BGU Licenses Solar Energy Technology to Israeli Start-up
BGU Licenses Solar Energy Technology to Israeli Start-up
July 30, 2008
Alternative Energy, Business & Management, Press Releases
NEW YORK, May 27, 2008 — Zenith Solar, an Israeli startup technology company, has reached agreement with BGU’s technology transfer company, BGN Technologies, to license solar energy technology developed at BGU.
Professor David Faiman led the team that worked on the new technology. He chairs the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics at BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, and is the director of Israel’s National Solar Energy Center on the Sde Boker campus.
The solar technology uses mirrors and lenses to focus and intensify sunlight. The system converts the light to electricity, producing much more electricity than traditional flat photovoltaic panels, which are made of silicon. Tested over the past few years, a prototype of the technology achieved a solar energy concentration more than 1,000 times greater than that produced by standard flat panels. The system is up to five times more efficient than standard solar technology, which could make it competitive with oil and natural gas.
The innovative technology is especially attractive because it uses only limited amounts of polysilicon. The cost of that material has increased tenfold in the last few years because demand for traditional photovoltaic panels has skyrocketed, and caused a worldwide silicon shortage.
Zenith plans to test the system at Kibbutz Yavne, an agricultural village near Tel Aviv. The company intends to provide the 250-family community with more than a quarter of its energy needs. Once the kibbutz project is operational, Zenith Solar will begin commercial sales of the technology in Israel and eventually take it abroad.
ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY
By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.
About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.
We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.
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20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.
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