CICC Cleantech News

CICC Cleantech Leadership Dinner

Steve Westly, managing partner of The Westly Group and the former California State Controller, and his wife Anita Yu, hosted the first CICC Cleantech leadership dinner on June 19. The leadership dinner gathered distinguished Cleantech corporate leaders and investors from California and Israel, many of whom are already involved in the CICC Cleantech initiative.

Yitz Applbaum, President of the CICC Board and Shuly Galili, the Executive Director, welcomed the attendees and introduced the host. Mr. Westly spoke about the value of enhancing new green technologies in general, and the importance of cooperation between Israel and California on Cleantech in particular. According to Mr. Westly, partnering between Israel and California makes good business sense, engaging the leadership role of California in Cleantech with the breakthrough science and technology capabilities of Israel.

Eric Weiss, the CICC Cleantech Chair, concluded the discussion with a call to action asking the attendees to offer thought leadership for the CICC Cleantech initiative, including providing the program with feedback as industry experts and assisting in establishing appropriate criteria to select the most compelling companies and individuals for the upcoming November Cleantech tour. Attendees then enjoyed spirited and lively informal discussion about the latest technologies and trends in cleantech.





Note from the Editor CICC Cleantech Program Gains Momentum The California Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC) introduced its Cleantech Program and the upcoming Israel Cleantech Tour, currently planned for November 2008 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first Cleantech Steering Committee meeting was held on May 2, 2008 at the offices of CICC Member US Venture Partners in Menlo Park, with representatives from California based venture and banking firms, cleantech companies, and the policy/regulatory community. Sass Somekh, founder of Musea Ventures and former President of Novellus, and Eric Weiss, Chair of the CICC Cleantech Program, presented a detailed background of the Israeli cleantech industry, emphasizing Israel’s unique expertise in water and renewable energy, its renowned research institutes and nearly 400 cleantech companies. The presentations addressed the need for improvements in government policy and regulations, research funding, access to experienced management and marketing, and investor expertise in Cleantech. Many of the nearly 400 companies are still in very early development stages. The Committee agreed on the main goals of the Program, including advancing cleantech corporate partnerships, investments, and technology, as well as promoting general cleantech networking and education among investors, entrepreneurs, companies, and research institutes. Committee participants have so far expressed interest in water, storage, solar, smart grid technology, solid state lighting and demand management. The program will bring Israeli companies to California for a few days in November of 2008, then, in 2009, will bring potential corporate partners and investors to Israel. The planned Program is a multi-year, multi-event program with the Tour being its flagship event for 2008. The Committee will continue to discuss strategy, criteria, and potential company candidates for the Tour in the next meeting scheduled to take place in late June. For more information regarding the CICC Cleantech Initiative and its Steering Committee activities please contact Eric Weiss, Chair, CICC Cleantech Program, at eric@ca-israelchamber.org or CICC Executive Director, Shuly Galili at Shuly@ca-israelchamber.org. To join our Cleantech mailing list please email cleantech@ca-israelchamber.org.

	The CICC is well positioned to help California companies and investors to discover the nearly 500 Israeli cleantech ventures providing innovations related to clean water, green agriculture, pollution control, energy efficiency, renewable energy and other environmental technologies.

CICC Cleantech Leadership Dinner Steve Westly, managing partner of The Westly Group and the former California State Controller, and his wife Anita Yu, hosted the first CICC Cleantech leadership dinner on June 19. The leadership dinner gathered distinguished Cleantech corporate leaders and investors from California and Israel, many of whom are already involved in the CICC Cleantech initiative. Yitz Applbaum, President of the CICC Board and Shuly Galili, the Executive Director, welcomed the attendees and introduced the host. Mr. Westly spoke about the value of enhancing new green technologies in general, and the importance of cooperation between Israel and California on Cleantech in particular. According to Mr. Westly, partnering between Israel and California makes good business sense, engaging the leadership role of California in Cleantech with the breakthrough science and technology capabilities of Israel. Eric Weiss, the CICC Cleantech Chair, concluded the discussion with a call to action asking the attendees to offer thought leadership for the CICC Cleantech initiative, including providing the program with feedback as industry experts and assisting in establishing appropriate criteria to select the most compelling companies and individuals for the upcoming November Cleantech tour. Attendees then enjoyed spirited and lively informal discussion about the latest technologies and trends in cleantech.



Featured Articles

US Assistant Department of Energy Karsner Visits Israel US Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency Alexander Karsner just conducted in May 2008 a high profile visit to Israel. CICC President Isaac Applbaum arranged many of Karsner’s meetings with Israel cleantech companies, government officials, cleantech start-ups and venture capital firms. Included in the tour were leading solar thermal companies Solel and BrightSource, as well as leadership from Project Better Place and experts from premier cleantech research institutions Technion University, Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute. Karsner and Israeli officials signed a number of agreements for energy cooperation between Israel and the U.S., including an agreement with the Director General of Israel's Ministry of National Infrastructure Yehezkel (Hezi) Kugler to further U.S. and Israel cooperation on advanced renewable energy and efficiency technologies, signed on May 21. “The Assistant Secretary was impressed and actively supportive of Israel’s vibrant cleantech community and the opportunity to further strengthen US-Israeli commercial relations to the area of alternative energy and efficiency, ” said Applbaum. More… http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/daily.cfm/hp_news_id=115

