Innovation
Thinking Ahead
The future of the energy sector can no longer be viewed through the narrow lens of a single technology or use case. The electrical grid of the future will require integrated, synergistic and decentralized capabilities.
Technologies, such as grid storage, EV batteries, EV charging, waste-to-energy, DER/DERMS and more are poised to make similar leaps in the coming years. If we have learned anything from the trajectory of the PV market, it is the imperative of positioning one’s business to take full advantage of the technological and subsequent economic transformations.
In addition to these disruptive trends, there is a pressing need for key differentiators and competitive advantages in the development, design, EPC and O&M of PV systems in order to contend with the razor margins imposed by this increasingly competitive market. Arava has and continues to look to technological innovation as one of the most promising sources of such advantages.
In short, we believe that lacking an active strategy for sourcing, developing and integrating energy innovation is a surefire recipe for imminent obsolescence.
Israel’s Energy Tech Ecosystem
Israel’s EnergyTech ecosystem is growing particularly rapidly – there are already many interesting startups working across various energy solutions and the increased interest in the field is driving additional private and academic R&D.
Arava is actively engaged in the promotion of Israel’s EnergyTech startup community, including sponsoring conferences and cooperating with community administrators.
Our engagement has already begun bearing fruit – we have now sourced and are in discussions with several promising startups in the fields of energy storage, bifacial PV panels and DER/DERMS and continue to seek and receive referrals of additional companies.
Our Experience
Arava’s expertise and years of experience allowed us to aggressively improve system and operations efficiency. Employing a multi-track approach, we have successfully strengthened system performance, bolstered earnings, increased profitability and improved the return to our investors.
The cornerstone of this achievement was our investment, Beta deployment and integration of two cutting edge technologies, which in addition to providing impressively increasing valuations, have been instrumental in improving system performance and return:
Ecoppia developed a robotic cleaning solution for solar panels but was having trouble getting the company off the ground. Following Arava’s 2013 investment and pilot, Ecoppia went on to become the world leader in robotic solutions for PV, with over 17GW of secured projects.
Having developed a unique AI diagnostics and optimization solution for PV systems, Arava’s 2016 investment and hugely successful pilot brought substantial benefits to Arava’s IRR and helped RayCatch attain massive subsequent growth, with deployments on over 2GW of systems.
Investing in Energy Innovation
Building on our successful investments, Arava is launching a strategic investment and partnership program, seeking both disruptive and incremental innovations encompassing the entire range of renewable energy solutions, with particular focus on technologies possessing synergistic value to Arava’s core business.
In addition to considering individual companies, Arava is in the process of developing a test site (under the aforementioned regulatory path), to possibly include a variety of startups with complimentary developments (supply-side, demand-side, system design and management etc.) intended to model the grid of the future and hopefully provide a long-term platform for field testing additional technologies.
Our investment policy is to identify EnergyTech startups at or around Beta deployment readiness with the most promising teams and technologies, contribute nominal amounts to their funding round (alongside lead investors) and direct the lion’s share of our contribution to facilitating and funding a Beta deployment on our systems or designated test sites.
Our philosophy is to provide investee companies and co-investors with significant added value by leveraging Arava’s:
- Management and business expertise;
- Market knowledge and connection;
- Access to financing and follow on investments;
- Ability to provide access to early-stage field testing of their technology.
We know from our experience with Ecoppia and RayCatch that this can make all the difference in the life of a startup. With Arava’s connections and expertise, a successful pilot under their belt and real-world experience behind them, finding clients and additional investors becomes an entirely simpler proposition for startups.
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