HelioFocus raises $10m from China's Sanhua and IC Green Energy

HelioFocus Ltd., an Israel-based solar thermal systems start-up, has raised more than $10 million from China's Zhejiang Sanhua Co. and existing investor IC Green Energy.

HelioFocus announced the investment last week at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, where HelioFocus is developing its solar thermal technology to boost electricity production of existing power plants.

HelioFocus CEO Ory Zik said Sanhua, the Chinese maker of appliance components whose stock is traded on the Shenzhen stock exchange, would be not just a financial investor in the company, but will also produce some solar thermal components.

"We will be able to reduce costs and move relatively quickly to manufacturing," Zik told Reuters. "Components that can be made at lower cost in China will be produced there."

Sanhua, which will hold 30 percent of HelioFocus, will invest $9.25 million directly in the company and will acquire $1.25 million worth of shares from its founders.

IC Green Energy, the renewable energy investment arm of holding company Israel Corp, is the largest shareholder in HelioFocus with a 40 percent stake. It will invest $2.3 million in HelioFocus alongside Sanhua's investment.

The rest of HelioFocus is held by workers and management, including Sass Somekh, Co-Chairman of HelioFocus and Founder of Musea Ventures.

In 2008, HelioFocus raised a $10 million first round of financing from IC Green Energy, and the company is also a recipient of an $800,000 BIRD Foundation grant. The current investment from Sanhua and IC Green Energy values HelioFocus at $45 million.

Zik said HelioFocus, whose system converts the sun's rays into hot air to produce electricity, will release its first product in 2012 and is working on a pilot project in Israel. Funds raised from Sanhua will be used by HelioFocus to continue its research.

"We believe that the thermo-solar market will grow significantly, together with the rapid global development and ongoing legislation in the clean energy market," Yom Tov Samia, Co-Chairman of HelioFocus and president and CEO of IC Green Energy, said in a statement.

Jacky Eldan, Israeli consul general in China, said the door opened by Sanhua will pave the way for more cooperation and investments of Chinese companies in Israel.

HelioFocus' financing announcement is the latest in a series of successes for Israeli solar thermal companies. Siemens AG bought Israel-based Solel Solar Systems Ltd. for about $418 million in October 2009, AORA Solar raised $5 million in February 2009, and BrightSource Energy, which conducts R&D through subsidiary BrightSource Industries Israel, has announced a series of mega projects in the U.S. over the past year

Congrulations to Ory Zik and the rest of the team at HelioFocus!

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Seambiotic and China Guodian utility to build $10 million commercial microalgae farm

Seambiotic, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cleantech start-up developing and producing marine microalgae for the nutraceuticals and biofuel industries using flue gas from electric power plants, has announced that it has signed a License Agreement and a Joint Venture Agreement with affiliates of China Guodian Corporation, to establish a Chinese joint venture for the commercial cultivation of microalgae.

China Guodian is one of China’s largest power companies with over 100 power stations. The joint venture with Seambiotic will utilize Seambiotic’s innovative technology for the cultivation microalgae for use in the animal and fish foodstock and nutraceutical industries. The first commercial farm of 12 hectares is expected to cost $10 million, will be situated in Penglai, a city in Shandong Province, China.

The facility will utilize carbon dioxide emitted from the China Guodian's Penglai power station, and, according to Seambiotic, the facility will become operational during 2010. The joint venture agreements, with Yantai Hairong and Penglai Weiyuan, affiliates of China Guodian, contemplate additional farms to be established based upon a pre-agreed timetable.

“The joint venture with Yantai Hairong and Penglai Weiyuan is a major development for Seambiotic,” said Daniel Chinn, Seambiotic CEO. “Partnering with such significant companies validates our model of working with important power companies around the world, and we look forward to working with our Chinese partners in establishing the first farm and commercializing our product.”

Seambiotic was founded in 2003 in cooperation with the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to grow and process marine microalgae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries while acting as a carbon capture technology. Seambiotic's research efforts are performed at a pilot plant at IEC’s power station near Ashkelon, Israel, where various species of marine microalgae have been successfully cultivated using the power station's CO2 emissions released directly from their smokestacks. The microalgae are in turn sold into the nutraceutical market or used as feedstock for animal or fish and biofuel.

