B-Solar, solar cell start-up, raises $3m from Genesis Partners

B-Solar Ltd., a solar cell start-up based in Israel, has raised $3 million from Genesis Partners in a first round of fund-raising. B-Solar also raised an undisclosed sum from angel investor and serial entrepreneur Gidi Barak, founder of IXI Mobile and DSP Communications (aquired by Intel in 2000), according to reports in Globes and The Marker (Hebrew) and a press release from Genesis.

B-Solar, founded in December 2007, is in stealth mode and does not have a web site, and little information about the company is publicly available. The company plans on establishing a manufacturing facility in 2010 to produce its photovoltaic cells, initially at a production capacity of 70 megawatts per year.

B-Solar's co-founder and CEO is Yossi Kofman. According to Kofman's bio, B-Solar "develops and manufactures photovoltaic (PV) bifacial, silicon solar cells that can provide 15-20% more energy per dollar production than the best of breed counterparts."

In the press release, Kofman states: “B-Solar will become a leading manufacturer of photovoltaic cells, producing hundreds of megawatts per year, while maintaining our technological leadership and competitive advantage". He adds, “B-Solar is in contact with a number of international photovoltaic panel manufacturers who have expressed interest in the product".

Yossi Kofman, who holds a D.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, was previously the co-founder and CEO of Modem-Art, a fabless semiconductor company acquired by Agere Systems (now LSI Logic) for $145 million in 2005. Modem-Art's investors included Genesis Partners, which is now backing Kofman at B-Solar.

B-Solar's other founders are Professor Naftali Eisenberg (CTO), Dr. Lev Kreinin (Chief Scientist), and Dr. Ninel Bordin (Scientist) of the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT). Professor Eisenberg founded and led the photovoltaic solar energy center and the non-conventional optics laboratory at (JCT), and, together with his colleagues, Dr. Kreinin and Dr. Bordin, turned the center into a leading university laboratory in the field of silicon based solar cells.

In 2007, Eisenberg authored an article on "Dialectic microconcentrators for efficiency enhancement in concentrator solar cells." In 2008, Eisenberg, Kreinin and Bordin co-authored an article on "A novel method for determining bulk diffusion length in bifacialsilicon solar cells."

Avishai Drori, a graduate of the Jerusalem College of Technology, and a veteran of Israel's high-tech industry, is B-Solar's Director of Product Management.

Following the $3 million investment, Genesis Partners' team members Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot will reportedly join B-Solar's board of directors.

Gary Gannot, General Partner at Genesis Partners, stated, “We believe this is a unique investment in a high-potential company that will both spearhead research and development in the field and become a leading PV manufacturer. The global PV industry is poised for continued dramatic growth in demand, and we believe that B-Solar’s innovative technology and products will help realize the potential of this large and emerging market".

Genesis Partners is also backing SolarEdge, a stealth solar start-up developing advanced power-harvesting solutions for photovoltaic arrays that will lower the average cost per watt produced. Herzliya, Israel-based SolarEdge raised $23 million in a Series B financing round in 2008.

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Israeli water technology in the news

What follows are links to a few recently published articles related to Israeli water companies and technologies.

Interview with AqWise CEO Elad Frenkel

AqWise last month raised $3.6 million to support its growth plans, which center on its AGAR (Attached Growth Airlift Reactor) technology and ecological water sanitation process for municipal, industrial and aquaculture wastewater treatment. In this interview, CEO Elad Frenkel discusses the global wastewater market and Aqwise's prospects.

"Stream Control" takes the pressure off water pipes

Stream Control, a graduate of the Yozmot HaEmek technological incubator, has developed a device called the Aquaguard Smart Pressure Reduction Controller, designed to ensure proper flow of water through municipal pipes, thus preventing leaks and saving both water and money.

CEO Shlomo Avitbul discusses the company in this article on Israel21c. "We just finished a major project in Jerusalem's old city, where our installations reduced leakage by 35%," Avitbul says, adding that the product is set to be deployed in a number of other cities in Israel in the coming months. The company is also working on several deals in Europe - specifically Spain, Germany, and Italy.

New technique adds magnesium to desalinated water

Technion researcher Dr. Ori Lahav has developed a new technique that cheaply introduces healthful magnesium ions to desalinated water. In a few months, a semi-industrial plant will be set up adjacent to the small desalination plant at Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael to try out the process in the field. It is expected to supply 400 to 1,000 cubic meters of mineral-enriched desalinated water per day. The new process will be presented at the upcoming conference of the Israel Water Association.

Dr. Lahav is a scientific adviser to AquaPure Technologies.

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.

Israel21c coverage of cleantech

Israel21c has recently published a number of articles related to the cleantech sector in Israel:

• 'Energy Towers' offer major source of alternative energy. Professor Dan Zaslavsky of the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Science, explains his project to build "energy towers" to produce cheap electricity. The massive towers, 1000 meters tall and 400 meters in diameter, would use convection to power turbines at the base of each tower.
  

• Israeli collaboration with Exxon fuels hopes for a greener future. A team of scientists from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, international petrochemical giant ExxonMobile, Canadian gas purification company QuestAir Technologies, and US energy products company Plug Power have developed a new hydrogen fuel cell technology.
  

• Intel develops the eco-chip, with Israeli help. Intel recently unveiled the latest addition to its processor family: a new chipset provisionally named 'Penryn.' The innovative hafnium-based "Hi-k" processor, which reduces electricity loss, or "capacitance," through the use of third-generation silicon materials, also does away with the need to incorporate eco-unfriendly lead and halogen materials in the production process. Intel's R&D center in Haifa played a crucial role in working out how the new chip micro-architecture could be manufactured on a commercial scale.

• Israeli startup develops ambitious plant to rid the world of waste. Shai Pinczewski, the founder and CEO of waste disposal company REN Waste, discusses his company's state-of-the-art treatment plant that he claims can rid the world of municipal trash by transforming it into recycled material and also produce electricity.

• Sharon's legacy turns wasteland to parkland. Israel's largest landfill, the Hiriya garbage dump, is being transformed into 2000 acre recreational area. Nearby, a waste transit station is a becoming a model of environmental innovation. The project may take up to 20 years and cost $250 million.
  

• Turning olive pits into energy. Israeli start-up Genova is setting up its first pilot plant to produce energy from biomass in the form of olive waste.

Technion forum: Israel can be global biodiesel leader

Israel can become a global leader in the development of crops for biodiesel production, concludes the 7th Energy Forum sponsored by the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. The forum aims to position Israeli renewable energy research and industry on the world map. (Read the full article here.)

WATEC, CheckLight, WaterSheer

As the Israeli cleantech industry prepares for WATEC Israel 2007 -- the International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition and Conference -- "Globes" is reporting on two new devlopments in the water sector.

Whitewater Security, a subsidiary of the Whitewater Technology Group, is in advanced negotiations to invest $2.5 million in water security start-up CheckLight Ltd. Checklight, founded Shimon Ulitzur, a professor of microbiology at the Technion, has developed technology that uses light-emitting bacteria to identify pollutants in water in real time. Whitewater chairman Ori Yogev wants his company to be the global leader in water security in the next 3-5 years. (Full article)

WaterSheer Ltd., another water technology start-up, is reportedly in talks to bring in a strategic partner at a company value of $10-15 million. The company, which creates a range of water purification products that convert unsafe water into drinking water. Potential partners include an international company with global marketing operations primarily in third world countries, and international venture capital funds that specialize in consumer products.

For more information on WaterSheer and its products, see "Israeli system turns contaminated water into drinking water - instantly."