Pythagoras Solar announces pilot installation at Willis Tower

Pythagoras Solar, an Israel-based, venture-backed company developing transparent, energy efficient windows that also generate solar power, announced that it has been chosen by Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, the tallest building the Western Hemisphere, to collaborate on a pilot project to help deliver on the building's renewable energy and energy efficiency improvement goals.

The pilot project, deployed in November 2010 on the south facing windows of the Willis Tower's 56th floor, uses Pythagoras Solar's building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solution that has the potential to expand to a surface area allowing over two megawatts of solar power generation.

"We are excited to launch this pilot with Pythagoras Solar's leading-edge solar window solutions as a test for not only the energy savings that can be achieved, but the potential they represent to actually generate power through the sun," said John Huston, Executive Vice President of American Landmark Properties, one of the ownership partners of Willis Tower.

"We are incredibly proud to be considered to contribute our part for the 'greening' of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the iconic Willis Tower," said Gonen Fink, Co-founder and CEO Pythagoras Solar. "It is inspiring to see a team not waver in its dedication to making a true and lasting change through smart investments in the right solutions. With its combined benefits, our technology is set to provide Willis Tower with a valuable tool that will help move it toward its energy efficiency goals."

According to Pythagoras Solar, it is the first company to offer a fully integrated photovoltaic glass unit (PVGU) that addresses the need for simultaneous benefits of energy efficiency and high power density, while also offering architectural design benefits to increase real estate value and advance Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZB).

Pythagoras Solar is a privately held company with operations in the United States, Israel and China. Pythagoras Solar was the first company to be incubated by Precede Technologies, and the Pythagoras Solar raised a $10 million Series A financing in 2008 led by Israel Cleantech Ventures and joined by Pitango Venture Capital and Evergreen Venture Partners.

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AquAgro Fund acquires Kinrot water incubator

AguAgro Fund LP has acquired water technology incubator Kinrot Technology Ventures from Canada's Stern Partners Inc. in a share-swap deal, reports Globes.

Stern Partners, run by president Ronald Stern, will reportedly get a stake in AquAgro, an Israeli venture capital fund focused on innovative water and agriculture technologies, although terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor regulations governing Israel's Technological Incubators Program require that AquAgro inject at least $3 million into Kinrot over three years.

Stern Partners ran Kinrot for the last three years following the incubator's privatization. Under the leadership of CEO Assaf Barnea, Kinrot has invested in a portfolio of 11 cleantech start-ups and entered into strategic partnership agreements with Israel's Mekorot, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the Milwaukee 7 Water Council.

B. Gaon Holdings Ltd. controls AquAgro through Gaon Agro Industries Ltd.. Gaon Holdings CEO and Gaon Agro chairman Shai Preminger told Globes, "Gaon Holdings is one of the players that, a decade ago, inscribed on its flag investment in the water and cleantech industries, through Gaon Agro. The acquisition of Kinrot turns AquAgro, which we own, into the leading Israeli investor in the water and cleantech technologies."

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SunPower acquires SunRay Renewable Energy for $277 million

SunPower, Silicon Valley's biggest solar panel manufacturer, announced Thursday an agreement to buy SunRay Renewable Energy, a developer of solar power plants in Europe and Israel, for $277 million.

Although based in Malta, SunRay is managed by Israelis, including CEO Yoram Amiga and Michael Barnea, Head of Legal and M&A. SunRay established a wholly-owned Israeli subsidiary, SunRay Israel Blue & White, which is working to develop 100MW of solar photovoltaic projects.

Kobi Katz, the CEO of SunRay Israel, told The Marker the sale was a vote of confidence by SunPower in the Israeli solar market.

SunRay currently has 1,200 megawatts of generating plants in development in Italy, France, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom and Greece. SunRay is owned by its management and U.S.-based Denham Capital, which bought control of the firm for $200 million in 2007.

SunPower and SunRay originally joined forces on Montalto, the largest power plant in Italy. "Our experience working with SunPower on Montalto and several other power plants in Italy convinced us that SunRay will be joining the global solar technology, performance and quality leader for solar power plants," said Yoram Amiga, CEO of SunRay Group, in a statement.

Ormat, NV Energy sign 30MW geothermal power contract

Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced this week that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy, Inc. for the purchase 30 megawatts (MW) from the McGinness Hills Geothermal project, which is currently under construction.

