Israel Venture Capital Jounal: "Can cleantech sail through the slump?"

The current issue of the Israel Venture Capital Journal, published by the IVC Research Center, is now available online.

Entitled "High C: Can cleantech sail through the slump?" (pdf), the issue contains a list of Israeli cleantech companies and articles by cleantech investors and entrepreneurs, government officials, and service providers:

• Sustainable development is essential for our future, by Minister of National Infrastructures, Benjamin (Fuad) Ben-Eliezer
• Belt tightening impacts cleantech trends, by Richard Youngman, Managing Director (Europe) of Cleantech Group
• The landscape has changed, but the opportunity persists, by Zeev Holtzman, Chairman of IVC and Giza Venture Capital
  
• Adjusting to cleantech investment, by Eytan Levy, CEO of Emefcy, and Gene Dolgin, analyst at Israel Cleantech Ventures
• The next cleantech frontier: Africa, by Daniel Schwab, Managing Director of Kayema Investments, and Miriam Schwab, CEO of Illuminea Marketing & Media
• Solar thermal energy: Israel and the Obama opportunity, by David Anthony, Managing Partner at 21Ventures
• Cleantech, Clusters, and Convergence: How investors and entrepreneurs combine to save the planet, Prof. Philip Cooke of Cardiff University
• US Government Grants: An alternative source of funds for Israeli cleantech startups, by Itai Nevo and Jonathan Shapira of Goodwin Procter LLP
  
• Cleantech calls for a different VC approach, by Rafi Gidron, Orni Petruschka, Nimrod Good and Albert Olier of Precede Technologies
• Light and harmony come mainstream, a profile of Arnold Goldman, Chairman of BrightSource Energy
• Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about cow manure, by Shlomi Ben-Arush, Marketing Manager at Global Environmental Solutions
• Early stage investing in a challenging environment, by Astorre Modena, General Partner of Terra Venture Partners
• The next opportunity in cleantech: A holistic approach to the water and energy nexus, by Booky Oren, Chairman of Miya
  
• In a downturn, aggressive communication and PR are key, by Steve Schuster, CEO of Rainier Communications
  
• Yes, Israel can take advantage of opportunities in cleantech! by Sarit Soccary Ben Yochanan, CEO of ATI Incubator
  
• Cleantech IP trends: intellectual property management from a business perspective, by Sharon Dayan, VP of Business Development at GTT Global Technology Transfer
  

Israel sets renewable energy target of 10%

Israel's government this week set a target of producing 10 percent of the country's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

The decision was made by the socio-economic cabinet, headed by Finance Minister Roni Bar-On. The panel also set an interim target of 5 percent by 2014.

The Negev and Arava regions will become "national preference" regions for renewable energy, according to the plan put forward by Minister of National Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. Ben-Eliezer's plan calls for the construction of 10 solar power stations in the Negev and Arava between 2010-2020.

Israel has already initiated a process of building solar thermal and photovoltaic power plants at Ashalim, in the Negev desert, that are expected to be operational by 2012.

"Promoting the generation of renewable energy will not only lead to a reduction in the dependency on fossil fuels and the promotion of environmental values but advancing this industry in the south will lead to the development of the periphery in the south," Bar-On said in a statement.

Israel currently produces only 1% of its electricity from renewable sources, while 69% is produced from coal, 23% from natural gas and 7% from diesel fuel or fuel oil, according a report in YNet News.

Related Posts:

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Israel plans 250-MW solar power plant

Italy, Israel to form cleantech working group

National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer came to an agreement last week with his Italian counterpart, Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola, to cooperate on alternative energy research and application.

According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, the two met as part of an Israel-Italy business seminar in Tel Aviv. Two weeks ago, Ben-Eliezer came to an agreement with Italian Environment Minister Stefania Presigiacomo to cooperate on water issues.

Italy is Israel's fifth-largest export market. In 2007, Israeli exports to Italy amounted to €1.8 billion, representing an increase of 9% over the previous year.

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Los Angeles and Israel to cooperate on water research

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Israel plans 250-MW solar power plant

Israel recently announced plans for the construction of a 250 megawatt solar power plant in the Negev, which is estimated will cost $600-$700 million. When completed, it will be one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

"Globes" reports that the World Bank is considering financing the project.

According to Ha'aretz, the tender for building the plant will not give preference to local firms, meaning that foreign firms can participate in the tender without a local partner. The decision was made, among other things, to avoid the impression that the tender was written for the benefit of the only two Israeli companies who could compete for the power station: Solel and Luz II, a subsidiary of BrightSource Energy.

The cabinet hopes that this change will make the tender more attractive to international firms with experience in the solar energy industry, and that the new conditions will allow the setting of appropriate minimum requirements for professionalism and financial strength for the bidders on the project.

Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer recently announced that the first stage of the tender will likely be published next month.

The power plant, which will be located near Ashalim in the western Negev and produce 250 megawatts of electricity, will be Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), similar to Route 6, the Trans-Israel Highway. The winning bidder builds the plant, operates it for the license period, and at the end of the franchise transfers full ownership to the state.

A number of foreign companies have already expressed interest in the project, including Spanish energy giant Abengoa. Abengoa created a U.S. subsidiary earlier this year, Solucar Power, Inc., to respond to utility requests for electricity using concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies.

The real remaining question is which technology will be required for the power station: solar thermal or photovoltaic. The solar thermal method harnesses the sun's energy to heat a material, such as oil or water, from which it is possible to generate electricity, while the photovoltaic system transforms solar energy directly into electricity.

However, it also appears that even if one of the possible two tenders requires a photovoltaic system, the total amount of electricity from such a plant will not be over 50 megawatts, out of the total of 250 megawatts.