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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#161

Post by emmelaich »

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…

We need sensors for carbon presence over distance and time in the ocean. At huge scale, to test the viability of various carbon sequestration schemes. That's pretty expensive, with a large non-software component.

I know this from a peripheral involvement in one the XPRIZE projects.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#162

Post by nawitus »

lolinder wrote: post #33
notlukesky wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Renewables need to be supplemented" is a very different claim from "the only thing that would move the needle ... is reliable nuclear energy" (emphasis added). Nuclear energy can't solve the problem on its own either , because you still need plants to deal with rapid changes in demand. We shouldn't be working towards a silver bullet, we should be using a lot of different technologies together to solve the problem.

You just need nuclear and existing hydropower, which boils down to you just need nuclear. It's not politically probable or realistic though, but we really just need nuclear technically speaking.

Nuclear can also follow loads, but there's no economical need to build them to do that (in almost any market).

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#163

Post by tator22 »

phillipcarter wrote: post #142

It's a little disappointing not to see investments in regenerative agriculture. Granted, most of the work here isn't in software but in actually...farming...but still, the more energy put in that space, the more we'll see it be used as a standard for how we get our food.

There are lots of things involved in the regen ag sector they should be looking at.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#164

Post by tdaltonc »

quelsolaar wrote: post #150
tdaltonc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Thanks for the link! $15 is a reasonable price where a company hyper focused on lowering the cost of manufacturing of C02 extraction machines, could become very competative withing a reasonable timeframe.

It kind of floored me when I first heard it. Tripling the cost of jet fuel would be bad, but not that bad. And that number is likely to fall.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#165

Post by [deleted] »

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 !

[deleted]

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#166

Post by bombcar »

nawitus wrote: post #157
bombcar wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah the "max amount" can vary - I have mine set higher than "you should" to prevent Legionnaires' disease and then have a mixer that reduces the temperature back to safe for the house.

https://www.amazon.com/Cash-Acme-Thermostatic-Temperature-Ap...

That's a very low tech solution that could take some advantage, and thermal mass of water is pretty high, especially if the tank is well insulated.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#167

Post by knutzui »

worldsayshi wrote: post #152
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.…

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.

We are building data storage and processing infrastructure at a company that connects DERs. This involves storing large amounts of structured, time-series data. This data is then further processed and used for all kinds use cases, many of which were mentioned in the first half of the post's article. (e.g. energy management systems, load management etc.)

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#168

Post by kokanee »

gumby wrote: post #139
cjcenizal wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds amazing! Could you share more info about your startup?

You can read more at www.bluedotchange.com 4 Gt is roughly all the anthropogenic CH4, responsible for about a third (or possibly a half) of temperature rise. After that we will continue at a lower level in order to keep curating the level and as a precaution against methane bursts. 4 Gt of CH4 is considered roughly equivalent to 120 Gt of CO2

Fascinating - saving the planet by adding iron chloride to the mix of pollutants emitted by diesel-powered tanker ships in order to convert methane into CO2. I can't imagine many more ways in which the approach could be unintuitive, but if it works and the side effects are thoroughly understood, I appreciate the pragmatism!

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#169

Post by jandrewrogers »

worldsayshi wrote: post #159
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?

Don't think of it as a "climate intelligence" system. It is really an "analyze complex dynamics in the physical world at global scale" system, one application of which is climate intelligence. Everything is fundamentally anchored to space and time, and connected by it.

The applicability cuts across industries. It would enable managing many kinds of risks that have nothing to do with climate.

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