The Boston Israel Cleantech Alliance is back for a presentation by one of Israel's leading experts on solar power.

Professor David Faiman, director of Israel's National Solar Energy Center and the Chief Scientist of ZenithSolar, will discuss the case of Israel as a “mini-laboratory” for examining the USA’s energy challenges.

Agenda:
6:30-7:00pm Networking & Intros (Pizza & Drinks)
7:00-8:00pm Presentation and Q&A
8:00-8:30pm Member Announcements & Networking

Professor Faiman will discuss the relative merits of flat-panel PV, solar-thermal trough technology, and Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV), with regard to space requirements, land-usage efficiency and potential economics. He will then project the results from the minuscule Negev Desert into the vast expanses of the USA's desert southwest. Prof. Faiman will quantify the kind of benefits that should ensue from a program involving the regular construction of CPV plants on a massive scale, the magnitude of necessary investment, and the expected economics.

Coverage of Prof. Faiman's work with ZenithSolar is available in BusinessWeek and YouTube.

Thank you to our co-organizers and sponsors MISTI - MIT Israel program and Combined Jewish Philanthropies!

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Bio: Professor David Faiman

Professor David Faiman is chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Sede Boqer, where he is also director of Israel’s National Solar Energy Center. A physicist by training, he obtained his first degree from the University of London, UK, and his second and third degrees from the University of Illinois, USA. During the years 1969-1976 he performed research in theoretical physics at: Oxford University, UK; CERN, Geneva, Switzerland; and the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel. In 1976 he joined Ben-Gurion University where he participated in the establishment of the Blaustein Institutes, refocusing his research activities into the field of applied solar energy. He is widely published and has chaired or been a member of numerous national and international committees. At present he is Israel’s representative to the Task 8 Photovoltaic Specialist Working Group of the International Energy Agency, and has co-authored their latest book: Energy from the Desert: Practical Proposals for Very Large Scale Photovoltaic Systems (Earthscan, London, 2007). The third volume in this series is due for publication in September 2009.