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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#21

Post by Grustaf »

ravenstine wrote: post #9

> 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…

Tesla is indeed a strange choice for a simile, considering that Tesla cars use prodigious amounts of energy compared to other electric cars, or other cars in general. I doubt they're even more environmentally friendly overall than a compact combustion engine car. Tesla made electric cool by building an over the top luxury car, what we really need is the opposite.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#22

Post by HideousKojima »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #12
notlukesky wrote: post #5

The 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 problem is that a lot of the claims of "Renewables providing X percent of energy in country Y" are massaging the numbers. See the countless examples from Germany over the last decade (I'm including one of the most shared examples of this at the bottom of my post), suddenly shown to be highly deceptive by what has happened over the last year with Russian gas imports to Germany.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/renewables-cover-about-...

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#24

Post by czbond »

SalimoS wrote: post #19
ravenstine wrote: post #9

> 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 !

^ This. There is just a backlash on HN with Elon hurting so many people's feels about Twitter & having an alternate political view, that everyone is seeing him in a negative light.

Tesla helped push ICE to EV even though technologically some of the efforts may have been done at other companies and products before - yet Tesla pushed the experience mainstream.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#25

Post by r_hoods_ghost »

notlukesky wrote: post #16
r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The recent electricity issues are because Putin invaded Ukraine and reduced the gas supply. Which is nothing to do with sustainable energy.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#26

Post by gustaf »

notlukesky wrote: post #5

The 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…

We are big believers in Nuclear energy, and it's part of the RFS.

But many other sectors need to be electrified for nuclear power to have its decarbonization impact: buildings, industry, transportation etc.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#27

Post by c54 »

quelsolaar wrote: post #3

Lately 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…

This is the play that Terraform Industries is engaging in as well. Cost for synthesizing a unit of methane from atmospheric CO2 and water using solar power is set to drop lower than the cost of drilling it out of the ground.

https://terraformindustries.com/

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#28

Post by psadri »

kokanee wrote: post #8
quelsolaar wrote: post #3

Lately 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…

https://www.twelve.co is doing this (with fuels as well as other carbon-derived chemicals). Trouble is, this is carbon recycling, not carbon sequestering. It's better than the status quo, but I'm more excited about ideas that either sequester GHGs permanently or replace industrial GHG-generating processes permanently.

The first step is to reduce emissions, then stop them all together and finally sequester them to return to pre-climate-change level. I'd welcome all solutions along that spectrum.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#29

Post by bokohut »

A great list to start with yet there are still several items missing from their projected speculations. As a core software architect and founder who has built multiple acquired ecommerce systems prior to and since the dotcom bust long ago I feel it prudent to emphasize to those that lack the experience to see what is happening yet again in an even more critical modern societal industry. The coming energy opportunities for those entrepreneurs among us here that possess the appropriate subject matter knowledge across hardware and software is significant, I cannot state it enough, “extremely significant”. Should you have the tenacity and drive to create and build something which others state is not possible then there is no time like the present to start and prove them wrong as every living person NEEDS energy. Who knows, maybe along the way you even enjoy the journey and make a little income too.
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