The PPA is subject to various approvals including the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and is projected to come on line in 2012.

When completed, the McGinness Hills project will increase the total output supplied from Ormat to NV Energy, Inc. to approximately 135 MWs, helping NV Energy to meet its renewable energy requirement. Nevada's renewable portfolio standard legislation requires 15 percent of all electricity generated in the state to be derived from new renewable energy sources by the end of 2012.

Dita Bronicki, CEO of Ormat said, “We have enjoyed a long and successful relationship with NV Energy and are grateful for its support of geothermal power. This PPA is further evidence that geothermal can supply a significant amount of power and is a preferable choice given its cost effectiveness, reliability and baseload nature.”

Ormat plans to apply for federal stimulus funds to help pay for the project, including investment tax credits or performance tax credits, and an Energy Department loan guarantee to back debt financing.

The McGinness Hills project will consist of Ormat binary energy converters that re-inject the geothermal fluid produced.

Ormat Technologies is the Reno, Nevada-based subsidiary of Israel-based Ormat Industries.

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Qteros partners with Applied CleanTech on wastewater to ethanol process

Qteros and Applied CleanTech announced details today of a partnership to develop a process for turning municipal wastewater into ethanol for vehicle fuel and other uses.

Qteros, a venture-backed biofuel company based in Massachusetts, has entered into a joint development project with Applied CleanTech (ACT), a commodities recycling company based in Israel, to use ACT’s Recyllose™-based feedstock, produced from municipal wastewater solids, for efficient and low-cost ethanol production. ACT’s Sewage Recycling System (SRS), an innovative solution for recycling wastewater solids, produces alternative energy sources for the production of electricity or ethanol, while reducing sludge formation and lowering wastewater treatment plant costs and increasing plant capacity.

The companies said they are the first to demonstrate commercial success in creating ethanol from the cellulose in municipal and agricultural liquid waste, and to offer a process that all municipalities can use to help reduce expenses.

QTeros' and ACT's research has been supported in part by a grant from the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The BIRD Foundation funds joint efforts between Israel and the United States, and their financial support resulted in the collaboration between Qteros and ACT.

QTeros raised raised $25 million in a Series B financing in October 2008. Investors in the company include BP, Venrock, Battery Ventures, Valero, and Soros Fund Management.

“Our customer is every municipality that has a wastewater treatment plant,” said Jeff Hausthor, Qteros co-founder and senior project manager. “It will provide a value-added product for municipal wastewater plants, thereby making treatment plants much less expensive to run and helping local governments throughout the world with their constrained budgets.”

Israel Biran, ACT’s CEO, added, “It also helps answer the question of what municipalities can do with their sewage sludge, a major challenge now facing every wastewater treatment plant operator.”

ACT has spent six years developing its integrated sewage recycling solution. According to ACT, its Recyllose™-based feedstock offers high cellulose content and low moisture, facilitating more efficient ethanol production. The SRS is already in commercial use, with facilities in Israel and the United States currently making Recyllose™-based products from sewage sludge and other cellulose-rich waste while reducing sludge output and wastewater treatment plant costs.

By using ACT’s proprietary feedstock, Hausthor said Qteros and ACT’s researchers have found that an ethanol production plant can produce 120–135 gallons of ethanol per ton of Recyllose™.

Since Recyllose™ is low in lignin (a major component of plant cell walls that is difficult to degrade), and lignin can be inhibitory to efficient conversion to ethanol, Hausthor said the material improves cellulosic plant operational efficiency 20 percent over higher lignin content feedstocks.

Qteros’ CEO William Frey said that with previous technologies, a cellulosic ethanol plant would have to produce roughly 20-30 million gallons per year (MGY) in order to be profitable. With the proposed Qteros-ACT process, Frey said, production with these economics could be viable at a smaller scale.

ACT President Dr. Refael Aharon said that a wastewater plant that handles 150 million gallons a day (serving a population of about 2 million people) can be sufficient to supply a smaller-scale ethanol plant with cellulose.

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BrightSource Energy expands Nevada solar thermal project to 960 MW

BrightSource Energy, Inc., a leading developer of large-scale solar thermal power plants, announced today that it is expanding a land deal in Nevada that could enlarge the the project's potential to 960 megawatts, enough to power almost 500,000 homes.

