A joint report by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure documents that about 300 Israeli startup companies in the energy sector have raised about 5 billion dollars, placing Israel at the top of private investment in OECD countries. That is awesome.
However, the state is footdragging and not a real help. The government investments in energy R&D are significantly lower compared to the rest of the world and 5 times smaller than the OECD average in terms of a percentage of GDP.
Increasing government investment may accelerate and strengthen the investments of the private market, which is already expressing its confidence on the ground, concludes the press release of the Ministry.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Gila Gamaliel: “The energy sector is expected to be at the forefront of global innovation in the coming years, both as part of dealing with the climate crisis and in the aspect of energy supply security. The field holds tremendous potential for development and economic growth. Israel, despite its size, plays a central role in developing solutions to global challenges, and Israeli technology companies display exceptional capabilities while utilizing the knowledge and expertise found in the local ecosystem.”
It goes without saying that renewable energies, energy storage and energy efficiency are critical areas for the Israeli economy ensuring the supply of energy to the Israeli economy in routine and emergency situations like war.
Israel ranks 8th in the OECD organization in terms of private investments in startups in this field. Compared to the size of the population, Israel is in 4th place, with 3 times the average in the OECD countries.
About 170 scientific publications in fields related to energy have been published in Israel every year in the last five years, and an upward trend is evident at a faster rate than in the rest of the world.
Problem Bureaucracy
One out of 5 key recommendations is > “...improving efficiency and clarity in regulation and reducing the bureaucracy of all entities to support the growth of the field“, according to the press release.
As always, the bureaucracy and the rule of the unelected elites are the main obstacles to progress and resilience. The state is absent with money but big in building and maintaining bureaucratic obstacles. As in many other segments, we see that the state needs deep reform and better elites in the realm of the deep state.