirteen operating power stations representing over 3,300MW of generation and a further 1,700MW under construction. The firm announced in June 2007 that it was opening an office in Israel to be headed by the former privatization chief Eyal Gabbai.

Australian water delegation visits Israel

Three Australian state ministers and various business leaders will visit Israel next week to explore water and conservation business opportunities. The group will meet with Israeli political, business and technology leaders and attend the WATEC Israel 2007 conference on water and environmental technologies.

Australia is undergoing a severe drought and has implemented water restrictions. According to the delegation’s leader, Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chairman Leon Kempler, “Australia and Israel share the unfortunate fate of having significant challenges to their water supplies. Israel has many companies that provide outstanding technology and solutions to water scarcity problems and this business delegation, the most senior ever to visit Israel, is keen to listen, learn and reach agreements.”

According to a lengthy article in the New York Times Magazine, experts predict that the American West will also face severe water shortages in the coming decades. Perhaps Israeli companies, which are leaders in the global water industry, will be able to provide solutions to this problem as well.