Cleaner Energy Protects The Environment
Israel's energy sector has developed innovative technologies in a range of areas including solar generated electricity, wind turbines and bioconversion. These technologies also play an important role in preserving a cleaner environment.
Since Israel’s establishment in 1948 the country has sought to exploit the vast store of renewable clean energy, which is available in the sun. Israel is a world leader in the development and utilization of this technology. In the 1980’s Israeli scientists and engineers at a Jerusalem based company called Luz designed the world's largest solar power stations in Southern California. But Luz was eventually defeated by low oil prices.
However, today with oil prices once again high, Solel Solar Systems has emerged as a global leader in solar thermal central power station generation. Solel's solutions have set the global standard for utility solar plants as well as high temperature collectors. The Solel parabolic trough thermal technology has proven itself over the last twenty years with the continuous production of utility scale power in California's Mojave Desert.
While there are many varieties of solar power, the most proven and economically feasible are the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) based on Solel technology. The nine SEGS operating successfully in the Mojave Desert in the US produce 350 MW of electricity for 500,000 consumers and reduce the demand for oil by two million barrels annually. Solel also manufactures solar powered process heating and air conditioning systems and residential water heating hot water systems.
In fact most Israeli homes have used solar heaters for warming their water and for many years government regulations have mandated the installation of such heaters in new houses. It is estimated that more than 85% of Israeli homes have such rooftop water heaters. Chromagen is the country’s leader in this sector with a range of thermo-tanks from 30 to 300 liters capacity linked to solar collector panels. The company produces large systems, which are suitable for hotels, hospitals, senior citizens homes, swimming pools and other commercial uses.
Millennium Electric T.O.U. has also developed cost effective solar solutions by integrating photovoltaics with thermal solar elements, forming comprehensive renewable energy systems, managing electricity, human ecosystems, energy storage, grid or off-grid applications. Applications include isolated and remote houses in rural areas, street lighting, computerized irrigation, communications and more.
These companies are the fruit of the extensive amount of solar energy research conducted in Israel. Solar energy R&D is carried out at the Solar Tower at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev's Solar Energy Research Center. The Israeli government continues to promote renewable energy sources in order to decrease energy-related pollution. The Ministry of National Infrastructures offers technical consulting, supports educational programs and initiate legislation to protect the environment and encourage energy conservation and greater use of renewable energy sources. Financial support is provided to energy conservation projects. The Ministry recently supported the installation of central control systems in the water pumping sector which results in lower pumping costs and better utilization of available water. Wind energy utilization is also under continuous development. The first wind farm was commissioned during 1992 and wind surveys have identified other viable sites.
Elspec is a world leader in wind turbine generators. The company has developed the EQUALIZER-W, which is specifically engineered for the wind energy market, and features communication protocols that match its controller to the algorithms of leading wind turbine manufacturers worldwide.
Israeli companies are also global leaders in bioconversion. Through unique and cost effective hydro mechanical and biological techniques, Arrow Ecology produces methane from municipal solid waste. The company’s experts have developed a unique system for the treatment of unsorted municipal solid waste. This system utilizes unique biological sub-systems to reduce the initial weight of the waste by more than 90 % while producing a valuable and clean energy source in the form of biogas and Fertilizer for agriculture. Metals, plastics and glass are automatically recovered from the waste before the biological treatment and sent for recycling.
Environmental Energy Resources develops and operates coat-effective plasma based thermal treatment technology for environmentally-friendly solid waste management solutions, which are ideal for the treatment of municipal solid waste, medical waste, low and medium level radioactive waste, effluent sludge and industrial waste.
Israel has also had major success in generating energy from underwater geothermal water using turbines. This is not strictly speaking a "renewable" source as Israel's very limited reserves of underground geo-thermal water do not replenish themselves, but there are vast reserves of such geo-thermal waters worldwide and therefore such technologies can have great relevance, especially in the developing world. Ormat Industries has been successful in developing, building and operating power stations from geothermal resources.
The company also specializes in recovered energy power generation (REG) which involves capturing unused residual heat from industrial processes and converting it into electricity that can be sold to power purchasers or used on site without any additional fuel consumption and with zero emission. Another area of expertise is Remote Power Units based on Ormat’s Energy Converter (OEC), which is a Closed Cycle Vapor Turbogenerator (CCVT) using an organic motive fluid and operating following the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC).
Israel has clearly demonstrated its ability to make optimal use of both traditional and innovative renewable energy sources as it has transformed itself from a developing to developed country.