The Engineers Who’ll Wean Us Off of Carbon and Make Israel a Key Player in the Energy Market

Clean, protected, and unlimited energy awaits us in the sky. But in order to harness it on the ground – and improve energy consumption at every corporation and factory – we need engineers with unique knowledge, who will deliver sustainable development and not forget to take future generations into account. Energy engineering is at the forefront of this crucial transition. Energy engineering is at the forefront of this crucial transition.

There’s no need to waste words on the importance of available energy. It has already prompted quite a few wars, treaties, and major processes around the globe. Israel, in this regard, is at a critical juncture – an era in which it may become a key player in the energy market. Our breakthrough came with the discovery of natural gas fields in Israel’s economic waters. The problem is that these reserves are vulnerable, both physically and to cyberattacks, and are also rather limited in size. The ability to store this type of energy is also limited. And as we’ve seen, a few short days of shutdown at the outset of the war in October ’23 were enough to rattle the energy market. Furthermore: natural gas is a type of fossil fuel, the kind that the world is heavily invested in weaning off of, with Europe imposing sanctions on polluting companies. Our solution must come from another direction.

“Israel is a sun-drenched country,” says Prof. Erel Avineri, head of the graduate program in Energy and Power Systems Engineering at Afeka – the Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv. “The sun doesn’t take sides politically, and our climate is ideal for producing solar energy – which is cheap to produce, limited in environmental impact, and highly decentralized – meaning that its production and transport systems are far less exposed to harm.” To pull this green resource down from the sky and use it on the ground, the first order of business is a legally-endorsed decision – and here Israel has room for improvement. The second vital component is directly related to Prof. Avineri’s occupation, as someone who is training the generation of engineers tasked with weaning humanity off of harmful carbon.

The challenges he lists are formidable – from gridding the land reserves into efficient production units, through the dual use (for both agriculture and solar energy) of the land and equipment, to “game-changing” solutions for storage and transport. These are critical in order to, e.g., produce more per day, during peak solar radiation hours, store surpluses using advanced technologies (e.g., by producing hydrogen), and consume more during times of demand. The same holds true for addressing demand throughout the seasons, and in transporting energy from the sunny, open desert to the dense, industrialized center of the country, and even from the Middle East to Europe. “The future probably lies in storage, transport, and utilization that can bridge gaps in space and time. And for all of those things, we need expert engineers who can think outside the box.”

Yet R&D centers of national and global importance are not the only places clamoring for energy and power engineering experts. “Every private, public, or commercial organization, and certainly factories, use energy on a daily basis. This can form a major part of their operational expenses,” says Prof. Avineri. He invokes historical fact: the first catalyst for any kind of engineering – in this case for improved energy efficiency – has always been economics. A nice illustration is the transition to electric cars: “Well, green is economical, and organizations have already caught on to it. And it’s not just about tightening regulation, polluters being fined, or investors looking for this improvement in ESG reports. It’s just cheaper.”

From AI to Economy: Multidisciplinary Energy

All the hot-button issues that Prof. Avineri mentions feature prominently in his program, which in terms of tenure, number of graduates, and general effect on the economy, is the largest of its kind in Israel. “Before we discuss technological developments that will reduce global warming and deliver energy efficiency, we need to know the physics, thermodynamics, and engineering that underpin them.” Photovoltaic (PV) and thermo-solar systems, using turbines to utilize wind energy, energy storage, achieving green hydrogen more cheaply and availably, improving the production and utilization and energy sources at organizations – these are all topics that the program addresses in depth. “Even regulation and the micro- and macro-economic aspects related to the energy market; because an engineer can’t restrict themselves to the purely scientific. And as time goes on, the pressure to transition to renewable energy grows. That’s where the energy market is headed, and our syllabus is updated accordingly.”

The program is two years (four semesters) long, in a night school format twice a week. It is designed for people with background in engineering or science, and offers a professional track with a graduation project and a research track with thesis. Since the data systems currently used by energy engineers are becoming controlled and monitored, program students are also offered tools in fields such as AI, data mining, machine learning, and big data analysis. Prof. Avineri explains that in order to make informed decisions, today’s engineers must tackle massive amounts of data. “This is something that didn’t exist before, and it affects the kinds of engineers who enter the program and go on to join the industry and research. Energy has become multidisciplinary. It touches on mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, basic sciences, and again – data, economics, and regulation. The knowledge, tools, and skills required by all of those things are part of the curriculum, and not as bonus material: these are the building blocks that will define the figure of the energy engineer in the coming decades, and the things they’ll need to cope with ongoing challenges.”

Energy Engineering: Shaping a Sustainable Future

The program is highly connected to the industry, and as it turns out, the local industry is fascinating. “We expose our students to both traditional industry and startups, in order to illustrate the combination of rich basic science and an understanding of the entrepreneurial spirit. They can see with their own eyes what they’ve learned on campus, see it move out of formulas and books into a human environment, for better or worse. Into our air, soil, and water.” And this is probably one of the most fascinating challenges in this field: “Energy production and usage processes make life possible, change lives in numerous ways, but can also jeopardize them by affecting the environment. The great challenge of energy engineers is to lead humanity to a better future: to deal with climate change, find alternative energy sources that will prevent military conflicts, help us to maintain our standard of living and to grow – but without disproportionately damaging ourselves and future generations. If there’s a profession that shapes the future, a profession with ethical and moral dilemmas and opportunities to do something big and meaningful, it’s our profession.” Energy engineering is thus not just about technical solutions, but about creating a sustainable future for all.