Israel Active

The Ashalim thermo-solar power station in Israel’s Negev Desert covers 988 acres with 28,000 tons of steel. With an adjacent thermos-solar plant and 2 nearby photovoltaic plants, they will provide some 300MW of electricity daily into the National Grid – 2.5% of the current total.

“PICO kids” is a program for two thousand children at 31 Jerusalem schools. Mentored by 80-plus university students and local entrepreneurs, they build useful devices, do lab experiments, program computers and use 3D printing and robotics to help (e.g.) the disadvantaged.

The award-winning, Israeli designed and manufactured Nanobébé bottle is said to be the first baby bottle designed to preserve essential nutrients. The bottle works directly with an expressing pump, allows for quick and even cooling and warming, and provides easy and efficient storage.

Israeli startup Sirin Labs is developing an ultra-secure mobile phone using blockchain technology. It has also hired Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador.

Israel-based startup Bugatone develops software that enables ordinary headphones to act as sensors. They can recognize you by your ears, take your temperature, start and stop playing music when you put them on or remove them, and more. Bugatone just raised $3 million of funds.

The Israeli Government and the Israel Builders Association have teamed up with SOSA, a company that connects startups with investors, to set up the Construction Innovation Zone. Its aim is to bring new technologies to cranes, planning and building procedures, and infrastructure.

Yaron Shenhav and Gadi Grottas, co-founders of Israel’s SolCold, and Hebrew University Professor Guy Ron have invented a high-tech coating that cools down structures when the sun shines. Photons from the sun hit the material which then emits a higher-frequency photon and loses energy.

Israeli scientists have shown that despite losing a hand over 18 months ago, amputees are able to use a brain-computer interface to control the hand of an avatar (virtual representation of a human) and also to direct the movements of a humanoid robot.

I reported previously about Israel’s Market Tech Holdings rebuilding London’s Camden Market. It also installed the energy analysis system developed by Israel’s SmartGreen, which saves 25% of energy costs. SmartGreen’s systems are installed in Israel, UK, Hong Kong, Poland and Africa.

A new solar power plant with nearly five times more capacity than Israel’s current largest solar array will be built in the north of the country with construction expected to begin as early as the first half of next year. The 250MW plant will provide 2% of Israel’s total output of electricity.