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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Better Place secures $350 million series B round led by HSBC

Project Better Place in talks with Mercedes, Hawaii, and San Francisco

Project Better Place presents prototype

Deustche Bank: Project Better Place has "the potential to eliminate the gasoline engine"

Al Gore addresses Tel Aviv U. renewable energy conference

During his keynote address at Tel Aviv University's Renewable Energy Conference, former U.S. vice president Al Gore called on Israel to take the lead in the development of renewable energy.

"The people of Israel stand in my moral imagination as guardians of the proposition that we as human beings are answerable to moral duties, that there are ethical laws that should guide our decisions and choices. At this moment in history, when, for the first time, all the people of this earth have to make a clear, seemingly difficult but simple moral judgment about our future, the people of Israel can lead the way to renewable energy."

A video of the event, including speeches by Al Gore and Israeli President Shimon Peres -- who called oil the "biggest problem of our time" -- is available on Tel Aviv U.'s web site.

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel's Minister of National Infrastructures, announced his intention to commit Israel to construct an additional solar power station in the Negev every year for the next 20 years, and to construct a 300MW wind power station by 2011. Ben-Eliezer also revealed that in the coming weeks he will introduce a government resolution designating all of the Negev Desert and southern Israel as a national preference zone for renewable energy.

I will be attending the conference on Wednesday. The program focuses on (1) Renewable Energy: R&D Challenges; (2) Sustainable Energy: Opportunities in the Business Sector; (3) Global Warming and Geopolitics: Instability or Peace?; and (4) Israel's Road to Energy Independence.

UK group seeks Israeli cleantech investments

Globes reports that Vincent Tchenguiz, chairman of British trust fund manager Consensus Business Group, is seeking cleantech investment opportunities in Israel.

Consensus has a $500 million technology investment portfolio that targets renewable energy companies. Tchenguiz has reportedly said that he wants to become "the world's first cleantech billionaire."

Globes also reports that during a visit to Israel last week, Tchenguiz met Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, and cleantech entrepreneurs.