With Power Shortages Looming, Israeli Firms Invest in Clean Tech At a lab in Rehovot, the man who developed the Arrow missile is consumed with his next mission: making Israel energy independent by using cheap solar power. Among the other innovations under development in Israel are a gear system that dramatically boosts the efficiency of wind turbines, a device that would reduce gas emissions from trucks, the generation of bio-fuels from desert plants; and various techniques to generate energy from unlikely sources, including seaweed and sewage water. "We can envision systems of $1 per kilowatt for an entire solar system, which is the kind of costs that conventional fossil fuel costs before you start figuring in the costs of fuel they have to burn," said Professor David Faiman, the chairman of the university's solar energy and environmental physics department and director of the National Solar Energy Center. The Israeli founder of an algae fuel company called Green Fuel, Isaac Berzin, who was named by Time magazine as one of its Top 100 people in the world for 2008, says Israel is too small of a country to keep such technology to itself. "Israel should be a catalyst for change," Berzin said. "Israel is a very small market, a very small place in the middle of nowhere, but it has here what it takes in terms of technology, the know-how to change the world."

Israel's En Gibton is Fountain of Youth to Polluted Water Wells Israel21C.org, by Karin Kloosterman, April 10, 2008 Israel's En Gibton, plans on making drinking water cleaner and safer. Developed by scientists at Hebrew University, En Gibton's main product is ClayMix, an environmentally friendly filtration compound made from clay and natural organic materials. The ClayMix attracts negative and neutrally-charged organic and inorganic ions, and locks them away on its microscopic cup-shaped surface. The groundwater, surface water and wastewater treatment solution requires virtually no input of energy. The company claims that it can sequester up to 99 percent of its targeted contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals and fertilizers, versus a 60% success rate in the industry standard carbon-based solution. More...

Solar Energy Hope Floats With Geotectura’s Enegy-Collection Balloons
Green Prophet, by Karin Kloosterman, May 14, 2008
Joseph Cory a designer at Geotectura, has worked with an aerospace engineer, to develop floating solar balloons capable of collecting solar energy in crowded cityscapes and places where large solar panels are not a viable alternative. They hold potential for disaster-stricken areas as well. Filled with helium and coated with a space-age fabric made from photovoltaic solar cells, this project called SunHope is a promising low-cost system that could collect solar energy with less environmental impact than other traditional solar energy solutions. More...

Recent Deals & Investments*

Google joins in $115M investment into solar thermal company, BrightSource BrightSource Energy, a solar thermal startup based in Oakland, California with a technology development subsidiary in Israel, Luz II, has landed a $115 million funding round from investors including Google to develop its solar tower technology. It uses mirrors and lenses to boil water, the steam from which is used to generate electricity. This third round was led by Google.org, VantagePoint Venture Partners, BP Alternative Energy, Statoil Hydro Venture and Black River; returning investors included DBL Investors, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Chevron Technology Ventures. The company has now raised $160 million. The company recently signed a contract with PG&E to supply it with up to 900 megawatts from its plants, whose construction will begin in 2009.

Israel Cleantech Ventures Fund Raises $75 Million Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV), a fund focused on "clean technology", reached a final close of $75 million for its debut fund, exceeding its original target of $60 million. ICV was established to provide growth capital to entrepreneurs in Israel's energy, water and environmental sectors. The fund is backed by institutional investors and family funds in Europe, the United States and Israel, including Netherlands-based asset manager Robeco Private Equity and U.S.-based financial institution Piper Jaffray. The fund has made seven investments to date: Aqwise (waste water treatment), CellEra (fuel cells), Citrine Renewable Energy (landfill biogas treatment), Emefcy (energy production from wastewater), Metrolight (energy efficient lighting), Project Better Place (electric vehicle infrastructure), and Pythagoras Solar (solar energy).

Wind Turbine Start-Up TechnoSpin Raises $8m Cleantech start-up TechnoSpin Wind Corp. has raised $8 million from US venture capital fund 21 Ventures LLC. The company produces lower cost turbine gears and rotors that can be assembled anywhere in the world and is currently negotiating a number of sales agreements with overseas customers.

Solel Heats Up with $140M Solar Plant Israeli solar-thermal developer Solel said Wednesday it's spending $140 million to build a manufacturing facility in southern Spain. The plant will produce parts used in the construction of solar-thermal fields, including parabolic trough collectors. Solel said the new plant would allow it to expand another part of its business - supplying equipment to customers building their own solar fields. The company said the Spanish manufacturing plant would start production next year and fully ramp up by 2011. In July, the company also signed an agreement to sell electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric. More...http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/solel-heats-up-with-140m-solar-plant-760.html

