Breakout quarter for cleantech investments in Israel

The Cleantech Group reports that the cleantech sector in Israel experienced a breakout in the first quarter of 2008, with $132 million invested across nine companies, the highest ever for the country.

The record results were driven mainly by a $105 million investment in solar thermal concentrator company Solel Solar Systems, but are nevertheless impressive.

Israel Cleantech Ventures is ranked as one of the Top Five Global Venture Investors (by number of participations). The fund reportedly invested $16.6 million in 4 deals.

Overall, cleantech investments in North America, Europe and Israel totaled $1.25 billion in the first quarter of 2008, up 42% from the same period a year ago.

See: Cleantech Group press release.

Cleantech Israel group featured in Globes

The Cleantech Israel meetup group was recently featured in "Globes", and I am re-posting the article below. Highlights and a photo from the group's first event are also available on this blog.

Cleantech Israel enables people (including entrepreneurs, investors, academic researchers and government officials) to meet and exchange ideas about the renewable energy, water, and environmental sectors.

The group's next event, on April 29, will include a presentation by Alon Tamari, Co-CEO of SolarPower Ltd., followed by time for networking. You can join the group and RSVP for the next event at our web page.

"Globes": Cleantech industry networks in Israel

About 50 representatives from various parts of Israel's cleantech industry recently met in Herzliya Pituach to launch a networking initiative. They included venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, Ronit Golovaty from the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute and even Jaclyn Marcus from the California Public Utilities Commission. The meet-up was organized by Jonathan Shapira, from Boston, and Gene Dolgin from Tel Aviv. The Cleantech Israel group currently has 134 members.

Jonathan Shapira is a law student from Boston who is currently serving an internship with Israel Cleantech Ventures, where Gene Dolgin is an analyst. The US law firm of Goodwin Procter LLP, which has an extensive Clean Technology Practice, sponsored the meet-up. Shapira says that he will soon be working for the firm.

Shapira and Dolgin, aware that there are similar cleantech networking groups in places like Boston and Silicon Valley, decided to organize the group to enable key players in the industry in Israel - entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and government officials - to meet and exchange ideas. Shapira notes that while Israel has many strengths when it comes to cleantech, the lack of government support, especially when compared to what is happening in other countries, may hold the industry back. He hopes that members of the Cleantech Israel group, together with other organizations such as Waterfronts - Israel Water Alliance, and the newly created Israel Energy Forum, might be able to persuade the government to implement better policies related to renewable energy, clean water, and the environment.

Shapira told "Globes", "Gene and I decided to organize the network together, and we received a strong response, especially from entrepreneurs and investors. Other parties quickly joined, including academics and a few government officials.

The participants at the Cleantech Israel meet-up included former Gemini Israel Funds partner Tali Aben; Genesis Partners principle Gil Dibner; Terra Venture Partners LP general partner Dr. Harold Weiner; and Israel Cleantech managing partner Jack Levy. Levy noted, "Although Israel entered cleantech late, great things have emerged here within only three years, on both the entrepreneurs and the funds side."

Participating entrepreneurs included low-cost regenerative fuel-cell developer Enstorage Ltd. CEO Eran Yarkoni, wastewater treatment solutions developer AqWise Ltd. VP business development Udi Leshem; Emefcy Bioenergy Systems CEO Eytan Levy, who previously co-founded AqWise; Phoebus Energy Ltd. CEO Yoav Ben-Yaacov; Ashkelon Technological Industries (ATI) cleantech director Rafi Nevo; and Noam Ilan, who is the project manager of the alternative energy park under construction at the Eilot Regional Council in the southern Negev.

India, Israel to collaborate on cleantech

Industries from India and Israel will collaborate in developing renewable energy technologies, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) announced in New Delhi last week at the conclusion of a seminar on the subject.

Leading Israeli companies involved in solar power, wind energy and others were in India to exchange views with their Indian counterparts as part of the seminar, organized by the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA), the Israeli Industry Center for R&D (MATIMOP) and the CII.