Seambiotic says that it is currently in transition from the pilot plant stage to commercial scale algae cultivation and production.

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Pitango VC invests in solar power project in China

Pitango Venture Capital, Israel's largest VC firm, has reportedly invested in a solar power project in China's Jiangxi Province.

According to a report published in SinoCast, Pitango is investing in the project in partnership with Shenzen Capital Group Co. (SCGC), and China-Israel Value Capital (CIVC), a China-focused private equity fund. Established in 1999, SCGC was one of the first venture capital firms in China and currently manages over $300 million.


Chemi Peres, Managing General Partner and Co-Founder of Pitango, and the son of Israeli President Shimon Peres, is visiting Shenzhen City, and discussing further cooperation with SCGC. A long-term strategic partnership between Pitango and SCGC is reportedly being discussed.

It is perhaps worth noting that Peres sits on the board of directors of Pythagoras Solar, a stealthy Israeli solar startup that raised $10 million in a Series A round of financing earlier this year.

Peres told SinoCast that he has found cooperative opportunities in almost every field of Shenzhen's industries, including IT, medicine, energy and education. He believes Pitango will bring more listing and overseas acquisition possibilities to Chinese companies.

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Pythagoras Solar raises $10 million from Israel Cleantech, Pitango, and Evergreen

Shai Agassi, Better Place, featured in Wired Magazine

Shai Agassi, the founder and CEO of Better Place, is on the cover of the most recent issue of Wired Magazine. The article, “Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road,” is a must read for anyone interested in Shai Agassi, the origins of Better Place, and the politics and economics of electric vehicles.


Highlights include:

A Q&A with Israeli President Shimon Peres, who contends that Israel can be a global cleantech R&D center

A description of AutoOS, the Better Place operating system, and how it will transform the transportation grid. AuotOS will serve as an energy monitor, GPS unit, help center, and personal assistant, packed into an onboard PC that will also hold cellular and Wi-Fi chips.

Details of Agassi’s efforts, along with venture capitalist Michael Granoff, Better Place’s earliest investor and its head of oil independence policies, to lobby the U.S. government to create incentives for electric cars

An inside look at a Better Place meeting in Tel Aviv to determine the design of the company’s charge spots

A test drive of a Better Place prototype with the company’s chief engineers

News that Better Place is in discussions with Chery Automobile, the massive Chinese auto company, and is eyeing the Chinese market. (Israel Corp., which has invested $130 million in Better Place, has a joint venture with Chery Automobile, and Idan Ofer is Chairman of both Israel Corp. and Better Place.)

News that Better Place is raising $160 million to roll out the Electric Vehicle Recharge Operator in Denmark. (The company has already raised $200 million.)

Confirmation that Agassi has flown to Honolulu to meet with the Governor of Hawaii, which might become the first place in the U.S. to sign an agreement with Better Place.

Better Place names Israeli firm to oversee recharing infrastructure

In other news, Globes reports that Better Place has selected Massad Oz Management & Supervision Ltd. to manage the pilot recharging infrastructure deployment for the company's electric car venture. Massad Oz will set up the recharging infrastructure in Tel Aviv parking lots in the coming months.

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Bloomberg: "Blooming Deserts Turn Israeli Water Industry Into Money Magnet"

Bloomberg.com recently published a positive article about the prospects for Israel's water industry.

According to Bloomberg, "Some 300 Israeli companies make equipment to deliver water or purify it with lasers or diffusion, putting them in a position to profit as climate change, population growth and food shortages strain supplies. With agriculture accounting for about two-thirds of global water use, the Israeli government predicts overseas sales of the technology will top $10 billion by 2017."

The article mentions Netafim, a world leader in irrigation solutions; Amiad Filtration Systems, which will help manage sewage treatment at the Beijing Olympics; and Desalitech, a Tel Aviv-based startup that has apparently invented a way to take salt out of water using 20 percent less energy than standard reverse osmosis.

The article also includes interviews with Nir Belzer, managing partner at the AquAgro Fund, and Oded Distel, director of NewTech, Israel's national program to promote water technologies.

CheckLight receives urgent Chinese order following earthquake

"Globes" reports that the Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency has placed an urgent order for drinking water pollution testing kits with CheckLight Ltd., a subsidiary of Whitewater Technology Group. The Chinese will use the kits to detect the presence of possible toxins in drinking water sources in earthquake-ravaged Szechuan Province. The quake also damaged chemicals factories. The kits will be flown by special delivery this week.

