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Israel's Renewable Energy Sector
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תוכן The Israeli technological capabilities are known throughout the world as one of the most innovative and advanced. Thanks to a thriving Hi-tech community and a strong academia, Israel is considered a world leader in innovation and technological breakthroughs.
One sector that exemplifies those characteristics is the renewable energy sector. Israel was one of the first countries to adopt solar technolgies back in the 70's and these days is pioneering the use of electric cars as well as many others fields.
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פסקה 1 The Israeli technological companies develop various solutions in all sub fields of the sector: wind, solar-thermal, PV, smart grid, energy efficiency and biofules. To date, there are 200 renewable energy companies, about 30% of which are strat-ups.
As the world's energy demand is constantly growing and the desire of most nations to improve their utilization of existing energy sources, find alternative energy sources and promote new technology, Israel is turning to countries around the world to propose collaboration on the transfer of information of existing technologies, the development of new technologies and the preparation of national and possibly international standardization, at a later date, in this field
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Technologies existing in the Israeli energy market: |
פסקה 2
- Wind/Turbine – the production of electricity from from wind energy is being done when the kinetic energy of the air is converted to mechanical energy. The circular movement of the rotor of the turbine is being converted into an electrical energy using a generator. A single turbine can produce up to 4MW.
- Photovoltaic - Photovoltaics (PV) is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels comprising a number of cells containing a photovoltaic material.
- Energy Corps
- Biomass & BioGas – a renewable energy source, which is a biological material from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels. Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce heat. There are 3 main technologies to produce biomass & biogas energy: waste burning, fermentation, and gasification.
- Energy Efficiency – reduction of energy consumption by storing energy, managing energy usage, producing energy efficient products, preventing energy losses on the grid, etc.
For a partial list of Israeli companies in the Cleantech sector, please visit our company directory |
Rebewable Energy R&D Platforms |
פסקה 3 Industrial R&D
The Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor is responsible for implementing the government's policy of encouraging and supporting industrial research and development in Israel through the Law for the Encouragement of Industrial R&D. The OCS provides a variety of support programs that operate on an annual budget of about US $300 million. This is spent on about 1,000 projects undertaken by 500 companies. These programs have helped make Israel a major center of hi-tech entrepreneurship.
The main OCS program (the R&D Fund) supports R&D projects of Israeli companies by offering conditional grants of up to 50% of the approved R&D expenditure.
Magnet - Technological Infrastructure for the Industry
The MAGNET program is intended to provide a competitive position for Israel’s industry with regard to state of the art technologies of worldwide interest. The new technologies are to be developed in a cooperative venture between the industry and leading academic scientific research in the area and they will provide the basis for new high-tech products and processes. Information about the program's different tracks and website - www.magnet.org.il
The Tnufa program is designed to encourage and support an individual entrepreneur in his initial efforts to build a prototype, register a patent, design a business plan etc. Grants are up to 85% of the approved expenses for a maximum of $50,000 for each project
The Magneton and Noffar programs are designed to support applied academic research in all areas and especially in biotechnology and nanotechnology in order to promote the transfer of the technology to the industry. Grants are up to 66% and 90% of the approved expenses respectively.
The Incubators Program
Technological incubators are support corporations that give fledgling entrepreneurs an opportunity to develop their innovative technological ideas and set up new businesses in order to commercialize them. The incubator program is applied in all parts of the country, under the guidance and with the support of the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Project Examples:
Novel & 'Green' Electrical Power Distribution Equipment Environmentally friendly process for solvent-recovery and production of high-quality bio-fuel mass-production of cost effective photovoltaic cells on rolls of flexible polymer. mCHP - micro Combined Heat and Power for single family residences systems, based on an innovative micro Gas Turbine high-power LED lighting solutions based on unique heat dissipation technology
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The Renewable Energy R&D Center |
פסקה 4 The Center will focus on entrepreneurship of renewable energy solutions. Its objective will be to enable entrepreneurs to develop renewable energy R&D projects, and bring them to advanced stages of testing, and ultimately, to marketability and export.
The center will is lead by a consortium. This consortium is a joint venture between academia, industry and finance companies, in a model to be designed by the partners. Projects to be developed, will be selected by the Center and a committee headed by the Office of the Chief Scientist. The government’s role will be to provide matching financing, and help create the cooperation between academia, industry and the Center.
The following type of activities are planned to be performed within the framework of the technology center:
Stage 2 – From ideas to investment opportunities: The advancement of projects, from the feasibility proof phase to the fund raising phase. This stage will include the creation of a prototype product, functioning in a laboratory environment.
Stage 3 - On-site testing: Preparation and operation of sites for experimentation, demonstration, and proof of technological feasibility. This stage will include implementation of an advanced stage of the product at the Center where it will perform as a beta-site. At this stage potential customers will be able to review the working product.