Israel Group Gets Financing for Desalination Plant The H2ID group said on Thursday it has completed an agreement to receive 1.5 billion shekels ($450 million) in financing for a desalination plant in Israel from a consortium of foreign banks. The European Investment Bank will provide 50 percent of the financing, while Calyon, the investment banking arm of French bank Credit Agricole, and Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo will split the rest. The desalination plant, to be built in the coastal town of Hadera, will provide 100 million cubic metres of drinking water a year at a cost of 2.56 shekels per cubic meter. More… http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=2119

Global Perspectives*

Credit Crunch Bites Clean Tech EnergyBizInsider, April 28, 2008 The credit crunch has taken a bite out of the clean tech sector. Clean energy investments made in the first quarter of 2007 totaled $3.7 billion, says New Energy Finance. But the same group attracted only $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2008. Despite the critical situation, the industry is expected to go on to prosper. With the right mix of policies and investors, Clean Edge research says that the industry will develop over the long term. Wind power investment is projected to expand from $30.1 billion in 2007 to $83.4 billion in 2017 while solar photovoltaic energy installations are expected to grow from a $20.3 billion industry in 2007 to $74 billion by 2017. *More*…http://www.energycentral.com/site/newsletters/ebi.cfm?id=499

Iberdrola Commits $8B Investment to U.S. Cleantech Sector Spanish utility and renewable heavyweight Iberdrola has revealed that it will invest a hefty $8 billion in the American cleantech sector over the next 3 years. Though it plans on focusing most of its investment activities in the U.S.’s burgeoning wind sector, it also hopes to gain a foothold in the country’s other clean energy markets. The privately-held firm, the world’s biggest wind developer, owns farms in New York, California and Oregon with an aggregate installed capacity of 2,400 megawatts. Iberdrola’s ambitious move will likely ratchet up the competition in the wind market. *More*…http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/19/iberdrola-pledges-8b-investment-in-us-cleantech-sector/

* Compiled from Red Herring, VentureBeat, Reuters, Globes and San Jose Business Journal

Events Roundup

Al Gore says Israel should lead the way in renewable energy Speaking at Tel Aviv University's Renewable Energy Conference on Tuesday, former U.S. vice president Al Gore, called on Israel to take the lead in the development of renewable energy sources. Gore praised Israel for irrigating its desert landscape. But he warned against decreasing water levels in the region's lakes and rivers. The Dan David Foundation awarded him its annual prize for alerting the world to the crisis caused by overuse of fossil fuels. *More…* http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/985063.html

Tel Aviv University Displays its Cleantech Potential Israel can become the "green" capital of the world according to experts at the Environment 2020 conference in Israel this month. A showcase of20 different clean technology solutions nurtured at the university included technology to use UV radiation to eradicate prescription drugs from our drinking water, Other projects available for commercialization included technology for more efficient wind turbines, pollutant detection, soil remediation and biofuels. More… http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2079&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology

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. More… http://cleantech-israel.blogspot.com/2008/06/america-israel-green-buildings.html and http://aicci.net/recursos/AICCIConference.pdf
Science Trends

Clean Synthetic Fuels from Water and Carbon Dioxide; a New Trend in Clean Tech By Michal Vakrat Wolkin, PhD With the recent rise in oil prices, the decline in oil reserves and the need to improve air quality, clean synthetic fuels hold exciting new promises an alternative fuel source for transportation. Clean synthetic fuels are carbon-neutral and sulfur-free. They are synthesized from the most abundant and inexpensive materials; water and carbon dioxide. In contrast to hydrogen, which has also been suggested as a clean fuel, synthetic fuels such as methanol or ethanol can easily be handled and stored using existing infrastructure. They are also distinguished from bio-fuels which require large agricultural land and have recently been contributing to skyrocketing world food prices. Scientists, governments and a growing number of young companies are now looking into carbon neutral synthetic fuel technologies. With innovative material science and novel renewable technologies, synthetic gas can become cost effective and may help stabilize rising energy prices. To synthesize these fuels, a source of carbon dioxide is required. This can potentially be extracted from air, thus slowing down global warming. A recent report from the Department of Energy on greenhouse gas emission predicts that by 2100 fossil fuels will remain the major energy source supplying 70%-80% of the world energy and global carbon dioxide emissions will consequently triple resulting in accelerated global warming. One of the proposed mitigation strategies is capturing excess carbon dioxide which can potentially be used as a source for clean fuel production. A recent economic analysis evaluated by Green Freedom, a spin out company from Los Alamos National Lab, predicts a price of $4.60/gallon for clean synthetic gasoline at the pump. The calculation assumes nuclear as the carbon neutral power source for hydrogen production required for the fuel production reaction. The company has developed a new electrolytic scrubbing process for carbon dioxide removal from air with supplemental hydrogen production unit that is based on steam water electrolysis. Several seed staged Israeli start ups are also working in this promising new area. Dr. Michal Vakrat Wolkin is an independent consultant evaluating clean tech related technologies for companies and venture funds and is a Science Advisor to the CICC Cleantech Program. Her main focus is around transforming innovative renewable energy technologies from ideas into working prototypes. She was previously a leading scientist at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) developing technologies for PARC’s Cleantech Research Program. Vakrat-Wolkin has a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Rochester and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Technion University in Israel and can be reached at Michal@Vakrat.com

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