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Lucid Energy, a provider of renewable energy systems and developer of the LucidPipe™ Power System for in-conduit hydropower, has received funding from OurCrowd, Israel’s hybrid venture capital/crowdfunding platform. OurCrowd links accredited investors with early-stage companies seeking venture capital.

Lucid Energy, based in Portland, Oregon, is the first US company to be featured in OurCrowd. The company raised $600,000 in just two months from OurCrowd. Investors came from as far away as Israel, Brazil and Australia. 

OurCrowd was founded by veteran high tech venture capitalist Jonathan Medved and ten other Israeli investment professionals. Medved, named by the Washington Post, “as one of Israel’s leading venture capitalists,” was invited as a keynote speaker last year at the newly formed Oregon-Israel Business Alliance (OIBA), an organization that was created to expand business and economic relations between the State of Oregon and Israel. It was at this event that Medved met Lucid Energy president and CEO Gregg Semler and became aware of the company’s LucidPipe technology and his desire to explore opportunities in Israel.

“In Israel, we are passionate about clean water and renewable energy technologies,” said Medved, founder of OurCrowd. “Water is our most critical resource, and as a result we have become a global leader in smart water by necessity. When we saw considerable interest in the LucidPipe technology from a major Israeli water agency, we realized that Lucid Energy is a game-changer for water agencies who constitute one of the world’s largest consumers of energy.”

Lucid Energy is using the OurCrowd funding to globally roll out the LucidPipe Power System, which is the first cost-effective hydroelectric system to generate low-cost, renewable energy from fast-flowing water inside of large-diameter municipal, agricultural and industrial pipelines. The first commercial installation of the system in Riverside, California has been in operation since January 2012 and the company is currently installing systems in Portland, Oregon, San Antonio, Texas and Haifa, Israel.

“Lucid Energy has provided a unique solution to a fast growing market,” commented Elan Zivotofsky, OurCrowd General Partner. “Water usage worldwide is growing rapidly, and in order to meet this demand, thousands of miles of water pipelines are being built in fast-developing countries while, at the same time, many of the world’s existing pipelines are aging and in dire need of repairs.”

In the U.S. alone, the EPA estimates that $650 billion in water infrastructure upgrades will be needed to replace aging pipelines and to satisfy new demand over the next 20 years. The LucidPipe Power system offers a way to turn these water pipelines into low cost, renewable energy generators that provide a consistent and predictable flow of electricity.

“It makes so much sense to let fast-moving water pass through a turbine and generate cheap electricity without impacting water delivery,” added Zivotofsky.