Michael Kanellos 11 24 09, 3:54 PM

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Super Hot Solar Thermal, Solar Buildings in DOE-Israel Development Alliance

When it comes to high tech, Israel can be thought of as a branch office of Silicon Valley.

Nearly every major tech company – Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. – has built facilities in the country and actively recruits engineers at universities like the Technion. Several Israeli startups have also been swept up by multinationals. The country even has its own venture capital community with strong links back to the 650 area code.

Naturally, the same sort of relationships have already started to migrate to green tech. Better Place is a U.S.-Israeli venture, for example, and VCs looking for water deals often start there.

To further foster the process, the Department of Energy and the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures have decided to collaborate and will provide $3.3 million in grants to four companies. One is HelioFocus, a novel solar thermal company (read more here). HelioFocus, which grew out of research at Israel's Weizmann Institute, has created a six-story high parabolic dish that will concentrate the sun's energy onto an optical receiver at its center. The proprietary receiver in turn converts the light into a stream of hot air that can reach 1,000 degrees Celsius. The hot air then gets funneled through a gas turbine rejiggered for solar power. While many are skeptical whether the world needs another solar thermal technology (solar thermal actually can be competitive with fossil fuel power in the right circumstances), HelioFocus says its dish will take up less real estate.

Another is Tigo Energy, which specializes in software and electronics for solar (see video here). It will participate in a building integrated photovoltaic project.

And then there's Mississippi's SmartSynch, which will work with Motorola Israel on a smart grid management platform.