BrightSource has reached a preliminary agreement with Nevada’s Coyote Springs Land Company™ to expand upon a previously-announced private land agreement in March 2009 to provide sites for up to 600 megawatts of solar thermal power.

The Coyote Springs project is part of BrightSource Energy’s strategy to develop 4 gigawatts of solar thermal power in California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, including its first project located in Ivanpah, California. The Ivanpah project is in the final permitting stages with the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management, and is expected to begin construction in early 2010.

The size of the site has now expanded to include a twelve-square-mile area within the larger Coyote Springs development in Lincoln County. The site is located on private property near transmission lines and, as part of the broader development site, has already received environmental permits from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and various other federal, state and county agencies. The power generated from the Coyote Springs site could meet demand generated in the Coyote Springs development, southern Nevada, as well as deliver power to California.

BrightSource Energy is the parent of Jerusalem, Israel-based BrightSource Industries Israel (BSII), formerly called Luz II. BSII performs R&D, production and project engineering for its California-based parent company.

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BrightSource Energy and Bechtel to partner on solar thermal power plants

BrightSource Energy announced today that it has selected Bechtel, a leading engineering, construction and project management firm, as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System.

The two companies also announced that Bechtel Enterprises, the project development and financing arm of the Bechtel organization, will become an equity investor in all of the Ivanpah solar power plants.

Under the terms of a series of EPC agreements, Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for the Ivanpah System – a 440 megawatt solar power facility consisting of three separate solar thermal power plants in southeastern California. The power generated from these solar plants will be sold under separate contracts established by BrightSource Energy with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE). BrightSource’s contracts with PG&E and SCE total 2.6 gigawatts.

“Combining Bechtel’s world-class EPC capabilities with BrightSource’s leading solar thermal energy team is a natural fit,” said John Woolard, BrightSource’s President and CEO. “We share a common vision of setting the standard in building environmentally-friendly solar power plants while creating jobs for local communities. We very much look forward to partnering with Bechtel on constructing the Ivanpah facility.”

BrightSource estimates that the Ivanpah facility will result in approximately 1,000 jobs at the peak of construction, 86 permanent jobs*, and total economic benefits of $3 billion. The plants will also displace more than 450,000 tons (408,000 metric tonnes) of CO₂ annually, which is the equivalent of taking more than 75,000 cars off the road.

The Ivanpah facility is scheduled to begin construction in early 2010 following final permitting by the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management. In December 2008, BrightSource signed an agreement with Siemens to purchase the largest ever solar-powered steam turbine generator for the first of the three Ivanpah plants.

The Ivanpah facility will utilize BrightSource Energy’s proven Luz Power Tower 550 technology (LPT 550). The LPT 550 solar system produces electricity the same way as traditional power plants – by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine. However, instead of using fossil fuels or nuclear power to create the steam, BrightSource uses thousands of mirrors called heliostats to re­flect sunlight onto a boiler filled with water that sits atop a tower. When the sunlight hits the boiler, the water inside is heated and creates high temperature steam. The steam is then piped to a conventional tur­bine which generates electricity. This fully integrated approach takes advantage of high operating efficiencies and low capital costs to provide reliable and low-cost carbon-free energy.

The LPT 550 solar system is also designed to minimize the solar plant’s environmental impact, reducing the need for extensive land grading and concrete pads. In order to conserve precious desert water, LPT 550 uses air-cooling to convert the steam back into water, resulting in a 90 percent reduction in water usage compared to conventional wet-cooling. The water is then returned to the boiler in an environmentally-friendly closed process.

Today, LPT 550 is employed at the company’s Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) in Israel’s Negev Desert. Operating over the past year, the SEDC is producing the world’s highest temperature turbine quality steam from solar energy.

BrightSource is the parent of Jerusalem, Israel-based BrightSource Industries Israel (BSII), formerly called Luz II. BSII performs R&D, production and project engineering for its California-based parent company.

BrightSource Seeking Partners in China and India

BrightSource is actively seeking partners in India and China as it looks to expand its reach outside the United States, Chief Executive John Woolard said yesterday, according to a report from Reuters.

Moving "slowly and deliberately," BrightSource could announce partners in those two nations a year from now, Woolard told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco.

"We are talking to various large companies over there," Woolard said. "Generally partners that are large, have engineering capabilities and can really deliver on plant construction and get things done."

