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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#151

Post by a_square_peg »

counters wrote: post #126
jandrewrogers wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple issues I see with basic access and working with large datasets. Ease of access for typical users is also a valid issue. First, we still mostly move the data to the computation when we should be moving the computation to the data. Moving the data works fine when data is small but if the data volumes are large (as sensor/geo data tends to be) then it can take an incredibly long time to move the data.…

Want to make sure you're familiar with the Pangeo community: www.pangeo.io I don't think any of these challenges are "solved", but there's a groundswell of technology that is well-situated to make a big impact in these domains. The largest barriers that still remain are the ownership of engineering processes/workflow to transform larger gridded datasets to ARCO (analysis-ready, cloud-optimized) formats, as well as to…

+1 for Pangeo. We use these toolsets heavily (Xarray, Zarr, Dask) to run our service, which is essentially what you described as taking the larger gridded datasest to ARCO format. I think this is still a bit too heavy for casual Excel/GIS analysts so we try to make it as simple as possible for them to get climate data in CSV or NetCDF format for their work.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#152

Post by worldsayshi »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #103
a_square_peg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, is accessing & working with large datasets a problem in your areas of work? I run a weather/climate site that makes some of this less painful, taking datasets such as GFS or ERA5/ERA5-Land much faster to access. We have some enterprise clients who really value the time-saving aspect of this but I also feel like everyone has their own data-processing set up and problems are different for everyone.

There are a couple issues I see with basic access and working with large datasets. Ease of access for typical users is also a valid issue. First, we still mostly move the data to the computation when we should be moving the computation to the data. Moving the data works fine when data is small but if the data volumes are large (as sensor/geo data tends to be) then it can take an incredibly long time to move the data.…

This sounds really interesting. Would be really interested to work around these things. Thinking and working a lot with similar-ish systems. But not sure how to enter the related green-tech space when living in Europe. Would love to try to build a product myself but then I need a customer to try ideas with.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#153

Post by ZeroGravitas »

ibejoeb wrote: post #111
bombcar wrote: post #104

> 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. I mean heat pump water heaters already exist [346] and they're reasonable in most everywhere (they put extra load on the furnace in cold climates in the winter but can still be a win overall). The main advance here migh…

>water heaters Are we being serious? I have an electric water heater. I have an induction cooktop, which is electric by necessity. I have an electric clothes dryer. (Is there even a consumer-grade gas-fired clothes dryer on the market?) The consumer experience is fine. I turn on the hot water tap and hot water comes out. What am I missing?

One existing water heater innovation:

https://www.mixergy.co.uk/products/mixergy-tank/

Has both stupid innovation (Alexa integration) and sensible (working with the grid to balance demand, innovative design that saves energy and heats up faster when you need it quickly)

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#154

Post by failuser »

slg wrote: post #39
SalimoS wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 !

Exactly, they are asking for technology that can shift their industry. They aren't asking for Tesla's baggage any more than a request for "Uber for X" implies they want a company that will ignore regulatory requirements.

I’m pretty sure that “Uber for X” implies some degree of ignoring regulations long enough to have power to change them.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#155

Post by drusenko »

HockeyPlayer wrote: post #63

> In the not-too-distant future, vehicles will charge when excess solar is available Emporia Energy's smart EV charger can already do this. So can our $9 smart plug. Disclosure: I work there.

Big fan of your products :) Have bought a dozen of them personally.

From what I understand, excess solar is more common in markets that have asymmetric import/export prices, like Australia, that strongly incentivize self-consumption vs. exporting back to the grid. CA is likely to implement this with NEM 3.0 so we are likely to start seeing this shift in behavior in the US soon as well. Right now there isn't much of an economic incentive to do excess solar in markets with symmetric NEM compensation (I'm sure you know all of this).

Other problem we have in the US vs. AU is our cost of installation is so high that it makes oversizing systems somewhat cost prohibitive, which is what you'd need to do to get enough excess solar to charge an EV.

Third problem is where cars are parked during the day while the sun is shining, which may be tough for people who commute to work. Energy storage can obviously help here somewhat.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#156

Post by nawitus »

bombcar wrote: post #104

> 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. I mean heat pump water heaters already exist [346] and they're reasonable in most everywhere (they put extra load on the furnace in cold climates in the winter but can still be a win overall). The main advance here migh…

You just need a spot market for electricity and then you can program the water heater to follow the spot price (or rather avoid heating when it's expensive).

This is available already in a few heat pump water heaters in Finland.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#157

Post by nawitus »

bombcar wrote: post #115
ibejoeb wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>water heaters Are we being serious? I have an electric water heater. I have an induction cooktop, which is electric by necessity. I have an electric clothes dryer. (Is there even a consumer-grade gas-fired clothes dryer on the market?) The consumer experience is fine. I turn on the hot water tap and hot water comes out. What am I missing?

The only thing I can think of is a water heater that knows when power is cheap and preheats water hotter than it needs to be so it's available when you need it without using power ... I guess?

This is becoming quite common in Finland (thanks to insanely high spot prices of electricity). Shelly is usually used to do the automation. Note that the water is not heated "hotter than necessary" but rather water is heated up to the max amount when the price is cheap.

Traditionally water heaters were only on at night.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#158

Post by nawitus »

manv1 wrote: post #102

Really, the big win is going to be "efficient air conditioning for poor countries" and "using materials other than concrete to build." Everyone loves AC. The more money you have the more you use it. And everyone in poor countries uses concrete to build. The bad thing is that these two things combine: the concrete box that is your building heats up like a brick oven, making AC work more. Doh!

You can add a bit of insulation inside the concrete to make the house require less cooling than (any?) wooden house.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#159

Post by worldsayshi »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #65

I've worked in "climate intelligence" for many years. The list overlooks one of the largest and most immediate opportunities around that market: the data infrastructure and analysis tools we have today are profoundly unfit for purpose. Just about everyone is essentially using cartography tools to do large-scale spatiotemporal analysis of sensor and telemetry data. The gaps for both features and practical scalability…

What potential customers are there for climate intelligence systems?
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