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Request for Startups: Climate Tech
11–20 of 282 posts
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#12The only thing that would move the needle on a massive societal level is reliable nuclear energy in every city and country. But is that too hard for startups to tackle? Or it doesn’t fit the narrative? Every other climate “tech” just nibbles at the margins if that even. And the byproduct of mass nuclear energy adoption would be that the issue is solved and there would be no more climate mongering amongst the conferen…
Why do people keep spouting this nonsense? Yes there is a place for nuclear in the mix, but renewables have already moved the dial in a lot if countries. I the uk about 40% of our energy is from renewables, mostly wind at 25% and biomass for much of the rest. Or does that not fit your narrative? Or do you not consider that moving the needle? It's a damn sight easier, quicker and cheaper to put up wind turbines and solar panels than it is to build new nuclear reactors as well
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#13> Tesla for home appliances: re-inventing home appliances (water heaters, induction stoves, clothes dryers, etc) to create better consumer experiences using specific advantages of electric technology. > Tesla-like experience for home energy management: smart hub, including smart charging, load shifting, software-based load shedding for improved resiliency, and better circuit-level energy use measurement. With how Tes…
Venture capitalists using Tesla in some kind of virtue signal is the most 2022 thing
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#14The missing thing: international incentive structures. Today, most things are done the most economical way. And that might involve emitting carbon. A country which regulates the emissions of carbon will end up producing goods and services using carbon free methods - but those methods will often be less economically efficient than the carbon producing method, even at scale. So any country that goes all in on the carbo…
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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#15Lately i've been thinking that right now may be a great time to start an oil company. Cost of solar is going down so capturing c02 and turning it into fuel is looking like a viable option. People would pay a premiun for carbon neutral fuel. Most climate companies, focused on carbon capture, tried to make the most efficient carbon capture possible, but what if one focused on scalability and reducing manufacturing cost…
Electro-fuels currently cost about $15 per gallon - In case anyone else was curious.
https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/fuels-us-euro...
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#16The only thing that would move the needle on a massive societal level is reliable nuclear energy in every city and country. But is that too hard for startups to tackle? Or it doesn’t fit the narrative? Every other climate “tech” just nibbles at the margins if that even. And the byproduct of mass nuclear energy adoption would be that the issue is solved and there would be no more climate mongering amongst the conferen…
Why do people keep spouting this nonsense? Yes there is a place for nuclear in the mix, but renewables have already moved the dial in a lot if countries. I the uk about 40% of our energy is from renewables, mostly wind at 25% and biomass for much of the rest. Or does that not fit your narrative? Or do you not consider that moving the needle? It's a damn sight easier, quicker and cheaper to put up wind turbines and so…
The core issue is that they are unreliable when there is no wind or sunlight. Storage at scale is still not affordable or available for the whole world. The recent electricity issues that western Europe faced are indicative of the failings of unSustainable energy.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#17The only thing that would move the needle on a massive societal level is reliable nuclear energy in every city and country. But is that too hard for startups to tackle? Or it doesn’t fit the narrative? Every other climate “tech” just nibbles at the margins if that even. And the byproduct of mass nuclear energy adoption would be that the issue is solved and there would be no more climate mongering amongst the conferen…
> They would have to find another “the sky is falling down” cause.
You've nailed it. The people in power don't want to fix these problems. They'd like them to get worse, actually. "Never let a crisis go to waste" has the corollary "if a crisis doesn't exist, create one."
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#18The missing thing: international incentive structures. Today, most things are done the most economical way. And that might involve emitting carbon. A country which regulates the emissions of carbon will end up producing goods and services using carbon free methods - but those methods will often be less economically efficient than the carbon producing method, even at scale. So any country that goes all in on the carbo…
You might be interested in the EUs new carbon border adjustment tax. https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab...
It appears that all solutions to this problem require one of:
* All countries to agree on an incentive scheme (unlikely - although big trading blocs like EU/China/Russia/USA might be able to bully the rest of the world into it with the threat of sanctions if they do not agree)
* Some countries to agree on a scheme, and to break WTO rules to penalize (carbon tax) imports and subsidize exports to/from those who do not.
Or... the world continues on the current trajectory of decarbonizing highly visible things only (Electric cars, solar panels on the roof!) to appease voters while avoiding decarbonizing anything that much affects nationwide competitiveness (eg. steel/fertilizer production).
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#19> Tesla for home appliances: re-inventing home appliances (water heaters, induction stoves, clothes dryers, etc) to create better consumer experiences using specific advantages of electric technology. > Tesla-like experience for home energy management: smart hub, including smart charging, load shifting, software-based load shedding for improved resiliency, and better circuit-level energy use measurement. With how Tes…
The way I see it when talking about Tesla it’s talking about the pre/post Tesla (aka the transition from ICE to EV in all auto makers) and not the build quality of Tesla per se !
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#20The list feels like "this is everything you can try" rather than "this is everything you should try". Some of these are "let's take an unrelated industry and try to cram climate into its story", others are ideas that are doomed to fail. And the "if only forests existed forever they would be a better carbon sink" argument is so flawed I am disappointed to see it at all. But, also a lot of good projects to work on in t…
YC's business model is to invest in "everything you can try." I don't think this intended to be a list of opportunities that YC believes are 100% likely to succeed; it's intended to be a list that probably includes one or more ideas that will succeed.