The renewable energy market on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is boiling; The green energy company StorageDrop enters the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, through a merger with Therapeutic Mediation. According to the memorandum of understanding signed between the parties, the shareholders of Storage Drop will hold up to about 75% in full dilution of the share capital of Medivi, which has so far focused on the production of medical cannabis products. According to the merger agreement, one of the conditions precedent for its completion is that the company’s cash register – near or on the date of completion – will have NIS 17.5 million, whether from the company’s own fund or through a private or public offering of its shares.
Storage Drop focuses on developing advanced technologies for storing green energy. The company is developing two separate energy storage systems for different purposes: the first, a compressed air storage system for generating electricity in renewable energy facilities, ie photovoltaic (solar) fields; And the second, a thermal storage system for supplying cooling and air conditioning to buildings in the business and private sectors. The first system is designed to store air at hours when the demand for electricity is low by compressing it into a tank, and converting the compressed air into electrical energy as needed. The system will be adapted to provide energy with competitive storage in kilowatt hours per hour compared to competing systems.
The second system is the first of its kind in the world for storing environmentally friendly refrigerators. The system stores an environmentally friendly gas mixture during off-peak hours by compressing the refrigerant into a tank, unloading the compressed refrigerant to low pressure and producing cold during peak hours of demand for refrigeration and air conditioning. Thus, the system will allow energy charging during downturns and energy discharge at peak rates. The system will be able to connect to renewable or conventional sources and be installed in office buildings, server farms, factories, shopping centers and commercial buildings.
The company’s systems are still in the development stage, and they are designed so that their lifespan will be high – 30 years or more. Currently, the company is in the development stages of both systems. According to the company’s forecast, it will start selling systems in Israel during 2022. Storage Drop employs about 14 employees and service providers in the company’s offices in Netanya and in Rehovot.
Sturge Drop’s solutions are designed to solve the gap between the availability of energy from nature and the time of its use – a gap that requires a storage solution. Also, the increase in electricity generation from renewable sources is limited because it does not have a proper storage solution.
Storage Drop is led by entrepreneurs and executives with extensive experience in the energy market: the company’s vice chairman is Yona Fogel, who served for 13 years as CEO of the Paz Group and chairman of the board of its subsidiaries. Prior to that, he served as a member of Bank Leumi. Fogel is involved in international projects in the field of energy, including the controlling owner and founder of the company, Shai Cohen, who has held senior positions at BrightSource Energy, Intel and Swap Technologies.
Cohen served as the company’s CEO, holds a master’s degree in engineering from the Technion and has worked for more than a decade in the field of thermo-solar energy and energy storage in Israel; the company’s scientific advisor is Professor Gershon Grossman. The engineering and construction of the storage systems will be carried out by CMC Technologies, a company with decades of experience in the development and construction of complex control systems.
According to a report by the research company LUX, in 2019 the annual revenue of the energy storage systems market for the world electricity grid was about $ 9.1 billion, and it is expected to continue to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%, up to about $ 111.8 billion in 2035
Shai Cohen, CEO of Sturgeon Drop He said: “Today the prices of electricity production from renewable sources are significantly lower than the cost of electricity production from fossil sources. At the same time, the real-time energy production capacity must be the same as actual consumption. Storage drop allows for continuous, available and efficient renewable sources. “Natural, and at a lower cost than competitors, most of which produce batteries. Sturge Drop’s storage technologies will help deal with changes in energy consumption, enabling postponement of investments in the electricity grid, mediation between small producers and the electricity company, as well as high control and renewal through renewable energy and release as needed.”
Jonah Fogel, Vice Chairman Sturgeon Drop He added: “Sturge Drop’s technologies remove the main barrier to the development of renewable energies and accelerate their transformation into the world’s leading electricity suppliers. Using the company’s technology will make a very significant contribution to making the world greener and healthier, alongside significant economic contributions to energy producers and consumers.”
The energy storage market, in which Storage Drop operates, includes various processes designed to store energy and convert it so that it can be used for different needs at different points in time. Because energy production from renewable sources is not possible around the clock, and does not have a constant power but has a power that varies at different times throughout the day, there is a need for energy storage solutions, so that renewable energy can be consumed even when “natural” energy sources are no longer available. The use of energy storage is essential for the efficient utilization of the electricity grid, creating stability in the production of electricity, combining renewable energies to generate electricity, creating a balance in the production of electricity and contributing to security in the ongoing supply of electricity.
Today, the most common storage technology in the world is based on pumped storage, as of 2018, pumped storage constitutes over 95% of the total storage capacity connected to the network in the world. However, its share in global storage is expected to decline, with storage by other modular means increasing.