Cleantech is Alive & Well in Philly

Photo by Ed Yakovich

If last week's events are any indication, cleantech is alive and well and living in Philadelphia.

The 2nd annual US-Israel Cleantech Conference, hosted by the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce, last Tuesday featured 11 companies from Israel, along with panels representing local companies and venture capital, and provided robust international dialog, as well as a showcase for innovation.

IMPACT 2010, formerly the MAC Alliance Conference, hosted its second cleantech track (full disclosure: I was part of the selection committee) during which 15 companies pitched their wares.  The quality of the presentations was indicative of the maturing of the sector in the region, as was the variety of presenting companies.

Everything from organic fertilizer to wireless electric vehicle charging, and from wastewater geothermal heat and cooling to a large scale water filtration system was represented, all from the Mid-Atlantic region.

I'll be posting more about the two conferences this week, as some of the panels and speakers were particularly informative.

Top 10 Reasons Israel is a Cleantech Leader

David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images

Here at The Green Skeptic we've been following the progress of cleantech in Israel for some time.

There are many reasons Israel has been an innovator, including, in part, because it has to be. Now, Sustainable World Capital's Shawn Lesser highlights the history of innovation, access to capital, scarce resources and other factors propelling cleantech today in Israel.

Here are the Top 10 Reasons Israel is a cleantech leader:

1. Israel is the Silicon Valley of water. Relative to its small size, Israel has devoted more resources to the development of waste water treatment and reclamation than any other country in the world. Seventy percent of its waste water is recycled, three times the figure of number two: Spain. Israel is the birthplace and world leader in drip irrigation, which has literally turned deserts into farmlands. The Israeli firm Netafim, a $500 million high-tech drip-irrigation giant, is a world leader in smart irrigation technology and has been credited with starting the drip irrigation revolution. Israel Newtech, which promotes Israeli clean energy and water technologies, has identified hundreds of water companies. It’s estimated that Israel’s water industry was valued at $1.4 billion in 2008 and could reach $2.5 billion by 2011.

2. Brain trust. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to population in the world. Within its small borders is an enormous concentration of PhDs and engineers, bolstered in large part by the large immigration from the former Soviet Union. This concentration of minds in a relatively small geographical space creates a country-wide incubator where ideas are constantly tested in the coffee shops of Tel-Aviv and the hallways of universities. 

3. Necessity as the mother of innovation. Due to its location and terrain, Israel is a country that has had extremely limited natural resources since its inception. Israelis have therefore become experts at getting the most out of limited natural resources. Confronting adversity has trained Israelis to think outside of the box. “Israel is poor in natural resources and rich in brain capital. Clean energy bridges that gap. What Israel lacks in the ground it makes up with its people,” says David Anthony from 21 Ventures.

4. Leveraging tech expertise to cleantech. “Israel’s tech sector has flourished through the creation of core technology competencies that are world leading,” as Glen Schwaber, Partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures, wrote in his article “The Quest for Smarts.”

“Israel’s tech sector has flourished through the creation of core technology competencies that are world leading,” according to Schwaber. These include, but are not limited to digital printing, semiconductors, power electronics, optics and software. Over the last two decades, multiple billions of VC dollars have poured into Israeli companies in these sectors, market leaders have emerged, and many of the world’s largest multinationals have bought companies and set up shop in Israel as a result.” 

5. Capital. Just about every major US VC firm in Silicon Valley, from Battery Ventures to Greylock to USVP to Sequoia Capital, is prospecting across Israel for cleantech investments. All told, at least 40 venture funds, several of them American, manage more than $10 billion in Israel, with an increasing share of their allocations devoted to cleantech companies. 

6. The Better Place Factor. Better Place is Israel’s best known cleantech company, and it recently raised a further $350 million (see Better Place deal bested by Airtricity). Founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, the company is developing electric vehicle battery swapping infrastructure. 

7. The sun shines brightly over Israel. The solar radiation Israel receives is a driver of solar thermal companies. Siemens bought Israeli solar thermal pioneer Solel for $418 million, while BrightSource Energy has raised more than $160 million from investors, including U.S.-based VantagePoint Venture Partners, Google, BP’s investment arm, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase. Other notable solar thermal companies include Heliofocus, ZenithSolar, and AORA. 

8. Kibbutz Pioneers. The foundation of Israel’s cleantech industry was laid with the beginning of the kibbutz (collective communities) movement at the start of the 20th century (see Israel’s cleantech kibbutzim pioneers). At that time, the land was mostly semi-arid, with a scarcity of water and pockmarked by mosquito infested swamps, so principles of sustainability and self-sufficiency were adopted from the outset so as to “make the desert bloom”. 

9. Home grown Israeli VC community. Israel has a vibrant local VC community which includes Israel Cleantech Ventures, AquaAgro and Terra Ventures—three firms dedicated to investing in Israel’s cleantech sector. Having a vibrant local VC community also draws foreign money.

10. Momentum. Israel is fast becoming the cleantech incubator to the world. In proportion to its population, it now has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world except the U.S., with 3,500 companies, mostly in hi-tech. Exciting new cleantech startups to keep an eye on, in our opinion, that haven’t been mentioned already include Bio Pure Technology, BioPetroClean, CellEra, Emefcy, Enstorage, Greenlet Technologies, GreenRoad, GreenSun Energy, IQ Wind, Linum, Panoramic Power, Phoebus Energy, SolarEdge, Takadu, Technospin, Transalgae and Variable Wind Solutions.

As Al Gore siad in a recent visit to Israel, “the people of Israel can lead the way to renewable energy. With its unique geographical position, and cleantech know how, Israel is a natural leader in the field.”

Cleantech could well become Israel’s biggest export market. Other countries should take note.

Israeli Companies Pitch at US-Israel Cleantech Conference

More than a dozen Israeli companies pitched at today's US-Israel Cleantech Conference at the University of Pennsylvania.

The companies promoting their renewable energy and other green technologies were joined by business leaders, investors, and government agency representative from Greater Philadelphia who shared keys to business development in the region and the state.

The conference, part of a three-day tour of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey for the companies, was organized by the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce and was designed to give exposure to some of the best new start-ups in Israel.

"The high tech sector took 15 years to develop in Israel," said Hillel Milo, Managing Partner of AquAgroFund, which at $100M US is one of the largest venture capital firms in the cleantech sector in Israel. "I have a feeling we will have a robust cleantech sector in five years."

If the companies featured today are any example Israel is on its way.

Of particular interest were several companies developing small-scale alternative technologies, especially solar and wind, for the distributed energy market. As expected, there was a high concentration on solar and wind solutions. Among the noteworthy companies:

AORA is developing community-scale solar thermal power stations that are 100kw in size, enabling an off-grid option for remote communities. (See photo above.)

Variable Wind Solutions, which has developed a voltage regulation system that improves wind turbine performance and efficiency in low, high, and variable-speed winds and connecting small wind turbines to the power grid.

TransBiodiesel, which has developed an enzymatic biocatalyst that can replace corrosive alkaline and acid catalysts in biodiesel production from plant oils, animal fats, and recycled greases.

And finally, Cequesta Water, which has developed low-cost technologies for recycling gray water at the domestic, multiunit dwelling, and large resort scales.

Notable Pennsylvania-based presenters and panelists included Audrey Zibelman of Viridity Energy, Gary Feldman of Lockheed Martin, Brian Yerger of AERCA Advisors, Jay Goldman of Exelon, Mark DeGrandpre of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Joyce Ferris of Blue Hill Partners.

Curtis Gregory from the Philadelphia Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor, also addressed the audience.