Woolard's comments came on the same day that First Solar Inc, made the first major foray by a U.S. company into the fast growing Chinese alternative energy sector with plans to build the world's largest solar plant there.

"It shows a few things," Woolard said of the First Solar announcement. "One is that the Chinese are willing to think at a size and scale that is meaningful... and it also shows that the Chinese are ready and willing to look at real projects and real money."

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FRX Polymers raises $6MM from Israel Cleantech Ventures and Capricorn Venture Partners to develop green plastics

Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV) and Capricorn Venture Partners (CVP) announced today that they have invested $6MM in FRX Polymers, Inc., (FRX) the manufacturer of a new, environmentally friendly family of inherently flame retardant plastics. FRX’s products are finding markets as polymeric flame retardant additives and as “stand-alone” inherently flame retardant engineering plastics.

FRX Polymers is currently in the commercialization stage for its family of polyphosphonate homopolymers and copolymers. According to the company, these plastics are tough, transparent, possess high melt flow, and are inherently flame retardant. FRX polymers are environmentally friendly since they do not contain halogens, whereas many other flame retardant additives do contain halogen.

FRX was the 2008 recipient of Frost and Sullivan’s “Innovation of the Year” award for flame retardant materials and received the first-place award in the Clean Technology Business Forum, a competition sponsored by Battelle at the recent Global Plastics Environmental Conference in Orlando, FL. FRX has over 20 partnership agreements in place with some of the largest plastics manufacturers in the world.

“FRX represents an extremely compelling investment opportunity for us,” stated Jack Levy, Partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures. “There is a clear global market demand for the company’s green flame retardant plastics and we believe that FRX’s products will play an important role in redefining a significant part of the $15B Flame Retardant Plastics industry.”

Claude Stoufs, Senior Investment Manager for Capricorn Venture Partners said, “FRX Polymers has developed a novel and very exciting product line to address the global need for non-halogen containing flame retardant plastics. As a consequence of the many excellent partnerships that FRX has established, we believe that the company is poised for accelerated growth.”

“We are delighted to welcome both ICV and Capricorn to our board and current group of committed shareholders” declared Marc Lebel, President and CEO of FRX Polymers. “Both venture partners bring considerable business experience to our company. In addition, they have considerable access to global markets, which will serve us well as we embark on the next phase of our growth plan.”

FRX Polymers was launched in 2007 as a limited partnership 50% owned by KPP Investments, an investment company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, and 50% owned by Triton Systems, Inc., technology incubator based in Chelmsford, MA, that specializes in advanced materials.

Amir Ohad of KPP Investments, the former CEO of Kafrit Industries, Ltd., an Israeli plastics company, sits on FRX's Board of Directors. Ross Haghighat, the founder and CEO of Triton Systems, and also a Director of FRX, was profiled in an article on SiliconIran.

Triton Systems has a track record of partnering with Israeli investors: in 2001, it spun-off three portfolio companies with financing from the Millennium Materials Fund, a Tel Aviv-based specialty materials venture fund that invests in materials technology companies worldwide.

FRX is headquartered in Chelmsford, MA, where it operates both polymer and monomer pilot facilities. FRX is also currently building a semi-works plant in Switzerland in partnership with Uhde Inventa-Fischer.

Established in 2006, Israel Cleantech Ventures has $75MM under management and to date has completed eleven investments across diverse cleantech sectors, including water, solar, biogas, energy storage, energy efficiency, transportation and green materials.

Capricorn Venture Partners is a pan-European manager of venture capital funds seeking to invest in technology-based growth companies. The Capricorn Cleantech Fund invests in European growth companies developing innovative breakthrough technologies in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency, water purification and re-use, bio-based material conversion and bio-refinery platforms, clean air, climate change, green chemistry and advanced materials, materials recovery and recycling.

IQWind raises $500k from U.S. investors

IQwind, an Israel-based start-up developing variable gear technology that improves the energy generation efficiency of wind turbines, has raised $500,000 from ISRAEL G-TEK LLC, according to an announcement by the U.S.-based investors.

IQwind received a first round of investment from Terra Venture Partners in 2007.

Sami Shiro and Uri Benhamron, principals at Israel G-Tek, explain that the investment in IQWind is part of their "plan to create a balanced portfolio of greentech companies with a special focus on Israel as a breeding ground for technology."

