Siemens invests $15mm in Israeli solar company Arava Power

Siemens, the German industrial giant, recently announced a $15 million investment in Arava Power Company, a company developing solar power plants in Israel.

An agreement was signed at Kibbutz Ketura in August, securing Siemens a 40 percent stake in the company. Arava Power develops, builds and operates photovoltaic plants in Israel. “This investment is another consequential step in further strengthening our green and sustainable technologies,” said Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens AG. “Thanks to its intensive sunshine and steadily growing demand for energy, Israel is an ideal location for further developing our solar business.” The equity investment will make it possible to build Israel’s first commercial solar farms – to be located in the region between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.

The investment is aimed at constructing the solar fields with a significant proportion of Siemens know-how, delivering technology, e.g. inverter and transformers, ensuring new projects for the group. As Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractor, Siemens will handle project management including engineering and construction of the photovoltaic plants. Overall, Siemens has concluded a framework agreement to build solar plants with a total output of 40 megawatts (MW). The first project will be the construction of a plant with an output of up to 4.9 MW at Kibbutz Ketura, in the southern desert of Israel. Additional photovoltaic plants are already being planned for the Negev and Arava deserts and Israel’s aim is to meet around ten percent of its total energy needs with renewable energy plants by 2020.

Arava Power, the Israeli development company, was founded in 2006 and is headquartered at Kibbutz Ketura, north of Eilat. The company, with some 20 employees, is a subsidiary of Global Sun Power Ltd. Siemens is investing in Arava Power through its equity investment company Siemens Project Ventures GmbH (SPV).

“This is the most comprehensive foreign investment to date for an Israeli solar energy firm,” said Johannes Schmidt, CEO of the Equity & Project Finance unit of Siemens Financial Services. “Through its early and extensive engagement in the field, Arava Power has developed into Israel’s leading solar energy company. Siemens will be supporting local solar projects with our full range of technologies, know-how and finance.”

Jonathan Cohen, CEO of Arava Power, added: “Siemens is the ideal partner for Arava Power and our property partners for winning over others interested in producing solar energy in Israel. Our strategic partnership will make it possible for our country to reach its ambitious goals of clean air and renewable energy even faster.”

Founded by a group of visionaries at Kibbutz Ketura, Arava Power Company seeks to supply 10% of Israel’s electricity needs with the development of solar energy plants with Kibbutzim, Moshavim and other land owners, especially in the south of Israel.

Yosef Abramowitz, Arava Power Company's Co-Founder and President, was recently profiled in Ha'aretz.

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Arava Power solar project approved for Negev kibbutz

Israel's Public Utilities Authority (Electricity) has approved the application of Arava Power Company for a license to build a 4.9-megawatt solar power plant at an 20-acre site at Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev. The project will cost NIS 100 million ($26 million), according to a report in Globes, and will use both photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal technologies.

The Public Utilities Authority plenum approved the conditional license for Arava Power to produce electricity, and sent it to Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.

"This is an historic day for renewable energy in Israel," Arava Power Company president Yosef Abramowitz said in a statement. "For the first time, a large solar project is being launched that will be connected to the national grid, with many more megawatts on the way in the coming years. The Public Utility Authority is making a reality Ben-Eliezer's dramatic decision to produce thousands of megawatts of electricity from renewable sources by 2020."

The first solar installation of 100 kilowatts will be built by Edig Solar, according to the Jerusalem Post. Edig Solar uses solar thermal technology developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. The plant is expected to become operational in March.

Arava Power has signed cooperation agreements with 15 kibbutzim, including Ketura and Yotvata, that own land available sufficient for the production of up to 500 megawatts of electricity at photovoltaic farms. The company predicts that a total of over 20 kibbutzim will join the venture this year.

Kibbutz Ketura owns 40% of Arava Power, and a group of US investors, led by company president Yossi Abramowitz, own the rest. Arava Power plans on announcing its brand-name institutional investors by February 1st, 2009.

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Global map of cleantech startups includes five Israel-related companies

Earth2Tech, a web site that provides cleantech news and analysis, has posted a map of 101 cleantech startups around the world, with useful information (investors, technology, etc.) broken out for each company.

No fewer than five Israel-related companies are on the list, including water disinfection company Atlantium Technologies; photovoltaic developer Pythagoras Solar; fuel-cell maker CellEra; electric car infrastructure developer Project Better Place; and biofuel company GreenFuel Technologies.

Project Better Place and GreenFuel Technologies are based in the U.S., but both companies were founded by Israelis and are engaged in R&D in Israel.

Project Better Place was founded by Shai Agassi and the company announced that it will roll out the first nationwide electric vehicle recharge grid in Israel by 2011.

GreenFuel Technologies was founded by Israeli chemical engineer Isaac Berzin during his postdoctoral studies at MIT in Boston. The company is developing an innovative process to recycle carbon dioxide or smokestack emissions to produce biofuels and feed. GreenFuel is collaborating with AlgaTech of Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava to make the process cost effective.

This is an impressive showing by Israel's growing cleantech cluster, especially considering that only two companies in all of Europe were included in the Earth2Tech list.

Renewable energy park to be built in Arava Valley

The Jerusalem Post reports that a renewable energy park is to be established in Kibbutz Ketura, located 50km north of Eilat in the Arava Valley. The park will be used for research, education and tourism. Believed to be the first of its kind, the park for renewable energy and energy saving is being established at the initiative of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and the Arava Power Company.

The research center will be a joint project of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science, and will be funded with donations from the Toronto community and the Jewish National Fund, among others.

According to its web site, the Arava Power Company (APC) will produce renewable energy and sell it to residents of the Arava and the Israel Electric Company. "The creation of Arava Power is part of a regional initiative to make the Arava the Silicon Valley of renewable energy." The company is negotiating for a regional exclusive on a new photovoltaic solar panel technology and is also setting up an independent affiliate across the border in Jordan.

Ed Hofland is Arava Power's Chairman, and Yossi Abramowitz is its President. Abramowitz blogs at Peoplehood.org, and, in September 2007, he gave a sermon on why developing solar power is part of the mission of the Jewish people. His words are inspiring, and I highly recommend reading the post.

For a sense of what Abramowitz has to say, and the goals that the Arava Power Company has set for itself, here is a passage from his sermon:

"The building of solar fields in the footsteps of Moses and the Israelites is certainly a worthwhile task (and may explain the glow on his face). Yet it can be much more. Can Israel become the first western economy to make the switch from carbon-based to solar based? Can the Jewish people become carbon neutral by 2020..."