5 dispatches
The pursuit of carbon-free energy has largely leaned on intermittent sources of energy — like wind and solar; and sources that require a great deal of initial investment — like hydroelectric (which requires elevated bodies of water and dams) and nuclear (which require you to set up a reactor). The theoretical beauty of geothermal power is that, if you dig deep enough,...
This one chart (published in Canary Media) illustrates both the case for optimism for our ability to deal with climate change as well as a clear case of how geopolitical pressures can dramatically impact energy choices: the rapid increase in use of renewable energy (mainly at the expense of fossil fuels) as source of electricity in the EU. ---
The fires in Maui have had a devastating human toll (111 dead, 1000 missing as of this writing). It is not surprising that it’s raising some questions about the role of Hawaii’s utility (Hawaiian Electric/HECO) played in the disaster. While it will take time to sort out the investigation and the class action lawsuit, it’s clear that investors and Hawaiian Electric management...
I’ve been pitched by numerous flow battery companies in my days as a deeptech/climatetech investor. The promise of the technology has always been: * Long cycle life (the number of charge-discharge cycles you can do before the performance degrades) * Easy to scale: you want 2x the storage? Just get 2x the electrolyte! * Low fire risk: most flow batteries use water-based...
Source: Eric Hamilton Having been lucky enough to invest in both tech (cloud, mobile, software) and “deeptech” (materials, cleantech, energy, life science) startups (and having also ran product at a mobile app startup), it has been striking to see how fundamentally different the paradigms that drive success in each are.