Pitango VC invests in solar power project in China

Pitango Venture Capital, Israel's largest VC firm, has reportedly invested in a solar power project in China's Jiangxi Province.

According to a report published in SinoCast, Pitango is investing in the project in partnership with Shenzen Capital Group Co. (SCGC), and China-Israel Value Capital (CIVC), a China-focused private equity fund. Established in 1999, SCGC was one of the first venture capital firms in China and currently manages over $300 million.


Chemi Peres, Managing General Partner and Co-Founder of Pitango, and the son of Israeli President Shimon Peres, is visiting Shenzhen City, and discussing further cooperation with SCGC. A long-term strategic partnership between Pitango and SCGC is reportedly being discussed.

It is perhaps worth noting that Peres sits on the board of directors of Pythagoras Solar, a stealthy Israeli solar startup that raised $10 million in a Series A round of financing earlier this year.

Peres told SinoCast that he has found cooperative opportunities in almost every field of Shenzhen's industries, including IT, medicine, energy and education. He believes Pitango will bring more listing and overseas acquisition possibilities to Chinese companies.

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21Ventures and Quercus Trust award grant to support solar research at Weizmann Institute

21Ventures and the Quercus Trust announced last week that they have awarded a $200,000 grant to support the solar energy research of Professor David Cahen of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. The grant will be used to further the exploratory research of novel approaches to harness solar energy in less expensive and more efficient new ways and to explore approaches for making better use of existing solar energy technologies.

“Professor Cahen’s ground breaking work has the potential to make a significant impact on the availability and the ultimate use of alternative energy sources, in this case, solar energy. Such efforts support the goal of 21Ventures and the Quercus Trust to secure a cleaner and healthier environment worldwide,” said David Anthony, Managing Partner, 21Ventures.

One area that the research will focus on is exploring the potential of various long-term light management approaches. That direction will be complemented by research on potentially low cost, novel ways to collect more energy from sunlight and the means of using that energy in daily life.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York, 21Ventures is a venture capital fund which invests in seed, early stage technology and publicly traded companies in the physical security, clean energy and mobile software markets.

The Quercus Trust, which does not have a web site, has quietly become one of the world's leading cleantech investors. Led by David Gelbaum, a former hedge fund manager at Princeton/Newport Partners, the Quercus Trust reportedly had a 20-company portfolio of clean energy stocks worth more than $400 million as of December 2007. Earth2Tech provides a breakdown of ten cleantech venture funding deals made by Quercus in the first quarter of 2008 alone.

David Anthony and David Gelbaum both sit on the Board of Directors of WorldWater and Solar Technology Corportation.

Bank Hapoalim and Hudson Clean Energy to establish cleantech fund

Poalim Capital Markets, an investment bank and a subsidiary of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest financial group, said yesterday that it was setting up a fund with U.S.-based Hudson Clean Energy to invest in alternative energy companies.

The fund, called Poalim Hudson Clean Energy, will invest between $50 and $500 million per company in the United States, Europe, and other markets, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg.

Macquarie, Australia's largest investment bank, is also a founder of the fund.

Credit Suisse will invest $300 million in the fund, which will focus on investments in renewable energy, such as wind and solar as well as infrastructure and energy storage, Poalim said.

"The rate of annual growth in the clean energy sector has been above 25 percent the last five years and estimates are that it will continue to be high," Nir Brunstein, chief executive of Poalim Capital Markets, said in a statement.

Hapoalim Chairman Dani Dankner said the new venture will provide the bank's customers with interesting investment opportunities with potential for large profits.

Hudson was founded by Neil Auerbach, a former Goldman Sachs partner who led the firm's U.S. alternative energy business and managed more than $3 billion in assets.

Amiad announces rise in profits due to growing demand for clean water

Growing demand for water filtration products have boosted revenues and profits at Israel-based Amiad Filtration Systems.

Pre-tax profits rose from $3.6m to $5.4m (£3m) for the six months to June 30 as turnover increased from $27.4m to $39m, according to a statement by the company.

Amiad makes filters to remove pollutants, used by heavy and extractive industries such as mining, and by municipal water treatment plants and irrigation systems.