Several weeks ago, CheckLight announced that it had received an order for 36 kits from the Chinese government. The Chinese placed an additional urgent order for immediate delivery following the earthquake. The kits will help in the rehabilitation of the quake-hit areas and prevent a worse humanitarian catastrophe by identifying contaminated water sources and directing people to safe sources. CheckLight is reportedly reorganizing for the delivery and postponing other orders.

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China's Director of Water Resources Management: "We should learn from Israel"

Israeli water tech co. Blue I bound for Olympics

China's Director of Water Resources Management: "We should learn from Israel"

Xinhua News reports that Gao Erkun, China's Director of Water Resources Management, recently made a study trip to Israel. Faced with a severe water supply challenge, Erkun says that China should learn from Israel on water management.

According to Gao Erkun, "The per capita water resources in Israel is less than 370 cubic meters. A bottle of water is worth four bottles of milk there. The country implements a strict system to use water: all the water resources are monitored and dispensed by the government. With seawater desalination and water pollution treatment, it could meet the society's 700 cubic meters per capita water demand."

China contains roughly 20 percent of the world's population but only 7 percent of global water resources. The per capita water volume is one fourth of the world average. The country also has a severe regional water imbalance, with about four-fifths of the water supply in the south.

Xinhua News says that China is fully aware of the problems and is seeking ways to improve the situation. In its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006 - 2010), the country plans to reduce per unit of GDP water cost by 30 percent and increase its agricultural water efficiency coefficient to 0.5.

Last November it was reported that Israel expects "to significantly increase" its water technology exports to China over the next few years following a successful round of meetings between National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Chinese water-technology leaders attending WATEC Israel 2007. It was also reported that Israeli company Blue I Technologies will supply real-time water quality control systems for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Xinhua News is the official press agency of the Chinese government.

EDIG Solar provides hybrid solution for cloudy days

Israel21c reports that Israeli company EDIG, through its subsidiary EDIG Solar, plans to make solar energy a viable power alternative through the use of low-cost hybrid generators. By using a hybrid power plant, on rainy days the company's solar turbines can switch over and run on traditional or alternative fuel.

"It's modular, meaning it can easily be increased in size, and it is flexible in terms of fuel use. It can be powered by bio-diesel, bio-gas or fossil fuels," explains the company's CTO Pinhas Doron, an engineer.

Based on the research of Prof. Jacob Karni, director of the Center for Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, EDIG's technology attracts the sun and concentrates it by way of tiny mirrors on the ground.

The thermal energy generated by the sun drives turbines in a tower, the same turbines that can be powered by traditional fuel, the moment a cloud passes overhead, or at night when the sun sets. And in doing this, "our hybrid solution addresses the issue of intermittency of solar radiation," says Doron.

EDIG recently built a 100 kW pilot plant demonstration unit in Nanjing, China. It included a power conversion unit (a solarized gas turbine and a solar receiver), which was installed on a tower, and a field of heliostats (sun-tracking mirrors). The unit was fully operational and supplied power to the local electric grid, says Doron. "We proved our concept - we connected to the grid and operated seamlessly," he reports. The next step is building a plant in Israel's Arava Desert, which should be ready by next year.
While the company is not reinventing the "solar" wheel, its IP rests in at least two areas, says Doron. It's solar "receiver" is based on patented Weizmann technology, and the modifications on the turbine, which allows it to switch energy sources and at high temperatures, without the user noticing it, was difficult to overcome.

For more information on EDIG Solar, see the rest of this article from Israel21c.

EER to build waste treatment plants around the world

According to Reuters and Globes, Environmental Energy Resources Ltd. (EER), an environmentally-friendly waste management company based in Ramat Gan, will set up Romania's first plasma waste treatment facility under a 25-year BOT (build, operate, transfer) project. The facility will cost $30 million.

"The company expects to treat some 30,000 tonnes of waste, and no less than 80 tonnes a day for about 150 euros per tonne," Moshe Stern, president at EER said. EER also said it had recently received multi-million dollar orders to build plants in China.

The company has a working protocol with Samstar, a state-owned company in China, according to which it will order the planning and construction of medical waste and radioactive waste plants from EER.

