Ormat secures $16m geothermal contract in Turkey

Ormat Technologies has announced that one of its subsidiaries entered into a $16 million supply contract for a new geothermal power plant to be constructed in Turkey.

Ormat said the customer, Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Uretim, a private developer and owner of the resource in Turkey, already has one operating geothermal power plant that was supplied by Ormat in 2004.

"This marks our fourth order to supply equipment for geothermal power in Turkey and continues our leadership position in creating clean energy both in megawatts and the number of power plants in the country. With the addition of this plant, Ormat will have increased the amount of megawatts it supplies to 20 countries to over 950 MW," said Dita Bronicki, CEO of Ormat.

Ormat did not disclose how much power the new plant would produce, but said it would convert both steam and brine from geothermal wells into electric power.

The company said the plant would also use air-cooled condensers and allow 100 percent geothermal fluid reinjection, which Ormat said serves both to sustain the reservoir and to produce electrical power with virtually no environmental impact.

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Dassault interested in Project Better Place

Dassault Group, the French aerospace and software giant, is seeking co-investment opportunities in Israel, while also examining possibilities in the Project Better Place electric car venture.

"The electric car market is the future. We are studying the possibility of joint projects regarding development," Laurent Dassault, the company's vice chairman, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview at the France-Israel business forum in Jerusalem on Tuesday. "During the visit in Israel I met up with Idan Ofer [Chairman of Project Better Place] to discuss possibilities."

Dassault came to Israel this week as part of the business delegation accompanying French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Green Way raises $15-20m from Shaked Global Group

The Green Way, an Israel-based environmental management company, has secured between $15 and $20 million in funding from Shaked Global Group.

Shaked Global previously invested $1 million in Green Way. Its stake values TGW at several tens of millions of dollars, according to Globes.

Founded in 1997, TGW provides a range of consulting and implementation services for landscaping, irrigation, erosion prevention and waste and wastewater treatment. It also collaborates with tech companies that specialize in the field of environmental preservation to design cost-effective solutions for a range of small- to medium-scale commercial, industrial and public infrastructure projects, such as parks, hotels and utilities.

Based in Israel, TGW also operates in Cyprus, Turkey and in the United States. The company employees over100 people and has completed projects for Israel Electric Corp., Highway 6 (Trans-Israel Highway), and Tel Aviv University.

Shaked Global invests in "environment-oriented technology and services companies". In addition to TGW, Shaked Global has invested in Blue I Water Technologies.

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Project Better Place in talks with Mercedes, Hawaii, and San Francisco

Daimler, the parent of Mercedes-Benz, is in talks with Shai Agassi and Project Better Place regarding the company's plan to create a mass-market infrastructure for electric cars. Mercedes' CEO Dieter Zetsche revealed the talks in a newspaper interview published in Germany earlier today. Zetsche also said that Mercedes-Benz plans to manufacture a model that runs on electricity in 2010.

In January 2008, Better Place announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Renault-Nissan to build an electric recharge grid in Israel. Under the agreement, Better Place will build the electric recharge grid, and Renault-Nissan will provide the electric vehicles. Renault-Nissan apparently does not have an exclusive right to produce electric vehicles for Better Place, and it will be interesting to see what develops with Mercedes.

Hawaii and San Francisco up next?

I recently had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Ziva Patir, head of Better Place's international standardization efforts since her appointment was announced in April. Patir revealed that Better Place is near an agreement with the State of Hawaii. If the talks are successful, this would be another impressive accomplishment for Better Place, giving it a foothold the world's largest car market.

In an April appearance on a local radio show, Hawaii's Governor Linda Lingle said that the state was indeed in discussions with Project Better Place.

Furthermore, Earth2Tech reported in May that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom met with Better Place Israel CEO Moshe Kaplinsky and Chairman Idan Ofer while in Israel. Newsom reportedly offered to work with the company to build an electric recharge grid in San Francisco.

