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The energy to change – insights from Eilat-Eilot conference

I’ve spent three sunlit days last week in Eilat-Eilot 3rd International Renewable Energy Conference & Exhibition. Over 2,000 visitors from around the globe flocked to one of the sunniest places on Earth, including Israeli and foreign ministers, European and US renewables policy makers, PV experts and financial leaders, executives from global solar companies and local innovative start-ups.

The conference was opened by Dr. Uzi Landau, Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructures, who unveiled his office’s new policy for the intensive integration of renewable energy sources in Israel’s energy economy, implementing the government decision to supply 10% of the national energy consumption by renewables by 2020. According to this plan 2.76 GWp of renewables (63% of which are solar) will have been installed by 2020. Feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives for roof-top systems below 50kW installed in the periphery of Israel, and for residential sites up to 4kW installed country-wide will not be capped at all until 2014. On the other hand, FIT for systems larger than 50kWp will be limited to 1.55GW until 2020. Despite this modest cap, long-term commitments do bring about business certainty which was long sought for in the Israeli PV market place.

The ministry announced its intention to support local research and development by introducing grants and tax reliefs to renewable companies who manufacture novel technologies, or present local added value. In addition, a special 50 MWp FIT quota was allocated to promote the installation and verification of Israeli innovative technologies.

Minister Uzi Landau inaugurates the Arava Validation Center

The “Arava Sustainable Energy Technololgies Validation Center” was inaugurated during the conference by Minister Landau. The center will assist in real-life validation required for the commercialization of breakthrough sustainable energy technologies. Two such innovative technologies that are now being tested there are developed by Pythagoras and b-Solar.

A SolarEdge Solar Power Harvesting system was employed to facilitate the connectivity of unmatched panel types and orientations in the Arava Verification Center, and to enable accurate performance monitoring and comparison at module-level. Various modules by b-Solar, Pythagoras-solar and other manufacturers were each attached to a SolarEdge power optimizer, for individual MPPT and PV monitoring, and connected in a single string to a SolarEdge solar inverter. Performance data from each module is then accessible for analysis via the SolarEdge monitoring web portal.

String exhibiting unmatched module types and orientations at the Arava RE Center	Bi-facial modules by b-Solar, connected to SolarEdge power optimizers

bSolar develops high efficiency low cost bifacial cells. Avishai Drori, Director of Product Management at bSolar, explained that “as much as up to 30% added energy can be expected compared to a monofacial module, pending on location and installation conditions. The bifacial gain is significant in direct solar illumination conditions and gets even higher in highly overcast conditions and locations.” The company plans to launch a 65MWp/yr advanced production facility within a year and scale up to 500MWp/yr within 4 years.

Pythagoras Solar develops a unique low-concentration PV glass unit. Being transparent, these units can be integrated into buildings instead of traditional windows or walls, to generate clean electricity and increase energy efficiency at the same time.

Other innovative companies that caught much attention at the exhibition halls were Solaris-Synergy and MST, which took different paths in generating PV energy while reducing land requirements.
MST offers a large 50kWp CPV two-axes tracker, with 25% system efficiency. According to the company, due to its astute tracker and unique panel configuration, only 1 sqkm is required to deploy 100 MWp when using MST trackers.

Solaris-Synergy presented a “solar-on-water”, or Floating-CPV, scalable power plant. The company argues that F-CPV deployments will gain from inherent water cooling technology that contributes to reliability and efficiency, and inexpensive space allocation. The system is suitable for fresh, salty or waste water, and can positively affect water facilities by reducing evaporation and algae growth. A 200kW system is planned to be installed in a water reservoir in Israel later this year.

The conference was adjourned with promising announcements of regional co-operation. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor announced that Egypt and Israel are considering a joint solar project, where Israel will provide solar technology, and Egypt will provide the land for its deployment. Both counties will benefit from the energy produced. Salah Azzam, president of Jordan’s National Energy Research Center presented a trilateral industrial development project between Jordan, Israel and USA for production of biodiesel from organic waste, using German technology. The first €4 Million plant will be built in 2010, close to the border between Jordan and Israel.