About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the future of humanity.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/new-grant-to-fuel-solar-energy-research/
Oct 24, 2012...
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced a gift of $15 million over three years to fund joint research in solar energy and biofuels between the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.
The Helmsley program, which will involve dozens of researchers from the two institutions, is unique in several ways. For one, scientists in fields ranging from genetics and plant sciences to chemistry, physics and engineering will be working together toward the common goal of providing renewable energy options to Israel and the world. For another, the researchers anticipate that wedding the basic research approach of the Weizmann Institute to the advanced technical-engineering emphasis of the Technion teams will provide the synergy needed to accelerate discovery and development of innovative energy options that can be the basis for future technologies.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/fueling-the-future/
Feb 01, 2007... It is time for the world to take alternative fuel sources seriously, say Weizmann Institute scientists. Energy consumption—both in the Western world and especially in newly industrialized countries—is growing so fast that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other combustion-related particles in the air are affecting our weather and increasing health risks. Add rising oil prices and the fact that easily recoverable oil supplies are dwindling, and the stage is set for a number of undesirable scenarios.
Dec 22, 2015... Prof. David Cahen, head of the Weizmann Institute's Alternative Energy Research Initiative, and colleague Prof. Leeor Kronik discuss humankind's energy problem – specifically, that we cannot keep using energy as we do today – and potential solutions, such as use of highly efficient solar power. The event was held at The Gregory School in Tucson.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/israel-s-solar-star-jacob-karni/
Nov 25, 2012...
Israeli solar energy expert Jacob Karni.
Israeli solar energy pioneer Prof. Jacob Karni was born just two years after Israel became a state, in 1950. Already back then, the country’s leaders were tangibly aware that Israel needed to develop its human resources in order to build a country that was severely lacking in energy and water.
Unlike some kids who have their goals set early, Karni didn’t know he would be an engineer, let alone work with the sun. He grew up in the Polish Zionist Kibbutz Beit Alpha in northern Israel, where he slept in a children’s house like all kibbutz kids back then, and his mom before him. He went on to become an officer in a tank unit and served in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/ethiopia-adopts-israeli-day-night-power-system/
Dec 02, 2014...
An AORA Tulip System (Photo credit: Courtesy)
Solar energy is an ideal solution for the power needs of the developing world – except for one problem: It stops working when the sun goes down, at precisely the time power is needed to turn the lights on. The solution, according to Zev Rosenzweig, CEO of Israeli energy technology company AORA, is a hybrid system – one that utilizes solar to the fullest, and supplements it with a “backup” system to keep the power flowing when the sun is not high in the sky, using scant resources, with an operating cost of next to nothing.
Feb 08, 2012...
By Sharon Udasin
ALMERIA, Spain — Amid the cactus-strewn mountains of Andalucía, in southern Spain, a bright yellow Israeli tulip stands tall above a sea of solar panels that move with the sun’s light.
AORA Solar, an Israeli developer of applied ultra-high-temperature concentrated solar power (CSP), launched its second-ever gas-turbine solar thermal power station on Tuesday in the Platforma Solara de Almeria solar research and development park. The park is located in the town of Tabernas, about 35 kilometers north of the oceanfront city of Almeria.
Dec 01, 2008...
The technologists and engineers of today are being asked to do something that is “close to mission impossible,” says Prof. David Cahen of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Materials and Interfaces. “We’re asking them to come up with better solutions to our energy problems based on fundamental science that essentially stopped in the mid-1980s.”
Prof. Cahen explains that after the global crash in oil prices during the early- to mid-1980s, support for research in alternative energy decreased drastically as well, resulting in what is now an extremely poor base on which to build new technologies. Meanwhile, the demand for energy is increasing worldwide, oil prices are unpredictable, and the burning of fossil fuels is causing pollution and releasing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. “We cannot afford another period of not-so-benign neglect,” he states.
Aug 04, 2005... Innovative solar technology that may offer a "green" solution to the production of hydrogen fuel has been successfully tested on a large scale at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The technology also promises to facilitate the storage and transportation of hydrogen. The chemical process behind the technology was originally developed at Weizmann, and it has been scaled up in collaboration with European scientists. Results of the experiments will be reported in August at the 2005 Solar World Congress of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) in Orlando, Florida.
Nov 29, 2015...
Prof. Reshef Tenne
A report on a fundamentally new and unprecedented molecular closed-cage nanostructure, produced by immensely concentrated sunlight was published recently by a team combining researchers in Beersheba, Rehovot and Russia. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Profs. Jeffrey Gordon and Daniel Feuermann, Prof. Reshef Tenne’s group at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Dr. Andrey Enyashin at the Ural Federal University explained their work in a recent issue of one of the foremost journals in nanotechnology, ACS Nano.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/solar-powered-vision-of-the-future/
Feb 19, 2006...
Sitting in his book-lined office, Professor Jacob Karni likes to quote the French novelist Jules Verne.
"Yes, my friends," says Prof Karni, director of the Centre for Energy Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, quoting from Verne's 1874 novel The Mysterious Island.
"I foresee that in the future, water will be used as fuel... water will be the coal of the future." The professor enthuses about the French author's vision 130 years ago that the world's reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable. But he disagrees with Verne, famous for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, in one fundamental respect. Whereas the French writer saw water as the fuel for the future, the Israeli scientist says the future lies with solar energy.
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