As we celebrate the entry of the New Year 5772, we are happy to update you on some exciting GTEP initiatives on the global horizon of scientific and technological research into energy solutions. Thanks to the generosity of the Grand family with their initial gift to establish GTEP as a focussed center of energy research, we have been able to expand with full power. As we enter the New Year, our activities are moving on many tracks thanks to the vision and support of a wonderful team of supporters.

We are excited to have submitted the winning proposal to the Israel Science Foundation, through the framework of the Israeli Centers for Research Excellence (ICORE) . As proposal coordinator, GTEP will be coordinating top researchers to advance research into Solar fuels from Technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The new center will include nine existing faculty members from each university and 3 new faculty members in each school (a total of 36 members).

Also this year,  GTEP has allied with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) to set up two new labs in the Zisapel Building, at the Technion Micro- and Nanofabrication Center. This new Solar to Electrical Energy Conversion Center aims to provide state-of-the-art equipment for fabricating solar (photovoltaic) cells and components, to measure their optical and electrical properties, and to test their performance in simulated solar radiation conditions.

We have also began construction of facilities for the Battery Laboratory and Central X-ray Facility that are part of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Energy Storage Project led by Prof. Yair Ein-Eli of the Faculty of Materials Engineering. The renovation is expected to be complete by the beginning of 2012.

The new Ed Satell Family Nitrogen-Hydrogen Alternative Fuels (NHAF) Reaction Research Laboratory was inaugurated and is operating with full power. The research team is pursuing safe, clean and practical alternatives to fossil fuels, based on nitrogen-hydrogen compounds.

The New Year welcomes new faculty members, and students for advanced degrees in energy. These are the engaged, dynamic young minds of the next generation. They hold our global future in their hands.