Rami Treger, CEO, said Amiad was benefiting from rising global demand for clean water, driven by population increases and rising prosperity, coupled with problems of supply exacerbated by climate change and pollution.

"[We] anticipated an increase in global water investment and increased sales and marketing efforts accordingly, resulting in increased trading in all main parts of the business."

Amiad's shares, listed on the London Stock Exchange, have risen more than 60 per cent over the past year.

BioPetroClean raises funds from 21Ventures

Israeli water purification company BioPetroClean has closed its latest financing round, raising $5 million from 21 Ventures LLC, according to an announcement by the company and a report in "Globes".

BioPetroClean is developing bioremediation systems for cleaning waste water contaminated by oil and other pollutants, through a process called Active Chemostate Treatment (ACT). The company was founded in 2006 by chairman Hezi Marueli, CEO David Amir, and CTO Eugene Rosenberg, a world-renowned authority in the biological treatment of oil pollution and a professor at Tel Aviv University.

According to Globes, the money will be used by BioPetroClean to set up a sales network and fund several potential BOT projects.

"During the refining process, refineries produce large quantities of water, that they have to treat rather than pumping it out as effluent. We bring the quality of the water to a level that enables them to either pump it back out into the environment or improve its quality through a further treatment process to a level that will enable it to be used for irrigation or in industry," explains BioPetroClean director of business development Yael Barash.

The company's technology is currently being tested in a pilot project at a number of key facilities in Israel and other countries, and Barash gives as examples, two projects now underway in South Africa. One is at a refinery in Durban and the other was a one-time project carried out in cooperation with global energy giants BP and Shell. "We carried out a single cleaning project for them two months ago, and we're now working on the terms of a contract with them for a larger project," adds Barash.

As to the potential financial value of the contracts, Barash notes that at small sites, meaning tanker farms for ports, a project can range from $300,000 to $800,000. A facility at oil refineries and drilling sites, which are considered large sites, will cost $1-3 million. A single service (cleaning an accrued quantity of water at a specified site) will cost around $50,000 to $250,000.

Better Place and Hawaii to partner on electric car project

According to an announcement by Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), the state will partner with Better Place to evaluate "the integration of electric vehicle storage into the electrical grid to maximize renewable energy use."

Hawaii has secured $1.7 million in grants, including a $500,000 grant from the federal Department of Energy, to fund this and other projects to advance the use of renewable energy in the state.

Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr. said, "Our Administration is committed to breaking Hawaii's dependency on imported oil and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through developing clean sources of energy. This public-private partnership will further Hawaii's efforts to modernize our electrical infrastructure and distribution system and help increase the energy security of our state."

This latest development, which has not yet been picked up by the media, would seem to confirm the recent reports, such as this article in Globes, that Better Place is near an agreement with Hawaii.

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Evogene, Orfuel and Leviev Group to establish biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa

Evogene, Orfuel, and the Leviev Group have announced an agreement to establish a biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa.

The new company will be focused on the growth of specialized castor plants for use as feedstock for biodiesel. It will be headquartered in Namibia, with operations in Namibia and possibly other African countries.

Evogene and Orfuel, an Ormat subsidiary, have already been working together since September 2007 on developing non-edible plants for commercial biodiesel production, and the castor plants for the new venture will be selected from varieties being developed in the Evogen-Orfuel collaboration. The collaboration is being funded with a grant from the BIRD Foundation.

Land for the crop growth will come from the Leviev Group, which will also provide logistical infrastructure for the project.

"This collaboration fits well into Evogene's business model in the field of biodiesel, and constitutes an additional stage towards commercialization of the plants developed through the joint project with Orfuel in one of the potential target locations," stated Ofer Haviv, Evogene's president and CEO. "We are convinced that with our extensive capabilities in plants together with the vast experience of the Leviev Group in Africa, we will be able to develop improved feedstock addressing the needs of the alternative fuel industry."

Netafim in negotiations with sugarcane ethanol project in Mozambique

In other news, BioEnergy Africa has raised $15.2 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund development of a 438 million liters per yea sugercane ethanol plant in Mozambique.

The company is in discussions with Tel Aviv, Israel-based Netafim to design, procure, and install a subsurface drip irrigation system for the project’s cane fields. At full capacity, the project will include approximately 60,500 acres of planted sugarcane.

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