In Better Place's October 2007 white paper, "The Future of Transportation", Shai Agassi stated that to set the right conditions for the creation of a massive electric recharge grid in the United States, the federal government will need to increase taxes on cars, based on carbon emissions, and tax fuel to bring the price up to roughly $4.50 a gallon.

Even without federal intervention, however, gas prices have now reached a statewide average of $4.31 in Hawaii and $4.60 in California. We may have already reached the point where the company's business model will work in certain niche markets -- transportation islands like Hawaii, and densely populated, highly-trafficed urban areas such as San Francisco.

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Seambiotic to build algae-based biofuel plant in Israel

Tel Aviv-based Seambiotic and Seattle-based Inventure Chemical are teaming up to build an algae-based biofuel plant in Israel. The companies announced on Wednesday a joint venture to use CO2 emissions-fed algae to make ethanol and biodiesel.

The plant will use algae strains developed by Seambiotic. Founded in 2003, the company has been carrying out research and development at the Israel Electric Corporation's Ashkelon power station. The station pipes carbon dioxide from smokestacks to Seambiotic's algae ponds.

Check out this video for an explanation of Seambiotic's algae production technology.



Seambiotic's technology for producing algae will now be coupled with with Inventure’s algae to biofuel conversion processes to produce ethanol, biodiesel and other value-added chemicals. Inventure already makes biodiesel and ethanol from algae at an R&D site in Seattle.

“This is a milestone for Inventure, and for the next generation of biofuels,” said Mark Tegen, Inventure’s chief executive officer and co-founder. “Seambiotic has been extremely successful in its algae-based CO₂ sequestering project with Israeli Electric Corporation, which proves the viability of their model. Combining their algae production technology with our algae to biofuel conversion process will close the loop.”

Seambiotic is led by CEO Amnon Bechar and Chief Scientific Adviser Prof. Ami Ben-Amotz.

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Los Angeles and Israel to cooperate on water research

"Globes" reports that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has signed a cooperation agreement with the Kinrot Incubator, which invests in water technologies. Villaraigosa is currently in Israel with a delegation of top municipal officials, including Los Angeles Department of Water & Power General Manager H. David Nahai.

This seems like an excellent example of how cleantech -- in this case, water technology -- is creating a new paradigm for U.S.-Israel relations. Rather than merely planting a symbolic tree or making charitable donations in Israel, Villaraigosa's delegation will return home with newfound access to Israeli technologies that can directly benefit L.A. residents. This is a positive development both for Israeli water startups and the people of L.A., and it will help strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship.

(UPDATE: Check out Villaraigosa's op-ed about how L.A. will benefit from its partnership with Israel.)

Villaraigosa told "Globes", "Israel is a global leader in high-tech and environmental solutions. As such, we intend to utilize the know-how of our Israeli friends to deal with the challenges we face from drought and global warming."

The cooperation agreement with Kinrot will reportedly enable Israeli startups to use Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) facilities for pilot projects. DWP will then install suitable Israeli technologies in its facilities. The agreement will lead to cooperation in water R&D ventures and academic studies, which will encompass the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The Los Angeles municipality also intends to learn from Kinrot how to set up a water technology incubator, which it plans to establish on a 28-acre site in the city.

Congratulations to the Kinrot Incubator and its CEO Assaf Barnea.

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Isaac Berzin addresses 130 people at Cleantech Israel meetup

Israel's cleantech community was out in force this morning in Ramat HaSharon. Approximately 130 investors, entrepreneurs, service providers, and "high-tech refugees" attended the latest Cleantech Israel meetup, where they had an opportunity to network and hear a presentation by Dr. Isaac Berzin.

To get a participant's perspective on the event, check out Karin Kloosterman at TreeHugger and Tali Aben's blog post.

What started three months ago in a coffee shop in Herzliya seems to have grown into something much larger. It has been an honor and a pleasure to be involved in the group's founding and development, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

As I announced at this morning's meeting, the group is now going "global" with the establishment of the Boston Israel Cleantech Alliance. Please check out the web site and contact me if you want to get involved.

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