IQWind’s product has the ability to function as a replacement part for existing turbines, as well as a main component for new turbines. The technology is so disruptive, according to ISRAEL G-TEK, that further applications are also being considered in other markets such as automotive and mining.

Israel G-Tek's investment in IQWind is part of a financing round to implement a full scale pilot for the Israeli company.

Gideon Ziegelman is the co-founder and CEO of IQWind, and Nimrod Eitan is the company's co-founder and CTO.

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Seambiotic and NASA to develop aviation biofuel feedstock from microalgae

Seambiotic, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based leader in the development and production of marine microalgae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries, announced today that its US subsidiary, Seambiotic USA, has entered into an agreement with NASA Glenn Research Center to develop an on-going collaborative R&D program for optimization of open-pond microalgae growth processes.

"Under a Space Act Agreement, NASA is partnering with Seambiotic USA to model growth processes for microalgae for use as aviation biofuel feedstock," said Prof. Ami Ben-Amotz, Chief Scientific Adviser to Seambiotic. "The goal of the Agreement is to make use of NASA's expertise in large scale computational modeling and combine it with Seambiotic's biological process modeling to make advances in biomass process cost reduction."

Under the Agreement, NASA Glenn and Seambiotic USA will work together to improve production processes and to study and qualify algae oil from alternative species and production processes as candidate aviation fuel at NASA's test facilities.

The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center is one of NASA's 10 field centers, empowered with the resources for developing cutting-edge technologies and advancing scientific research that address NASA's mission to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research. Working in partnership with government, industry and academia, the center serves to maintain the US economy's global leadership while benefiting the lives of people around the world.

Seambiotic Ltd. was founded in 2003 to grow and process marine microalgae for the nutraceutical and biofuel industries. Seambiotic's research efforts include a pilot study at an Israeli Electric Corporation power station near the city 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 used as feedstock for biofuel.

Seambiotic is currently in transition from the pilot plant stage to large scale industrial algae cultivation and production. In June 2008, Seambiotic announced plans to partner with Seattle-based Inventure Chemical on the construction of a algae-based biofuel plant in Israel.

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BrightSource and PG&E sign 1,310 MW solar power deal

BrightSource Energy announced today that it has entered into a series of contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for a total of 1,310 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal power.

These power purchase agreements, covering seven projects, supersede the agreements PG&E executed with BrightSource in April 2008 for up to 900 MW of solar thermal power.

The first of these solar power plants, sized at 110 MW and located in Ivanpah, California, is contracted to begin operation in 2012. BrightSource will build and place in commercial operation each of its plants as quickly as permitting and infrastructure allow.

All seven projects are expected to produce 3,666 gigawatt-hours of power each year, equal to the annual consumption of about 530,000 average homes.

“Today’s agreements reflect the technological milestones that the BrightSource Energy team has achieved over the past year,” said John Woolard, CEO of BrightSource Energy. “Our technology is setting the bar for efficient production of solar energy. We’re thrilled by the opportunity to help PG&E and other leaders bring energy customers more clean and reliable solar energy.”

“The solar thermal projects announced today exemplify PG&E’s commitment to increasing the amount of renewable energy we provide to our customers throughout northern and central California,” said John Conway, senior vice president of energy supply for PG&E. “Through these agreements with BrightSource, we can harness the sun’s energy to meet our customers’ power requirements when they need it most – during hot summer days.”

BrightSource Energy now has contracted to sell more than 2,600 megawatts of power to be generated using its proprietary solar thermal technology. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., BrightSource Energy is a privately held company with operations in the United States and Israel.

BrightSource Industries (Israel) Ltd. ("BSII"), formerly known as Luz II Ltd., headquartered in Jerusalem, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy. The BSII team provides product development and engineering services, and supplies the solar fields, including heliostats, solar boilers, and control systems for all of BrightSource Energy's projects.

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Miya Water partners with Michigan on "Green Jobs for Blue Waters" initiative

Miya Water is partnering with the State of Michigan, the Detroit Water and Sewage Department, and the city of Farmington Hills to set up pilot demonstration projects to lower the amount of water lost through Michigan's aging municipal water systems.

The so-called "Green Jobs for Blue Waters" initiative was unveiled last week by Lt. Gov. John Cherry. The goal is to eventually broaden out the program and establish a Michigan training center to help create new jobs in fields like engineering, manufacturing, installation and maintenance.

