The commonly accepted view is that Israel is a world leader in water tech and that it has the potential to take a similar lead in clean energy, or at the very least, solar energy. It is also generally believed that because of the policy errors that have been made over the years, Israel has missed a window of opportunity, and that this window is on the verge of slamming shut.
But not everyone shares this view. One such person is Dr. Isaac Berzin, who claims that Israel could still become a world leader in terms of the knowledge it has on clean energy, and is now working to set up a center that will disseminate this knowledge and firmly establish Israel's potential leadership.
Berzin (40), a chemical engineer who graduated from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and later continued his studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, is an expert on alternative energy. Last month he also won international acclaim when "Time" magazine selected him as one of the 100 most influential people on its "2008 Time 100" list, alongside the Dalai Lama, Hillary Clinton, Steve Jobs, George Clooney, and Barack Obama, an achievement that is due entirely to his technology for producing biodiesel fuel from algae.
Berzin will participate in the Silicom Ventures 2008 International Summit on early stage investments, which is opening today at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. "Globes" is the media partner for the event.
Technological excellence is not enough
Everyone agrees that Israel has had cleantech know-how for years, but that no real industry has ever grown out of this. Only a few companies, such as Luz II and Ormat, have made the breakthrough globally and become successful. So what has gone wrong? Why have we missed out? "Israel has not leveraged its capabilities in alternative energy because this is a complex field," says Berzin in an interview with "Globes." "In the past, I thought that technological excellence was what was needed to change the world, and I discovered that I had made a grave error. It is an essential condition, but it is not enough since at the end of the day, this is business. To turn the field into an economic platform, you need the right business model, a suitable lobby, and supportive legislation."
So what is the right business model that would turn Israel into a front runner in the global energy industry? One thing that could help, says Berzin, is the center for policy on alternative energy that he is currently setting up at the Herzilya Interdisciplinary Center. The center has signed an agreement with the US National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) under which the technology will be developed in Israel and NETL will then assess and approve it. "This is a service on behalf of the NETL, which is fully financed by the US administration for the purpose of providing it with solutions. This venture can help the Americans produce technological solutions of the highest quality," says Berzin.
Globes: What sort of profit will the NETL make from this? Will they make an equity investment?
Berzin: "They won't take equity in anything, since maintaining objectivity is an important part of their agenda. The Interdisciplinary Center will provide the entire support system in terms of business concept and partnerships, and all the necessary incentives to support this type of technology. It will function as a one-stop shop, a center that will bring together investors, policy makers, technology leaders, and the other functionaries in this story, so that Israel will indeed become a global leader."
How much progress have you made towards this so far?
"The contract with the laboratory was a breakthrough and to add to that, one of the large global chemical companies, which I can't name at this point, has asked the NETL to conduct a feasibility examination of biopolymers for it. What they're actually looking for is a plastic based on renewable biological fuels."
So they've given you an idea for a start-up. Will the Interdisciplinary Center form it?
"No, we are not developing technology. We will be an objective entity with very strong analytical tools. I will look, for example, at ten types of substances and tell them which one I feel would be the most suitable. My job is to assess technologies."
According to Berzin, part of the team currently being lined up is Israeli. "This is the kind of opportunity that comes once every thousand years," he says, in an attempt to reiterate how monumental a development this is. "Israel failed in that it did not leverage its knowledge in clean energy to become a global leader, and we cannot afford to fail again. I can't see how Israel can exist when China buys 90% of its fuel requirements from Iran. The US is no longer a lone player, and it isn't even a key player in the market any more. This is a matter of survival."
The center will begin operating in 2009, and Berzin points out that most of the money for it has already been raised. "I don't believe in environmental charity - and I do believe that the center will start operating and be successful since this field can make a lot of money. That is the rule that I want to apply to this center. I want it to function as something that people invest in to obtain knowledge. I say, pay me because you'll get a 100-fold return on your investment."
How did you raise the money?
"At the start I received investment from people who knew me from MIT. These included Jack Halpern and the Somekh family - an American family with connections in Israel, and who support a lot of ventures at the early stages. This money amounted to a vote of confidence. Since then, another group of investors has joined, the large chemical company among them, and I want to build a club of ten venture capital funds that will have information that is classified to begin with, before it becomes common knowledge."
Berzin says that several hundred thousand dollars have been invested so far in building the center, which will need a minimum budget of a few million dollars a year. His expectations are high, something that is borne out by the fact that the institute does not yet have a name. He is still waiting for a major donor.
Not just an algae man
"Time" magazine described Berzin as "one of one of thousands of innovators reinventing the $6 trillion energy business." In addition to his academic career, he also he worked on a NASA project to plan a facility for growing cells in the international space station. In 2001, while still at MIT, Berzin founded GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts to grow algae for energy production.
Berzin is very keen to avoid being labeled the "algae man," yet at the same time, he is convinced of their importance internationally. "Algae are microorganisms with the fastest rate of growth anywhere, and they are set to become the world's largest providers of energy," he believes. They guzzle carbon dioxide, a gas emitted by industry and vehicles, which is also the main cause of global warming.
Berzin once defined algae as a small sack full of oil and sugars. He intends to use the oil as biodiesel and the sugars to produce ethanol. Proteins, according to his plan, will serve as the raw material for producing more algae. The result can be almost an entire ecological system of its own. Berzin believes this all boils down to the fact that the world is undergoing an evolutionary process similar to that which took place in food, which saw man change from a hunter-gatherer, to a farmer who grows the food. "The biofuel field is actually agro-energy," he says. "There is biofuel which is good both economically and ethically, and there is biofuel which is not good, neither ethically nor economically."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2008
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