Infrastructures Ministry to launch alternative energy center

The renewable energy R&D center will be set up in either the Negev or the Arava.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that that the Ministry of National Infrastructures is planning to set up a renewable energy R&D center in either the Negev or the Arava. The center will be a collaborative effort of academic institutions and industry to develop and commercialize renewable energy technologies.

The center will have a budget of NIS 68 million spread over five years. Partners in the venture will include the government, academic institutions, technology companies, and Israeli and foreign financial institutions. The center will have, among other things, sites for testing solar energy technologies.

The budget for the project will come from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor's Office of the Chief Scientist, the Ministry for Development of the Negev and Galilee, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of National Infrastructures.

The R&D center is part of the government's NIS 305 million five-year plan to develop renewable energy. The cabinet still has to approve the plan, which will be included in the 2009 budget. The social and economic cabinet will discuss the plan at next week's meeting.

Chief Scientist Tmura Fund manager Ran Kaviti confirmed the report. He said, "One of the failures we found in cleantech development was in the transfer of knowledge from academe and turning it into business ventures and companies. We therefore want to pick during the tender procedure a company that will set up the technology center. The company's job will be to locate know-how in academe and research institutes which can be turned into technologies and products, and carry them from the basic research stage through the preliminary feasibility stage, and then to the financing stage from non-government sources."

Israel New Tech - National Water Technology Program director Oded Distel told "Globes" that the distribution of financing between the government and private sector in the project would more or less be equal.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 23, 2008

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008

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