"As these projects expand, we will train more Michigan workers and develop expertise that we can export nationally and globally as well," Lt. Gov. John Cherry said in unveiling the initiative.

"No question, it's a business opportunity, but we see it as a business opportunity for Michigan as well," said Booky Oren, Miya's President and CEO. "I think that when you are dealing with efficiency, you create more from existing resources."

Most water system operators make "major mistakes" in seeking to immediately replace pipes when leaks occur, he said.

"By controlling pressure, you immediately reduce the water loss amount and only after that you have a lot of data (about) what's going on, and then you begin to prioritize where you replace pipes," Oren said.

Miya, based in Tel Aviv, specializes in developing urban water-loss technology. Miya’s mission is to help the cities of the world benefit from the huge opportunity presented by water loss reduction and effective management of urban water. Miya’s offering presents a comprehensive water loss solution for municipalities, from audit of the city’s water system to full project execution and maintenance.

According to a report in the Michigan Business Review, The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department provides an average of 675 million gallons of drinking water per day to nearly 4 million customers across 1,079 square miles in Southeast Michigan.

While amounts of loss vary according to location and age of the system, the department's latest estimate is that it loses an average of 9 percent of its drinking water supplies to leaks, said Pam Turner, interim director.

"This is treated water that we're losing out of the system," she said.

Miya workers will initially staff the two pilot projects, Oren said.

"No question that as soon as possible we need to find the right partners. Most of the jobs need to be by the local (companies) or even employees of the local utility," he said.

The project resulted from Gov. Jennifer Granholm's economic investment trip to Israel in November and a corresponding partnership agreement she signed with Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai.

"We have to understand that there is this nexus between water and energy," said Cherry, who leads a joint Michigan-Israel water technology working group. "This initiative is the next step in that progression to a new Michigan - alternative energy, blue water and on and on as we build the dream of a Michigan future.

"Ultimately what our goal here with this initiative is to put Michigan in the position of global leadership and expertise with water management systems."

Arrow Ecology wins California waste treatment deal; also in talks to build Maryland facility

Arrow Ecology, a waste-treatment company based in Haifa, Israel, and its partners partners have won a $17 million municipal solid waste to biofuel conversion project in southern California.

According to a report in Globes, Arrow Ecology's share of the project is $7-8 million, plus maintenance fees over the 20-year franchise.

Arrow Ecology will handle 50,000 tons of municipal solid waste a year sent from CR&R Waste and Recycling Services Inc., operates in the greater Los Angeles area.

Arrow Ecology was founded in 1975 to treat industrial waste, oils, and sludge. Its solid waste unit has 35 employees, and is now hiring marketing staff, process engineers, and machine engineers.

Consensus Business Group of the UK and a large Israeli investment company have invested $15 million in Arrow Ecology to date. The company's ArrowBio Process can recycle over 90% of municipal solid waste and converts the rest into biogas, such as methane and carbon dioxide, greatly reducing the need for landfills. Some of the biofuel can be used by heavy machinery.

According to another news report, Arrow Ecology is also in talks to construct an environmentally friendly waste treatment plant in Frederick County, Maryland.

Melvin Finstein, president of ArrowBio USA, and other representatives of Arrow Ecology, met in March with Frederick County local officials at the 24th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management in Philadelphia.

Excerpt of Finstein's interview with the Frederick County Gazette are available here.

BrightSource Energy plans 600MW solar thermal project in Nevada

BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of large-scale solar thermal energy plants, announced last month that it has reached agreement on the principal terms of a private land contract with the Coyote Springs Land Company in Nevada.

The agreement marks a critical step in the development of a solar thermal energy project that could provide up to 600 megawatts of clean reliable solar thermal energy to both the Nevada and California markets.


"With abundant sun and access to key markets in Nevada and California, the Coyote Springs site is an ideal location to develop clean, reliable and low cost solar thermal energy," Tom Doyle, executive vice president of project development for BrightSource.

The power from BrightSource's project could serve not only Coyote Springs, but also other BrightSource customers such as the Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, said Keely Wachs, a spokesman for BrightSource, according to Greentech Media.

BrightSource Industries (Israel) Ltd. ("BSII"), formerly known as Luz II Ltd., headquartered in Jerusalem, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy. The BSII team provides product development and engineering services, and supplies the solar fields, including heliostats, solar boilers, and control systems for all of BrightSource Energy's projects.

