Best here is likely defined as "has a sensible expected value of actually affecting the problem", so includes things useful today like credit marketplaces as well as exploratory like frontier carbon capture.
Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
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Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#2I don't see any company actually affecting the problem meaningfully in the short term. There are plenty of renewable, cooling, carbon capture companies out there that may be investigating future tech, but not at the scale that will make a real impact.
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#3PBS Nova covered some of them here.
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#4TESLA
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#5Come work with us at Salk Harnessing Plants Initiative
The expected value of your individual is high because we need more engineering expertise
https://www.ted.com/talks/joanne_chory_how_supercharged_plan...
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#6Here are a bunch of promising software companies worth joining, competing with, partnering with:
https://www.aurorasolar.com/ https://utilityapi.com/ https://www.folsomlabs.com/ https://www.sighten.io/ https://www.energytoolbase.com/ https://home.alsoenergy.com/
Climate change is (often/best seen as) an economic problem. Companies that cut the cost of renewable energy are the ones that matter. Soft cost reduction (as opposed to silicon wafers, transformers, etc.) is the best place for software to make a difference.
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#7Climate Change AI's paper (https://www.climatechange.ai/paper) lists some key areas in which AI can mitigate climate change. An area of critical importance is time series forecasting. Google's AI fund has backed one company in this space: https://www.myst.ai/
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#8How about this:
- Change the way we commute: Tesla
- Change the way we work: Zoom and other remote work enablers
- Change the way we eat: Beyond / Impossibe and other meat substitutes
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#9I don't see any company actually affecting the problem meaningfully in the short term. There are plenty of renewable, cooling, carbon capture companies out there that may be investigating future tech, but not at the scale that will make a real impact.
Aren't wind and solar marginally the least expensive power and outpacing the growth of things like coal?
I think the technology to solve climate change exists, deployment is the issue and many companies are working on it actively (e.g. SunPower), installing GW of renewable power and/or storage. Even if scale isn't where it needs to be, that's all the more reason to work in the sector because marginal effort will return actual GHG emission reductions since it's not just research anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Best companies working on climate in 2020?
#10I don't see any company actually affecting the problem meaningfully in the short term. There are plenty of renewable, cooling, carbon capture companies out there that may be investigating future tech, but not at the scale that will make a real impact.
Aren't wind and solar marginally the least expensive power and outpacing the growth of things like coal? I think the technology to solve climate change exists, deployment is the issue and many companies are working on it actively (e.g. SunPower), installing GW of renewable power and/or storage. Even if scale isn't where it needs to be, that's all the more reason to work in the sector because marginal effort will retu…
Yeah, renewables can bid the lowest to the grid. They are gaining traction, but it will still take decades to replace the existing infrastructure. Even then, it won't fix the issue. We'd have to make similar changes to other infrastructure like vehicles and capture existing carbon. Then there's a bunch of other contributors, such as landfills, asphalt surfaces, even things like heat pumps and refrigerators when looking at local issues cities. So it will keep the issue from getting worse, but it won't fix it.