Better Place partners with 19 Israeli companies

Better Place announced that it has signed cooperation agreements with 19 Israeli companies to test the suitability of its electric vehicles for these companies fleets.

In this first stage of Better Place's plant to build a nationwide infrastructure for electric vehicles, Better Place will design charge spots for the companies' electric cars and install them at the companies' parking lots and employees' homes. It will also work with the companies' managers and employees in the design and deployment of the infrastructure in order to optimize and customize them to the needs of each company.



Moshe Kaplinsky, CEO of Better Place Israel, said, "Leading Israeli companies understand the strategic importance of meeting one of the greatest challenges now facing us: our dependence on oil and its effect on our economy, environment, and security. "

Better Place CEO Shai Agassi added, "We are today seeing the certification that there is real market demand for electric cars that will use Better Place's grid. We expect demand to grow as Israeli companies join in the vision, as well as in other countries, which together represent a potential global market of 50 million cars. We see today the tip of the iceberg of global demand."

The participating companies are from the hi-tech, pharmaceuticals, finance and manufacturing sectors. They include Israel Corp, which has invested over $100 million in Better Place, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Pelephone Communications Ltd., Partner Communications Ltd., Matrix IT Ltd., Direct Insurance - Financial Investments Ltd., Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Netafim Ltd., Keter Plastics Ltd., Orbotech Ltd., juice maker Jafora Tabori Ltd., Manpower Israel Ltd., SQlink Ltd., Nike Israel Ltd., and Glasshouse Technologies Ltd.

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Israel sets feed-in tariff for wind power

The Public Utilities Authority (Electricity) has announced the details of a feed-in tariff for small wind turbines, similar to the solar photovoltaic feed-in tariff established in 2008. Consumers will now be able to generate their own electricity using wind turbines and sell the surplus back to the national grid.

The maximum output of a domestic wind turbine will be set at 15 kilowatts, and the maximum output of a commercial and industrial user's wind turbines will be set at 50 kilowatts.

The Public Utilities Authority has established two rates for wind-generated electricity: NIS 1.60 per kilowatt/hour for small turbines up to 10 kilowatts of output, and NIS 1.25 per kilowatt/hour for small turbines of 10-50 kilowatts of output. These rates will be reduced by 2% a year.

The Public Utilities Authority set two rates for wind-generated electricity: NIS 1.60 (~$0.40) per kilowatt/hour for small turbines up to 10 kilowatts of output, and NIS 1.25 (~$0.30) per kilowatt/hour for small turbines of 10-50 kilowatts of output. These rates will be reduced by 2% a year. The total quota is 30 megawatts through 2016.

By comparison, the solar PV feed-in tariff is NIS 2.01 per kilowatt/hour with a quota of 50 megawatts through 2015.

This is good news for companies like SOVNA (formerly ALT E), which is currently setting up "urban wind farms" in Tel Aviv. It may also provide a domestic market for innovative small wind turbine companies such as Technospin, Coriolis Wind, Leviathan Energy, and Variable Wind Solutions.

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Arison plans private solar thermal power plant in Negev

Arison Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Housing and Construction Holding Co. Ltd. (Shikun u'Binui) plans to build a large solar power plant in the Negev, costing $400-500 million, according to a report in "Globes".

The solar thermal power plant would reportedly generate at least 100 megawatts of electricity on a 3,500-dunam (875-acre) site. If constructed, it will be Israel's largest privately owned solar power station.

Shikun u'Binui is also participating in two government tenders for the construction of solar thermal and photovoltaic power plants at Ashalim in the Negev. Shikun u'Binui is partnering with Solel and Bateman Litwin NV in the tender for the solar thermal power plant, and partnering with Spain's Elecnor SA in the tender for the photovoltaic power plant.

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Ormat commissions first two facilities of OREG 2 project in North Dakota

Ormat Technologies, Inc., the NYSE-listed U.S. subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat, announced that two of the four facilities in the OREG 2 Recovered Energy Generation (REG) project reached commercial operation in December 2008 and January 2009.

