if you could optimize the traffic lights in cities, you could save a ton on gas. All the stopping and going due to hard coded timers wastes a ton and creates more pollution.
Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
11–16 of 16 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
#12habitrpg like carbon footprint reduction app. And/or a "pyramid scheme" where you could challenge friends to participate and get credit for onboarding people and their reductions.
Re: Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
#13Stop mining crypto coins, what a waste of energy...
Re: Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that there is very much value there. Everyone who is going to believe in global warming already does. Acknowledging extremists only strengthens their cause. In response to OP, I have dedicated my career to fighting global warming through software. It is VERY difficult to find good software jobs that accomplish this, but they do exists if you are flexible on pay/location. Some angles that I have found su…
love this. what are the biggest frustrations you're currently seeing w/ REC markets? i was surprised at how hard it is to compare REC prices. Like, am I supposed to request a quote from each of these? https://www.green-e.org/certified-resources It'd be great to snap a pic of my utility bill and get back the best REC pricing... :)
A big problem in the REC markets is lack of price transparency. I worked for a startup a while back building a trading platform to try to get major players together at a regular interval to agree upon pricing that could then be executed upon and published publicly. The idea didn't pan out; despite having a lot of the biggest traders in the game on board, there just wasn't enough trading to make a company viable. I believe that this is due in part by two things. 1 - the large variance in regulations. You can't just trade a REC for a REC. If there was national consensus then it would open up much more liquidity. 2 - most RECs are pre bought/sold as a means of project finance. A company building a wind farm will pre sell years in advance to help fund the hardware. On the other side utilities will pre buy all the credits to cover their needs. There is relatively low day trading, making a technology solution difficult.
Currently most large scale traders pick up the phone and call brokers like the good old days of the stock market. So to answer your question, yes you need to request a quote from each. There are also bloomberg streams for pricing and some brokering companies publish indexes that they believe reflect the current pricing.
Re: Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
love this. what are the biggest frustrations you're currently seeing w/ REC markets? i was surprised at how hard it is to compare REC prices. Like, am I supposed to request a quote from each of these? https://www.green-e.org/certified-resources It'd be great to snap a pic of my utility bill and get back the best REC pricing... :)
A big problem in the REC markets is lack of price transparency. I worked for a startup a while back building a trading platform to try to get major players together at a regular interval to agree upon pricing that could then be executed upon and published publicly. The idea didn't pan out; despite having a lot of the biggest traders in the game on board, there just wasn't enough trading to make a company viable. I be…
ugh!
so if I got a quote w/ my utility bill from all those sellers, then got another quote from each next week, or got another quote for a diff utility bill, would the prices returned by each seller vary significantly?
Re: Ask HN: How to fight climate change with software?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
A big problem in the REC markets is lack of price transparency. I worked for a startup a while back building a trading platform to try to get major players together at a regular interval to agree upon pricing that could then be executed upon and published publicly. The idea didn't pan out; despite having a lot of the biggest traders in the game on board, there just wasn't enough trading to make a company viable. I be…
ugh! so if I got a quote w/ my utility bill from all those sellers, then got another quote from each next week, or got another quote for a diff utility bill, would the prices returned by each seller vary significantly?
Probably not widely. They likely have some sort of source of information that they use like for example: 'the current published price on bloomberg by Intercontinental Exchange'. Though this may not be the exact market price of the REC at that particular instant, it would be within a couple cents or so. Also with such a small market the amount you could get per REC changes significantly based on volume. Anyways, you as a customer with a utility bill probably have 0 say in what you sell your RECs for. You already would have signed away those rights when you signed the lease on your solar panels. (at least that's how it all works to the best of my knowledge)