The center will be able to host at least eight projects, each of which will be led by project companies, private companies established within the framework of the Technology Center. In addition, the Center may support or sell services to industrial R&D projects other than those projects that are supported under this Directive, without taking any part in the intellectual property ownership or the shares of the supported company. The teder for the Center is already over and the winner was a consortcium of companies and academia. The consortcium is led by the Eilat-Eilot initiative. We are inviting who ever is interested to be part of the center once it will be established.
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Academia |
פסקה 5 The Israel Tech Transfer Organization (ITTN) serves as the umbrella organization for Israel’s technology transfer companies. These companies are affiliated with the country’s world-renowned universities and research institutions.
Currently, the 12 partnering organizations comprise the shareholders. ITTN intends to add more members from Israel’s government-owned medical centers and research institutions.
The Partnering Organizations
ITTN’s partners are affiliated with some of the world’s leading educational and research institutions.
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Renewable Energy Inegration in Israel's Electricity Production |
פסקה 6 According to decision 4450 of the Israeli government, the renewable energy production should consist of 10% of the total energy production by the year 2020. According to this decision, renewable energy is defined as an energy that is sourced by the sun, wind, bio-gas, bio-mass or any other non-perishable source. The goal is to reach a production of 6.43 TWH by 2020. A policy paper published on February 2010 by the Ministry of National Infrastructures, describes the steps towards full implementation of renewable energies in Israel. The strategic plan sets a target of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2020, with an interim target of 5% by 2014. An economic allocation model distinguishes between the different technologies, and sets different capacities according to the economic indicators.
The main elements of the program are:
Seeking and developing manufacturing clusters - Concentrating various producers in a continuous chain, will decrease the impact on nature, and ease on electricity conduction. Electricity production using wind technologies - the profitability of electricity production using wind technologies is higher than other forms of renewable energy. The plan is to learn the wind regime in Israel in order to use this technology efficiently. Biogas and Biomass – bio technologies are extremely important in the process of achieving the production rate by 2020. Both gasification technologies and waste burning has some advantages in the short run: high energy efficiency, land efficiency and transportation costs reduction. There will be a 25% tax reduction for production facilities in purification centers and landfills due to their high cost of establishment. Israeli employment – the various production companies will be required to employ 100% local Israeli manpower. Different financial benefits – Direct tax benefits such as company tax and dividends will be declared, as well as an adujtment to the law of capital investment encouragement. Tariff – Feed in tariff is one of the most important ingredients in the success of the government decision. It can serve as a tool to encourage investors to invest in the market and can help with imporving the efficiency of the production facilities. The tariffs will be deternmined by the electricity authority. The cost of the renewable energy technologies integration (approximately 2$ billion) will be based on an increase in the electricity tariffs for all consumers. It is assessed that the raise in the electricity tariff between the years 2010-2020 will be 18%.
There are two national plans that take decision 4450 into action:
Oil Alternative Plan – a NIS 2 billion, 10 year program that porposes to invest 200m NIS a year in financing R&D and companies involved in creating alternatives for oil. The main goal is to replace gasoline and diesel, since 60% of oil is used for transportation. Israel has three major reasons to reduce it's dependency on oil: foreign oil is produced largely by countries that do not have cordial relations with Israel – some of which even fund terrorist activity against it. transportation is responsible for about 40% of greenhouse gases, and massive amounts of air pollution, which adversely affect the health of many of the country’s residents. buying foreign oil is expensive and expected to become even more so over the next 20 years as the easily available oil gets used up. The program would offer tax breaks, encourage international partnerships and will offer a prize (awarded by the president) of NIS 2m for cutting edge technologies.
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan - The decision comes within the framework of Israel's preparations for combating climate change and in order to implement the emission reduction targets which were set by Israel in the Copenhagen Climate Change Convention in December 2009 (20% reduction relative to the "business as usual" scenario in 2020). The NIS 2.2 billion plan will focus on energy efficiency, green building and the economic aspects of the subject and their impacts on Israel's industry and export. Main points of the government decision: Estimated investment of 1.2 billion shekels to promote the scrapping of refrigerators and air conditioners in 2011 - 2020, of which 269 million shekels will be invested in 2011 - 2012. Allocation of 626 million shekels by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2011-2020, of which 114 million shekels will be allocated in 2011-2012, to support investments targeted at the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial, commercial and public sectors. Investment of 39 million shekels to promote pioneer projects for new and existing green building. This will include a building survey, with an emphasis on public buildings in Israel, aimed at advancing green building which will save energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a joint experimental project by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Construction and Housing will be implemented which will see the energetic insulation of a neighborhood within the framework of Project Renewal. Investment of 46 million shekels in education and information projects to increase awareness and promote behavioral changes in the public for the purpose of electricity savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the coming two years. Investment of 40 million shekels in the integration of innovative Israeli technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming two years. The Minister of Environmental Protection was granted powers to oversee the implementation of the necessary steps by all ministries. The Minister of Infrastructure will promote regulations to improve the energy efficiency of electrical appliances. The Public Utilities Authority - Electricity will improve the smart meter system which allows a split in electricity tariffs between day and night so that includes additional small consumers. The Minister of Finance will introduce taxation to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, especially as in relation to motor vehicles.
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