Arnold Goldman, the founder of BrightSource Energy, recently addressed the CleanIsrael meetup group in Tel Aviv. A transcript of his remarks is available on the group's web site.

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U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Act launches at Eilat Energy Conference

The Unites States – Israel Energy Cooperation Act, an international collaboration aimed at developing renewable energy technologies to reduce the world's oil dependence, officially launched during the recent Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference.

The Cooperation Act, which will fund eligible joint ventures between U.S. and Israeli businesses, has already allocated $2 million for 2009 ($1 million from each country), with a significant increase expected in future years. The grant program is targeted at biofuel, solar thermal, and electric vehicle technologies.

"Israel is well-known in the world as a technology innovator. The concentration of scientific innovation in the country is impressive," said Jonathan Shrier, Assistant Secretary, Office of Policy and International Affairs, U.S. Department of Energy. "This cooperation between the United States and Israel is unique in that we have a partner who brings a lot to the table."

Two projects, run by Seambiotic and Better Place, have already received approval.

Seambiotic is developing technology to utilize flue gas from coal burning power stations for algae cultivation. The company aims to grow and process marine microalgae using an ecologically-based environmental system to reduce air pollution and global warming.

Better Place is a venture-backed company aiming to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of nationwide electric vehicle networks.

The U.S. Department of Energy and Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructures have agreed that a researcher exchange and conference circuit are two important elements of their collaboration. Two conferences in the U.S. and two in Israel will take place annually. The annual conference in Sde Boker, Israel, will focus on the technological advancements in the Renewable Energy industry while the annual Eilat-Eilot conference will serve as a platform for industry-ready technologies to exhibit and market their offerings. In addition, researchers from Israel will spend significant time working in the U.S. market, while researchers from the U.S. will do the same in Israel.

Other announcements made at the Eilat Energy Conference include the launch of the Timna Renewable Energy Park, the centerpiece of the Eilat-Eilot region's efforts to turn Southern Israel into the "Silicon Valley" of renewable energy, and the AORA solar thermal plant in Kibbutz Samar, the world's first commercial hybrid solar gas-turbine power plant.

"The developments presented at the Eilat-Eilot Conference demonstrate the region's leadership in the renewable energy industry," Said Shlomo Wald, Chief Scientist, Ministry of National Infrastructures. "We are taking action to find sustainable solutions to Israel’s and the world's energy crisis, and we hope others see Israel as a major contributor."

For perspectives on the Eilat Energy Conference, check out these blog posts by Gil Dibner, Principal at Genesis Partners, and Rabbi Julian Sinclair of the Jewish Climate Initiative.

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Ormat commissions first two facilities of OREG 2 project in North Dakota

Ormat Technologies, Inc., the NYSE-listed U.S. subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat, announced that two of the four facilities in the OREG 2 Recovered Energy Generation (REG) project reached commercial operation in December 2008 and January 2009.

The OREG 2 project is Ormat‘s second REG project located along the Northern Border natural gas pipeline in North Dakota, United States. The project consists of four power plants that will have a net capacity of 5.5 MW each and will convert the recovered waste heat from the exhaust of existing gas turbines at compressor sites into electricity. The remaining two facilities are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009.

"We are very happy to bring additional power through the use of recovered energy generation technology and contribute to the important goal of emission reduction” said Dita Bronicki, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat.

The output supplied from the two facilities will be sold to Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC) of Bismarck, North Dakota and will bring the total owned generating capacity of Ormat's REG portfolio to 33 MW.

The ORMAT^® REG facilities consist of ORMAT^® ENERGY CONVERTERS (OEC) based on Organic Rankine Cycle technology, which converts recovered heat to electric power without the need for any additional fuel or water. The OEC units are environmentally benign, according to Ormat, as they have no emissions of CO₂ or NOX.

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BrightSource Energy and SCE sign 1.3 GW solar thermal deal

BrightSource Energy has signed a contract with Southern California Edison (SCE) to supply 1,300 megawatts of solar thermal power, enough to serve nearly 845,000 homes. This is the largest solar deal ever announced.

BrightSource will develop seven solar facilities for SCE under terms of the deal. The first 100-megawatt plant, to be built at BrightSource's Ivanpah complex in the Mojave Desert, is due to come online in early 2013.

In total, BrightSource now has 4.2 GW of solar sites under development.

