BrightSource / Luz II Dedicate Negev Solar Energy Development Center

BrightSource Energy, and its Israeli subsidiary Luz II, developers of large scale solar thermal power plants, dedicated their Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) in the Negev's Rotem Industrial Park earlier today, June 12.

I had an opportunity to attend the ceremony, which included tours of the facility and presentations by BrightSource Chairman Arnold Goldman, BrightSource CEO John Woolard, and Luz II President Israel Kroizer.

The site features more than 1,600 glass mirrors, known as heliostats, which track the sun and reflect light onto a 60 meter-high tower. The concentrated energy is then used to heat a boiler atop the tower to 550 degrees Celsius, generating steam that is piped into a turbine, where electricity can be produced. To learn more about the company's "Distributed Power Tower" technology, check out the video on their web site. Click here for an Israeli news report on the SEDC.

In April, the company entered into a series of contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to build up to 900 MW of solar power in California, at a cost of $2-3 billion. Then, in May, BrightSource raised $115 million in a Series C round of financing from investors including Google.org and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

According to BrightSource, the solar power plants that the company is actively developing will provide enough electricity to power more than 3.2 million homes and remove emissions equivalent to what is produced by approximately one million cars.

Ironically, the bus to the event left from the Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv, which served as a reminder of how far Israel has come. Reading, built during the British Mandate in 1938, is powered by imported fossil fuels. Now, 70 years later, deep in the Negev Desert, an independent Israel is developing technology that will be exported to the United States and used to build the world's largest solar power plant.

Congratulations to BrightSource Energy and Luz II!

Related posts:

Arnold Goldman, Chairman of BrightSource Energy

BrightSource Energy raises $115 million in latest round of funding

BrightSource Energy signs large solar deal with PG&E

Isaac Berzin to address Cleantech Israel group

Dr. Isaac Berzin, the founder of Boston-based GreenFuel Technologies, will be the featured speaker at the next Cleantech Israel event on June 17.

Dr. Berzin, now a Senior Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in politics, business, and science. He will discuss his experience at GreenFuel Technologies, which produces algae-based biofuels, and his plans to establish an Institute for Alternative Energy Policy in Israel.

For more information about GreenFuel Technologies, check out this video:



The event is sponsored by Terra Venture Partners. Please RSVP online.

Related posts:

Isaac Berzin to establish Institute for Alternative Energy Policy

Isaac Berzin, Israel's Green Giant

"A Renewable Light Unto the Nations"

Yossi Abramowitz, President of the Arava Power Company, just published a new essay entitled "A Renewable Light Unto the Nations". I highly recommend reading it.

Abramowitz calls for Israel to set a goal of generating 40% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and thus "capture the imagination of youth, entrepreneurs, scientists, philanthropists, and financiers." He also suggests the creation of a "World Jewish Action Plan" to offer "Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide carbon offset opportunities" in Israel.

In practice, this would involve "every synagogue, JCC, school, and institution" calculating its carbon footprint, and then putting solar panels on its own roof and investing in Israeli renewable science centers or companies.

I hope that groups like the newly established "Boston Israel Cleantech Alliance" and the California Israel Chamber of Commerce's "Cleantech Initiative" can play a leading role in putting renewable energy on the Jewish community's agenda and promoting connections between cleantech investors and entrepreneurs in the United States and Israel.

In related news, Israel's Public Utilities Authority approved a plan Monday to buy electricity, at NIS 2.01 per kilowatt, from individuals and companies who install a photovoltaic (PV) solar panel system on their roofs. Israel thus joins a growing list of countries, including Germany, the US, Japan and Spain, that have approved such solar "feed-in tariffs".

"Ex-VC" Tali Aben explains the economics of the feed-in tariff, observing that those who install solar PV systems are now set to reap a 14% internal rate of return on their investment over a 20 year period.

According to the Jerusalem Post, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called on the Authority to draft similar tariffs for household wind energy, which would be good news for Israeli companies like TechnoSpin, Coriolis Wind, and ALT-E.