The seminar was a follow-up to Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal's 2005 trip to Israel, when it was decided that the two countries would collaborate in the fields of environmental technology, water management, space technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology.

DST Secretary T. Ramaswami told the seminar that there was great potential for joint research and development in the area of renewable energy technologies.

Israel has now mandated that at least 10 percent of energy must come from renewable sources by 2020, said Raul Goldemann, director, Asia and Pacific international cooperation programme, MATIMOP.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

BrightSource Energy signs large solar deal with PG&E

BrightSource Energy announced this week that it has entered into a series of contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for renewable solar power. The first three contracts are for a total of 500 megawatts (MW) of power to be supplied from three solar thermal electric generating projects. PG&E also signed two contracts for options on an additional 400 MW of solar power, which would bring the total amount of power purchased under these five agreements to 900 MW.

This is one of the largest solar thermal power deals to date. Building the five plants will cost between $2 billion to $3 billion, and Morgan Stanley will reportedly lead the financing of the first plant.

According to Earth2Tech, the plants will use BrightSource’s power tower design, which includes an array of mirrors that reflect the sun’s light onto a central receiver full of water, creating steam and powering a turbine. The plants, the first of which could come online as early as 2011, are to be built in the Mojave Desert.

Luz II, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy, provides product development and engineering, project engineering and management, and solar field manufacturing and supply services to BrightSource's plants. Luz II is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel.

Brightsource COO and Luz II president Israel Kroizer, in an interview with "Globes", says that if PG&E exercises its options, BrightSource's solar power stations will provide 2.7% of the company's electricity supply.

Luz II is apparently due to launch a commercial pilot of its solar thermal power station at Rotem Industries Ltd. in Dimona in the Negev in a few weeks. The station will generate a few megawatts of solar thermal energy.

Privately held, BrightSource Energy is headquartered in Oakland, California. Its principle investors include: VantagePoint Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, J.P. Morgan, and Chevron Technology Ventures.

Last July, PG&E also agreed to buy 553 megawatts of solar power from Solel's Mojave solar park, which is under construction and due to begin operating in 2011. Solel, based in Beit Shemesh, is another leading developer of solar thermal energy technology.

Ormat announces new geothermal contract in Nevada

Ormat Technologies Inc. and Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP) announced this week that NGP Blue Mountain I LLC has entered into an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract for a 49.5 MW power plant, consisting of three Ormat Energy Converters at Blue Mountain's geothermal project in Nevada.

The plant design incorporates Ormat's proprietary power generation technology with water-cooling for maximum efficiency. The total contract value is US$76 million.

If you are interested in learning more about Ormat and geothermal power, I suggest reading this interview with Paul Thomsen, Ormat's Public Policy Manager, which was published this week on AlternativeEnergy.com. Thomsen discusses Ormat's technology, its competitiveness vis a vis coal and natural gas power plants, the company's plans for R&D and expansion, the influence of government policy on the company's prospects, and the obstacles to geothermal's growth as a renewable energy source.

Ormat Technologies is the only vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business. The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world.

Listed on the NYSE, Ormat Technologies is a subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat Industries. Founded in 1965 by Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki, a husband-and-wife team who now serve, respectively, as chairman and CEO, the company has developed over a gigawatt of geothermal generation around the world, and it owns and operates approximately 400 megawatts in the US. It has a market capitalization of $2 billion.

Much of Ormat's success owes to a breakthrough turbine design developed by the Bronickis that permits renewable energy sources such as geothermal or solar-heated steam to be converted into electricity more efficiently. After decades of selling turbines alone, Ormat in the mid 1990s started building geothermal plants of its own around the world that use its super-efficient turbine technology.

Geothermal's great advantage over intermittent renewables such as solar and wind power is that it is not dependent on the elements, and it produces continuous power 24 hours a day. The big drawback is that geothermal plants tend to be small. Depending on the strength of the natural source, they're usually no more than 100 megawatts in capacity.

