Israel’s Ministry of Energy will establish a national research institute in the field of energy storage with Bar-Ilan University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

The institute is intended to encourage Israel’s energy sector to respond to national strategic challenges with an eye toward global applications; train experts; and facilitate technology transfer from academy to industry.

Ministry of Energy Chief Scientist Dr. Gideon Friedman heads the joint steering committee leading the project. Prof. Doron Aurbach, Scientific Director of Bar-Ilan University’s Energy and Sustainability Center, and Prof. Yoed Tsur, Director of the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), will direct the institute.

Use of renewable energy sources, such as sun and wind, must be increased if Israel is to reach its goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But because production from these sources isn’t steady, novel technologies for storing energy in large quantities are urgently required.

The institute therefore will promote and share research in:

• sodium-ion batteries, which can be less expensive and more available than lithium-ion batteries;
• improving fuel-cell performance;
• producing green hydrogen efficiently and storing it safely and conveniently;
• safer solid-state batteries free of liquid;
• metal-air batteries using metals such as iron and zinc that have a very high energy density;
• novel cables with increased ability to convey electrical energy and very high power density;
• and flow batteries that have a large storage capacity.