BrightSource did not disclose the size of the new contract or the cost of building these solar thermal plants.

BrightSource CEO John Woolard revealed earlier this month at the World Economic Forum that the company's existing projects may be delayed because of difficulties in obtaining project financing.

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IDF considers Better Place infrastructure and electric troop carriers

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is considering developing a quiet electric vehicle for carrying troops and cargo, according to a report in Globes. The vehicle will reportedly have a diesel or gasoline engine to extend its range when the batteries run out.

Elbit Systems Ltd., which has experience building electric motors for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), is apparently a leading contender to develop and supply the electric vehicle.

Globes also reports that the Ministry of Defence is considering installing Better Place's recharging infrastructure at IDF bases, which could be used for the fleet of electric military vehicles, as well as for civilian electric cars when they become available. In March 2008, Better Place named Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, former Deputy Chief of Staff of the IDF, as the CEO of Better Place Israel.

As reported on this blog last year, the IDF already plans to install thousands of Traffilog systems to improve fuel efficiency in its fleet of vehicles.

Last month, the U.S. Army announced plans to lease 4,000 non-tactical electric vehicles for use on Army bases for passenger transport, security patrol, and maintenance and delivery services. In 2007, the U.S. Army awarded a contract for development of a diesel hybrid electric vehicle called the Quantum Alternative Mobility Vehicle (AMV) Aggressor.

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Kinrot signs cooperation agreement with California water incubator

The Kinrot Incubator recently signed a cooperation agreement with a California water technology incubator: the Claude Laval Water and Energy Technology (WET) Incubator.

WET is based on California State University's Fresno campus. Established in 2007, WET is a $5 million partnership between Fresno State, the International Center for Water Technology, and the Central Valley Business Incubator.

In an interview with Globes, Kinarot CEO Assaf Barnea described the cooperation agreement between Kinrot and WET. "The cooperation between us is on three levels: joint research, joint development based on innovative technology, and marketing water technology. The significance for us is the joint marketing of the products. The American incubator is like an industrial park, and the firms in our portfolio that want to meet other firms will find partners willing to listen there. We'll join in meeting potential investors. The water technology market is very conservative, and you have to form close ties in order to make sales."

Vancouver-based Stern Partners acquired Kinrot in 2006.

In June, Kinarot signed an agreement with the city of Los Angeles on water technology. The agreement will allow Israeli start-ups to use Los Angeles Department of Water & Power facilities for pilot projects.

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BIRD Foundation invests in U.S.-Israel cleantech projects

The Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD Foundation) will invest $9 million in 12 joint projects between Israeli and US companies.

The BIRD Foundation promotes cooperation between Israeli and U.S. companies in various technology areas and assists in identifying strategic partners in both countries, in order to develop and commercialize novel technologies and products.

Four of this year's projects are cleantech-related:

(1) NanoReady Ltd. and Applied Nanotech will jointly develop conductive copper ink. Caesarea, Israel-based NanoReady develops, markets and manufactures nano particles from a wide variety of materials. By more seamlessly and efficiently integrating with and enhancing product manufacturing processes, NanoReady particles enable superior finished products, while also reducing energy consumption and processing time and cost.

(2) Oree Inc. and Intematix Corp. will jointly develop a planar illumination LED module. Oree, based in Ramat Gan, Israel, has received venture capital funding from Genesis Partners and Gimv. In November, Oree announced that it had secured a $4 million venture loan from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Kreos Capital for manufacturing and the expansion of business development activities.

(3) Power Paper Inc. and GE GRC-Lighting will jointly develop a self-powered organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for lighting. Power Paper develops and markets technology applications that operate with the thin and flexible, environment-friendly micro-power source that the company has developed. In November, Power Paper raised $30 million from Apax Partners, Clal Industries and Investments and the Infinity Venture Capital Fund.

(4) Transiodiesel Ltd. and the NYSE-listed Rohm and Haas will jointly develop an enzymatic process for biodiesel production. Transbiodiesel Ltd. has patented technology on the use of unique immobilized lipases for the production of biodiesel from different oils, including plant oils, animal fats and recycled greases. In October, the AquAgro Fund acquired 23.5% of Transbiodiesel in return for a $1.5 million investment.

The BIRD Foundation said that it had received a record number of requests for funding in 2008. It expects that the trend will continue because of the global economic situation.

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