The OREG 2 project is Ormat‘s second REG project located along the Northern Border natural gas pipeline in North Dakota, United States. The project consists of four power plants that will have a net capacity of 5.5 MW each and will convert the recovered waste heat from the exhaust of existing gas turbines at compressor sites into electricity. The remaining two facilities are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009.

"We are very happy to bring additional power through the use of recovered energy generation technology and contribute to the important goal of emission reduction” said Dita Bronicki, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat.

The output supplied from the two facilities will be sold to Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC) of Bismarck, North Dakota and will bring the total owned generating capacity of Ormat's REG portfolio to 33 MW.

The ORMAT^® REG facilities consist of ORMAT^® ENERGY CONVERTERS (OEC) based on Organic Rankine Cycle technology, which converts recovered heat to electric power without the need for any additional fuel or water. The OEC units are environmentally benign, according to Ormat, as they have no emissions of CO₂ or NOX.

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Daniel Jammer establishes €250m cleantech fund

Daniel Jammer, a German Jewish businessman and the owner of the Maccabi Netanya soccer club, has told "Globes" that he has set up a €250 million fund to invest in cleantech.

Jammer, who is attending the Eilat Energy Conference, says that the new fund will focus on three areas of activity: developing batteries for electric vehicles; producing jet fuel from biodiesel; and wind and solar energy.

Jammer said, "I have already held one meeting with Better Place and I recently met with Yom Tov Samia, the CEO of IC Green Energy, [Israel Corp's cleantech investment vehicle]. I hope that we will be able to cooperate in the future."

Jammer said that the new fund's investors include the German insurance, banking and asset management company Allianz and Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd.

Jammer said that the €250 milion has already been raised and the fund is now examining its first investments. Discussing the solar energy sector, Jammer said, "There are two or three companies that are very interesting for us. We have not yet decided whether to join them as strategic partners or financial investors."

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BrightSource Energy and SCE sign 1.3 GW solar thermal deal

BrightSource Energy has signed a contract with Southern California Edison (SCE) to supply 1,300 megawatts of solar thermal power, enough to serve nearly 845,000 homes. This is the largest solar deal ever announced.

BrightSource will develop seven solar facilities for SCE under terms of the deal. The first 100-megawatt plant, to be built at BrightSource's Ivanpah complex in the Mojave Desert, is due to come online in early 2013.

In total, BrightSource now has 4.2 GW of solar sites under development.

BrightSource did not disclose the size of the new contract or the cost of building these solar thermal plants.

BrightSource CEO John Woolard revealed earlier this month at the World Economic Forum that the company's existing projects may be delayed because of difficulties in obtaining project financing.

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Helioris Solar partners with Rotem Industries on solar thermal R&D

Helioris Solar Systems, a stealthy cleantech startup, is working with the Rotem Renewable Energy Center on an innovative patent-pending topology for solar thermal fields.

The proposed topology apparently combines the benefits of parabolic trough systems, employed by companies such as Solel, and tower systems used by companies such as BrightSource Energy. According to a report by Rotem Industries, the Helioris Solar approach allows the use of dual-axis tracking heliostats and small aperture thermal receivers, thereby increasing optical and thermal efficiency while maintaining a modular scheme of the solar field.

The founders of Helioris Solar are Yossi Yatir and Oded Mor. Yossi Yatir, according to his LinkedIn profile, is an Entrepreneur in Residence at cleantech incubator Precede Technologies, and Yatir and Mor worked together at Chromatis Networks in the late 1990s.

The report notes that Yatir and Mor have filed a provisional patent for their solar topology and an innovative solar thermal receiver, which will be designed by Rotem Industries.

Rotem revives development of high temperature solar receiver

In a possibly related development, Rotem Industries has also announced that it is reviving the development of a volumetric central air receiver for utilization of solar thermal power.

The technology was originally developed as part of a joint project between Rotem Industries, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Ormat in the early 1990s.

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