A joint venture of Israel’s Ministry of Energy, the Israel Innovation Authority, and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research’s Milken Innovation Center we held a Financial Innovations Lab to explore how to accelerate the growth of cleantech, energy efficiency and sustainable energy . We identified best practices in financing the capital-intensive cleantech sector – new energy production sources, last mile transmission, storage, metering, and measurement – through the deep capital gaps, the “valleys of death”. We examined the best practices to promote, implement and measure energy efficiency and the specific case of Israel’s electric grid and explore how changes to organization, ownership, regulation, financing, and new partnerships will ensure the country’s future energy security. Finally, the Lab explored new opportunities for economic development in emerging markets through international development financing tools and project approaches, including pilots, beta sites, and scalable technology partnerships.
We had over 75 participants, representatives from the Californian delegation including Senator Henry Stern from California State Senate; David Hochschild-Commissioner California Energy Commission; William Brockenborough – Senior Vice President, Asset Monetization- OpTerra Energy Services; Michelle Moskowitz – Director of Advocacy and Institutional Relations Office of Government and Community Relations at University of California, Berkeley; Bill Shelander – Cleantech to Market Group, Energy Institute at Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley; Prof. Catherine Wolfram -Faculty Director, Energy Institute at Haas School of Business;Ronald Borod Ram Island Strategies, LLC.