$6 M. Flows to Joint Israel-US Clean Energy Projects

The total value of the approved projects is $12.4 million in the areas of solar, microgrid, storage and energy efficiency.

By: Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C

Seven joint clean-energy projects between Israeli and American companies will receive $6 million under the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program of the BIRD Foundation.

The projects were selected by the US Department of Energy and Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Israel Innovation Authority for their potential to help both countries.

Beam Semiconductor (Rehovot, Israel) and BannerSolar (Eagle, Idaho) will develop a 60 GHz active phased array module for wireless gigabit applications with autonomous solar power supply and storage.

Brightmerge (Jerusalem, Israel) and Introspective Systems (Portland, Maine), will develop and test dynamic grid pricing with edge load responsive device control.

mPrest Systems (Petah Tikva, Israel) and Southern Company (Atlanta, Georgia), will develop integrated primary and secondary volt VAR control and conservation voltage reduction for the distributed grid.

Nostromo (Even Yehuda, Israel) and Centrica Business Solutions US (Bellevue, Washington), will develop IceBrick — shifting the electricity grid’s peak demand using disruptive ice-battery technology.

OneOPI (Herzliya, Israel) and Presidio (Albany, New York) will develop an automated simulation system and service for intelligent microgrid systems.

Razor Labs (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Exacter (Columbus, Ohio) will develop an AI based grid resiliency forecasting system.

Technion Research and Development Foundation (Haifa, Israel) and Primus Power (Hayward, California) will develop a high energy density grid-scale storage battery.

BIRD Energy began in 2009 as a result of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Since then, BIRD Energy has funded 43 projects, with a total investment of about $34 million, including the above seven selected projects valued at $12.4 million.

“The Department of Energy continues its strong support for collaborative research with Israel through the BIRD Energy program,” said Rick Perry, US Secretary of Energy. “The program brings together the brightest minds from innovative companies and institutes to develop and commercialize new energy technologies that deliver tangible economic benefits to both countries.”