Inventor Hopes to Make It Big on Renewable Energy

Tag : Native Produce

"We are starting to take orders for our first mass productionrun, which should be in a few months, and will offer a reducedprice to Israelis who place an order for that first run.
"One meaning of our testing is that the Wind Lotus withoutsubsidies is more cost-effective than solar panels withsubsidies," he told the Post.
Farb, an ophthalmologist by profession, who has also been the CEOof an e-learning company and has authored many books, has inventedseveral types of wind and water turbines to produce renewableelectricity. His inventions harness the power of the wind, thewaves and the underwater currents. He has even invented a turbinewhich fits into pipes and uses their natural flow to generateelectricity.
Farb had his first breakthrough moment at the Weizmann SciencePark, appropriately enough.
"Two or three weeks after I moved to Israel [in 2005], thesummer camp my children were attending needed some parentchaperones for a trip to the Weizmann Science Park. They have awave pool and I started watching the waves carefully, and then Ihad a Eureka moment," he reminisced.
His medical training gave him a good grounding in physics, he said.The Beit Shemesh resident started working in Israel for a biotechpatent law firm and it wasn't long before he was filing his own.
"All [of my inventions] have been covered by internationalpatent treaty. I have filed over 50 patents since I came toIsrael," he said.
A check of international patent listings confirmed that Farb hadrequested patents for his devices. In addition to renewable energydevices, he has filed patents on a system to protect computernetworks and a new type of eye chart.
Farb attributed much of his startling productivity to his aliya.
"I got inspired by coming to Israel, maybe. Things heresometimes happen in a way that we realize that we are not alwayscontrolling. There are lots of innovators too. It's a veryentrepreneurial environment.
"I've had great help, wonderful engineers. We've assembled awonderful team of Anglo olim and native Israelis," he said.
At present, only about 350 MW are generated in Israel from windturbines, Eddie Bet-Hazavdi, standards coordinator at theDepartment of Energy Resources of the National InfrastructuresMinistry told the Post Monday.
"There might be room for some dozens of more kilowatts, butit's not a promising market. You can't base an energy market aroundit," he opined.
He was also similarly dismissive of turbines which harness thepower of water.
"They are premature technologies. They are not financiallyfeasible and have not proven themselves yet," he said. Hesuggested Israel focus on solar energy because the country gets alot of sun.
Obviously, Farb would disagree.
"Most wind turbines only start turning at three meters persecond. 5-6 meters gets good energy. The UK has very good winds at8-10 meters. Israel is much milder with 3-4 meters per second,sometimes slower. One of my small wind turbines starts producing atless than one meter per second. That is an exceptional figure.
"The same kinds of principles apply to underwater systems. Ifwe can get more energy from slower flow we can get much more energyfrom faster flow," he explained.
"The Israeli government is behind other industrializedcountries in setting goals and subsidies for renewableenergy," Farb claimed.
Some Scandinavian countries already produce as much as 10 percentof their electricity through renewable sources. Israel hovers ataround 1%.
"They are working now at catching up and should be encouraged.My point is that the country should be a leader, not a follower. Inaddition, I believe that with no regulatory barriers to theimplementation of my inventions, I could make a significantcontribution to enabling Israel to have much more than 20% of itselectricity from renewables within five years," he declared.

Source: The Jerusalem Post
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