EER uses molten gas at temperatures between 1,400 and 7,000 degrees Celsius in a process called plasma gasification melting (PGM) to melt down municipal, household, medical and low-level radioactive waste.

The system was developed by Israeli and Russian scientists at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Unsorted municipal and solid waste is placed in a reactor. Metal particles are separated by magnets and the remaining waste is sent to containers where it is broken down by high heat.

The organic material is converted into gases, and the remaining waste turns into black gravel that can be used in infrastructure projects. The system can also handle medical and radioactive waste, thereby providing a waste treatment solution for nuclear power stations.

In May 2007, Reuters reported that EER planned to invest up to $60 million in four waste treatment facilities to dispose of low-level radioactive waste at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, to treat some 500,000 tonnes of waste.

"We expect to make about $145 million a year from the four waste treatment plants," Stern said, noting that each plant had about a 25-year life cycle.

"Our project in China is much greater ... We intend to build around 800 small (medical waste treatment) plants at about $6 million a plant," Stern said, noting that the local development of plant parts and units cut down on costs.

EER has also created subsidiaries in two target markets, Japan and Korea, through which it is marketing its waste treatment technology.

In October 2007, EER raised $3.5 million in a private placement that valued the company at $130 million. It has already constructed a demonstration facility near Haifa.

EER's shareholders include Urdan Industries Ltd.; Shrem Fudim Technologies Ltd.; Makoto Takahashi's Tokyo Financial Group; the Canada-Israel Opportunity Fund; Leon Recanati, chairman of GlenRock Israel; and Shlomo Nehama, former chairman of Bank Hapoalim.

Israeli water tech co Blue I bound for Olympics

Globes is reporting that Israeli cleantech start-up Blue I Technologies Ltd. will supply real-time water quality control systems for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The company has an office in China and is participating in a Veolia Water projects with Shenzhen Water Group Company Ltd. and the City of Shanghai.

According to Globes, Blue I has also installed its water analyzers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the South American Water Championships; the Olympic swimming pools in Tokyo; Eurodisney in Paris; a hotel project at Sun City, South Africa; and in Israel, including the water parks Yamit 2000 in Holon and Hamei Gaash.

Established in 2002, Blue I's investors include Tene Capital and Docor International.

Busy week for water technologies

More than 2000 visitors and 100 delegations from 80 countries worldwide attended the WATEC conference last week in Tel Aviv to survey the latest developments in water and environmental technologies.

Israel is a global leader in the water sector, and a number of new deals and agreements were announced at the conference. Below is a summary.

• Government launches new water R&D program. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor today launched Israel NEWTech - Novel Efficient Water Technologies, the government program to promote Israeli water technologies. The program aims to double water technology exports to $2 billion by 2010.
  

• Mekorot nearing strategic cooperation with GE. Water industry sources inform ''Globes'' that Mekorot National Water Company is in advanced negotiations for a strategic cooperation agreement with General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) for the construction of the $450 million 100-million cubic meter desalination plant at Ashdod.

• Arison unit CEO sees water potential in purified wells. “Israel has 50 million cubic meters of untapped polluted water in the coastal plain alone, which can be treated, thereby saving local authorities a great deal of money, as well as helping raise money for the construction of desalination plants,” says Blue-Green CEO Amir Levi. Blue-Green is a division of the Arison Business Group.
  

• Aquarius CEO urges water start-ups to float shares. “The water industry doesn’t need better technology for the production of drinking water. Today’s technologies are excellent. The challenge is to improve the energy consumption needed to produce water,” says Aquarius Technologies Inc. president and CEO Thomas M. Pokorsky.

• U.S. investor acquires 17% of water management solutions company Arad. US Jewish businessman Bill Davidson is expanding his holdings in Israel and is reportedly acquiring 17% of water measurement and management solutions company Arad Ltd. at a value of $120 million.

• Israel-China 'water-trade' to rise significantly. Israel expects "to significantly increase" its water technology exports to China over the next few years following a successful round of meetings between National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Chinese water-technology leaders attending WATEC Israel 2007.

• Israel and Mexico in water treatment deal. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and Mexican National Water Commissioner Jose Luis Luege Tamargo have signed a water cooperation agreement between Israel and Mexico, NEWTech - Novel Efficient Water Technologies director Oded Distel told “Globes”.