AES Takes Steam Energy Out Of GNRY's Waste Wood Chips

(image credit: NYTimes blogs)

Man, alternative energy solutions can’t come fast enough. The world is teetering on the verge of runaway climate change (some predictors say there’s less than 100 months), and gas prices are killing us not only at the gas station, but are affecting everything we buy from food to clothes to you name it. Racing to get an edge in the market is America’s AES, who’s obviously got a serious interest and investment in Israeli clean technology.

Green Prophet reported a massive wind energy deal AES was in with Mey Golan (estimated $500 million), and now we read, the company is keen on investing in Israeli biofuel through GNRY. According to Globes (who we are not going to link to because they archive after 1 week), AES Corporation is in negotiations to invest in the Israeli alternative energy company GNRY Ltd to the tune of a deal worth NIS 25-27 million ($8 million).

GNRY is Israel’s first biomass-based steam production company, says YNet, producing electricity from steam generated by burners using wood chips derived from tree trimmings as fuel. Its first power plant was set up at Kibbutz Maanit (near Pardess Hana) for an estimated cost of $7 million. We haven’t done a carbon audit on the company, but newspaper reports say the plant is more environmentally friendly than burning fossil fuel and is 25 percent cheaper.

YNet says that municipalities and forests in Israel generate excess tree trimmings which constituted an unsolved problem of biological waste. (Side note: Israelis trim trees far too often and excessively for my taste).

The facility in Galam – which is expected to use 25,000 tons of woodchips per year – serves as a breakthrough solution to the problem with additional significant environmental ramifications.

During the facility’s inauguration ceremony, Minister of Environmental Protection Gideon Ezra said that “the state of Israel has far to go to reach a progressive policy on recycling. This facility constitutes a shining example of ‘green business’ and I call on other entrepreneurs to take part in ‘green initiatives’, for all of our sakes.”

GNRY has been involved in engineering projects for five years, but just began dealing with green energy projects a year and a half ago (and an investment blogger – Blogging Stocks – covered them a while back. The Israeli press say it’s a first of its kind in Israel, using biomass to create steam. There’s another neat biomass fuel company we know about: Genova, who’s burning olive pit biomass for fuel.

::Ynet