Bar-Ilan University Launches New School And Research Facility For Clean Energy And Sustainability

Bar-Ilan University announced this week the launch of its new campus research facility the Center for Energy and Sustainability, and its Multidisciplinary School for Sustainability and the Environment in the presence of Energy Minister Karine Elharrar, and officials from the Israel Electric Company (IEC) and the Doral Group. 

The university will invest hundreds of millions of shekels over the next ten years into training and technological research projects in and outside of Israel to develop hydrogen-based drones, clean energy fuel cells, green walls, and sodium-based batteries, among others. 

“As David Ben Gurion put it, security is energy,” said MK Elharrar. “We need a combination of different types of energy and the crisis in Europe shows that we can’t give up on any of them at the moment. We must lead the world of energy and an institute like the one inaugurated at Bar-Ilan is the place from which results will emerge. I welcome and hope for cooperation with the Ministry of Energy, because the connection between regulators, academia and those in the field is what will march the State of Israel forward.”

The Center for Energy and Sustainability includes 55 research groups, and it will focus on renewable energy R&D from early-stage to active technologies in collaboration with government ministries, entrepreneurs, tech-industrial companies, and experts in the fields of policy regulation, the environment, climate, sustainability, and education.

The research center will also cultivate a network of Israeli energy industry entrepreneurs and researchers to strengthen the center’s research output with regard to topics like network technology, AI, energy storage, hydrogen, current stability, and high voltage. 

The Multidisciplinary School for Sustainability and the Environment will bring all of the university’s environmental studies programs under one roof to teach and prepare students for environmental fields with dynamic curricula. The school will provide both hybrid and online courses, and it will be open to students from any academic discipline. 

“Energy and sustainability are intertwined,” said University President Prof. Arie Zaban. “If we don’t solve the energy problem, we won’t be able to operate in a sustainable environment.”

“Just like during COVID-19, we are faced with an existential need that requires mobilization of the minds,” said Amir Livne, IEC’s VP of Strategy. “This cannot be achieved without research and academia, and we have the best minds in the world here to meet this challenge.” 

“We are pleased and excited to collaborate with researchers at Bar-Ilan University, who are world leaders in the development of the energy and climate technologies of the future,” said Roee Furman, Managing Director of Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. “We are facing a decade of opportunities for real change in the fight against the climate crisis and we at Doral are proud to be a pioneering force in funding and supporting applied research that will place Israel at the forefront in the war on global warming.”