The US Department of Energy (DoE) and Israel’s Ministry of Energy (MoE) have together selected seven clean energy projects, to which they will grant US$6 million under the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy programme.
Qualifying projects must involve one US and one Israeli company, involve energy-related innovation, and be of mutual interest to both countries. At least half of the project costs must be contributed by the companies’ involved themselves.
BIRD Energy has so far funded 43 US-Israel joint ventures (including the additional seven) for a total investment of roughly $34 million.
One of the seven newly selected projects is a 60GHz active phased array module— to be developed by Beam Semiconductors and BannerSolar— that will include autonomous solar power supply and storage.
Another of the approved projects is shared between the Israeli Technion R&D and the American Primus Power, and will develop a “high energy density grid-scale storage battery.”
US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry commented: “The (BIRD Energy) program brings together the brightest minds from innovative companies and institutes to develop and commercialise new energy technologies that deliver tangible economic benefits to both countries.”
“Building on the successful implementation of BIRD Energy, we look forward to the launch of the US-Israel R&D Energy Centre, initiated by the Israel Innovation Authority and our partners, the MoE and the DoE”, commented Israel Innovation Authority CEO, Mr Aharon Aharon.
