Israel makes an ambitious move on alternative fuels
- PDF / 294,183 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 107 Downloads / 177 Views
Energy Quarterly
Israel makes an ambitious move on alternative fuels By Prachi Patel Feature Editor Anat Bonshtien
I
srael is a tiny country with minimal natural resources. It generates onetenth of the energy it uses and relies on imports from other nations to meet its energy needs. What the country of eight million has, however, is plenty of innovation, risk-takers, and willful policymakers. That is the reason it leads the world in the number of high-tech start-up companies per capita, as Dan Senor and Saul Singer lay out in their book Startup Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle. Israel now wants to be a global leader in alternative fuel technologies. Through a 10-year US$430 million program called the Fuel Choices Initiative (FCI), it is investing heavily in cutting-edge research on batteries, biofuels, and solar water splitting. It is backing startups developing green transport technologies and offering an annual US$1 million prize to innovators. It aims to be a local test bed for sustainable transport, collaborate with entities across the world, and raise global awareness of alternative fuels. And to lead by example, it has set itself an ambitious energy goal: Cut oil use in transportation by 60% by 2025.
“We’d like to change the world,” says Eyal Rosner, chair and director of administration of FCI. Reducing dependence on oil is a strategic need for Israel. It produces just a few thousand barrels a day, which means it imports nearly all the oil it uses. But recent technological advances in transportation, rising oil prices, and a growing global understanding of oil’s environmental impact make the time right for such an initiative, Rosner said. “When I talk to the Chinese, they don’t care about price, they worry that people aren’t able to breathe,” he said. “So a shift away from oil isn’t just nice, it’s a necessity.” The initiative’s goal is to escort new green fuel technologies from the drawing board to the international market, said Rosner. This means not just funding and promotion, but also establishing the right regulatory support. The initiative encompasses 10 government ministries—the Prime Ministerʼs Office, energy, transport, economy, environmental protection, science, finance, defense, agriculture, and foreign affairs—and brings together over 100 companies, 130 research groups, and hundreds of entrepreneurs. “The idea is to create one organization that will try to create a collaboration and coordinate all these players,” said Ophir Gore, director of the Energy and Alternative Fuels Department in the National Energy & Water Program, which helps startups market themselves internationally and connect them with non-Israeli investors and research collaborators. “Every ministry has an agenda, but there was no coach telling all the players how to play together. The Fuel Choices Initiative is now the coach,” said Gore. Natural gas will play an important role as the country transitions away from oil to batteries and sustainable biofuels. Two large offshore natural gas fields were recently discovere
Data Loading...
