BIRD Foundation to invest $3 million in four Israeli companies, including Pentalum and Greenlet Technologies, which will collaborate with American corporations in development of new products.
The BIRD Energy foundation, an American-Israeli investment fund, will put $3.1 million in four Israeli cleantech companies which will join forces with American giant corporations to develop renewable energy solutions.
The overall budget for the projects is $8.5 million.
Among the companies is Israeli Pentalum, a developer of wind energy solutions, which will develop together with American Tier 3 a laser guided system to gauge wind velocity and direction in order to forecast wind regimes.
This kind of system may facilitate improved wind turbine performance and increase their energy efficiency.
Another company named for the project is Cima Nanotech, which will develop, together with Integrated Photovoltaics, a PV system using state-of-the-art nano-technological and low cost materials.
Ener-T, a thermo-solar field developer, will develop in collaboration with American Halotechnics a technology for the enhancement of solar-thermal fields with the use of molten salt.
Israeli Greenlet Technologies will partner with American Viridity to develop an energy management system for private and commercial buildings aimed at reducing electricity consumption of electrical devices and appliances.
The collaboration between the United States and Israel in the field of renewable energy is stipulated in the US government's energy independence and security act of 2007.
On part of Israel, the collaboration is anchored in a government decision from 2008 and will be budgeted by the Ministry of National Infrastructures and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
The program was launched in 2009 on two channels: An academic channel through the BSF fund and an industrial channel through the BIRD foundation directed by Eitan Yudilevich.
The projects that qualified for the program entail collaborations between an American and an Israeli company or between a company and an academic research institution.
The BIRD foundation funds projects without receiving any rights in the participating companies or in the projects themselves. The funding is repaid from the royalties. The foundation funds up to 50% of each project.
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