Preparing for a new world of renewable energies

"Israel needs to be energy independent and it must maintain access to fuels. But recent trends in the world are pushing towards innovation and we want to provide these in the fuel sector. Petrol is just 15% of our business. Bazan is not going to shut down, but will change and operate in new sectors like renewable energies and biological plastic," said Shlomi Basson, CEO of Israeli oil refining and petrochemicals company Bazan Group while talking on Wednesday at Calcalist and ESIL Technologies’ Sustainability and Innovation Week.

According to Basson, Bazan has "invested a lot in decreasing pollutant emissions as well as the company's ecological footprint. The Ministry of Environmental Protection's reports talk for themselves and it is best to focus on them and not populism," he noted.

Inna Braverman, co-founder of Eco Wave Power, a renewable energy company, can already see the day in which Israel will produce electricity from the waves in the sea. "Eco Wave is operating in other places in the world and we have an active facility in Gibraltar, but the dream is to operate in Israel," said Braverman. Eco Wave's "point absorber" technology is based on the concept of a submerged buoy moved by ocean waves, in turn driving a power take-off system that converts the motion into electricity.

"According to our estimates, you can generate 250-megawatt from one device and that can provide electricity for thousands of households," noted Braverman.

Shaul Lapidit, co-founder and CEO of Melodea, which aims to make high performance, bio-based, and eco-friendly composite products, said his company is aspiring to provide the same shelf-life products currently have but without harming the environment. "Plastic may protect products from oil and water, but it is a pollutant. Our formulations are made out of microscopic particles that have the characters of plastic but are made and look like paper. The big corporations have announced that by 2025 they will change their packaging and our new factory in Arad is already working on manufacturing prototypes of packaging that will be commercial by 2022."

Amir Horowitz, Business Development Manager - New Technologies at EDF Renewables Israel, spoke about the increased competition in the solar energy market. "Companies that have been active in the sector for a long time have survived the shake ups and are now blossoming," said Horowitz. "EDF is one of the biggest companies in the world, including operating nuclear power plants. Climate change has put a focus on renewable energies and you need to identify the weakness of each technology so that one sector can provide a backup for another."