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. is a renewable energy company developing geothermal projects in the United States to provide electrical energy that is clean, renewable and sustainable. NGP currently owns a 100% leasehold interest in four properties: Blue Mountain that is expected to commence power generation late 2009, Pumpernickel, Black Warrior, all located in Nevada and Crump Geyser in Oregon.

ZenithSolar featured in BusinessWeek

ZenithSolar, which is developing an innovative concentrator photovoltaic technology, was recently featured in BusinessWeek.

Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) uses mirrors and/or lenses to focus and intensify the sun's light, thus producing more electricity at lower cost than traditional photovoltaic panels.

"Our goal is to utilize every suitable roof, backyard, and open space in Israel to turn households, hotels, and factories into net producers of electricity and thermal heat," says Roy Segev, the founder and chief executive of ZenithSolar. Founded in 2006, the company has raised $5 million from a handful of private investors in Israel and the U.S. Now, according to BusinessWeek, it is trying to raise an additional $10 million to $15 million to cover the cost of commercializing its technology.

Zenith, which is based in Nes Ziona, bought the rights to its solar technology from Ben Gurion University (BGU) and Germany's Fraunhofer Institute. A joint Israeli-German research team from the two institutions designed a working prototype, which consists of a 10-sq.-meter (107.6-sq.-ft.) dish lined with curved mirrors made from composite materials. The mirrors focus the sun's radiation onto a 100-sq.-centimeter (15.5-sq.-in.) "generator" that converts light to electricity. The generator also gives off intense heat, which is captured via a water-cooling system for residential or industrial hot-water uses.

The prototype has been tested over the last few years at Israel's National Solar Energy Center in Sde Boker in the Negev desert. Professor David Faiman, Director of the National Solar Energy Center, is Zenith's chief scientific officer.

After further refining the technology, Zenith plans in the coming months to take its first major steps toward commercialization. Two large-scale test installations are planned for this summer at a kibbutz and a factory. The company will put 86 of its 7-meter-high dishes on an acre of land at Kibbutz Yavne to provide the community of 250 families with more than a quarter of their energy needs. The second project will replace fuel oil used to produce heat at a large chemical plant in central Israel.

Once these projects are operational, Zenith plans to start commercial sales in Israel in 2009 and then to go abroad.

U.S. Army venture fund looks to Israel for water technologies

Christopher Fountas, a General Partner at Arsenal Venture Partners, was recently in Israel to examine the potential for investment in early-stage water technology companies.

Arsenal Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on the intersection of the commercial and defense markets. AVP manages an early-stage venture capital fund (OnPoint Technologies), and a seed-stage venture fund (MILCOM Technologies). It already has an extensive cleantech portfolio and co-invests with many of the leading venture capital funds and corporate investors in the sector.

According to a report in "Globes", Fountas was invited to Israel by Dr. Orna Berry, a venture partner at Gemini Israel Funds, as well as Chairperson of the Israel Venture Association and former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; and Assaf Barnea, CEO of the Kinrot Water Technology Incubator.

Fountas said, "We manage investments in technologies for the US Army to meet needs that arise in wartime, such as during operations in Iraq, and for the government and industrial markets. We've come to Israel with the understanding that it’s a global leader in water technologies."

Joining Fountas on his trip to Israel was Melissa Meeker, a governing board member of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWFD). According to Meeker, Florida is reviewing the establishment of a state venture capital fund for cleantech.

During their visit, Fountas and Meeker met with Mekorot - the Israel National Water Company; executives at venture capital funds including Gemini, Evergreen Venture Partners, and Israel Cleantech Ventures; and Booky Oren, President of the Arison Water Initiative.

Summarizing his visit to Israel, Fountas said, "The water technologies that generally interest us are those that are synergetic to US Army and federal government needs.... All the water sectors relevant to us for investment are found here, from water security through water treatment and management, to desalination."