Related Posts:

Renewable energy park to be built in Arava Valley

Isaac Berzin to establish Institute for Alternative Energy Policy

Dr. Isaac Berzin, founder of Greenfuel Technologies and a member of 2008 Time 100, is profiled by Karin Kloosterman in the latest edition of Israel21c.

In the interview, Dr. Berzin discusses his plans to establish an Institute for Alternative Energy Policy in Israel. The institute will be located at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, where Berzin is now a senior fellow, and will collaborate with the U.S.-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) and National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Dr. Berzin will be the featured speaker at the next Cleantech Israel event on June 17. If you are interested in meeting Dr. Berzin and learning more about his vision for Israel's cleantech future, I encourage you to join the group and RSVP.

See also: "Looking for a few green men" (Jerusalem Post)

Related posts:

Isaac Berzin, Israel's Green Giant

Global map of cleantech startups includes five Israel-related companies

Israel and the African Green Revolution

"Israel must make the transition from a state that receives aid to a state that gives aid," said Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals, at the opening of the International Conference on Israel and the African Green Revolution.

Sachs, a world renowned economist and head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, added that Africa would like to have Israel as a partner in the continent's green revolution, and that Israel has the technological know-how that Africa needs in three main fields: solar energy, public health and medicine, and agriculture.

At the conference, which opened on Sunday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, representatives from Israel and from the international community presented various approaches to agricultural development on the African continent and discussed how to effectively implement them in order to alleviate the present food and water crisis. Israel and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also signed, for the first time, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture.

The conference, which was organized by MASHAV, (the Center for International Cooperation, the Israeli body responsible for extending aid to developing countries), was attended by hundreds of delegates representing African states and international aid organizations, as well as MASHAV trainees in Israel and academics.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

JTA: "Israeli firms invest in clean tech"

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) just published a lengthy article on the cleantech scene in Israel. JTA articles are often republished in local Jewish newspapers around the world, and it is nice to see Israel’s cleantech sector getting publicity in the Diaspora.

I am quoted in the article -- as the author of this blog and an organizer of the Cleantech Israel meetup group -- alongside industry players including Dov Raviv (CEO of MST), Yael Cohen-Paran (Director of the Israel Energy Forum), Yossi Abramowitz (Chairman of the Arava Power Company), Prof. David Faiman of Ben-Gurion University, and Dr. Isaac Berzin (Founder of GreenFuel Technologies).

The entire article is available online. Here is the section that includes my quote:

"Turning Israel into a center for clean technology could build new bridges between Israel and Diaspora Jews, says Jonathan Shapira, a recent American law school graduate living in Tel Aviv who organizes monthly meetings for entrepreneurs interested in clean tech and writes a blog on the subject.

As an example, Shapira cited the business park for renewable energy firms being built in the Arava with funding from Toronto's Jewish community.

"Rather than just making a charitable donation, people are helping create the infrastructure for economic growth and a cleaner environment in Israel," Shapira said."

America-Israel Green Buildings Conference

The America-Israel Chamber of Commerce & Industry is sponsoring a two-day conference, the America-Israel Green Buildings Conference, on June 3 & 4 in New York and New Jersey, respectively.

The conference will provide an opportunity for U.S. business leaders to meet Israeli entrepreneurs and discover the products and technologies they are developing for the green building industry.

As the conference organizers note, Israel is a recognized leader in the development of clean technologies, and Israel is now "poised to become the center for green building innovations," providing technologies that will "address the needs of all those involved in the design, construction and maintenance of green buildings."

Attendees will explore private and public sector initiatives, learn about new ways of financing green real estate and technologies and discover opportunities for global joint ventures.

Speakers include Congressman Steve Israel, leading real estate developers, New York and New Jersey government officials, and academic researchers. Presentations will be made by Israeli companies that are developing technologies for use in green buildings.