Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
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Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#2Zero Mass Water: A startup selling specialized panels that use solar power and batteries to pull water from the air. The goal is to reduce the amount of energy needed to access clean drinking water without geographical limitations.
There is a lot of energy involved in the phase change of water. We've also had dehumidifiers for over 100 years. The takeaway from that is, dehumidifiers produce don't produce water well in arid environments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc7WqVMCABg
This makes me wonder if the Gates Foundation is properly utilizing scientific expertise.
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#3I wrote this article, and I'm happy to field any questions
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#4Zero Mass Water: A startup selling specialized panels that use solar power and batteries to pull water from the air. The goal is to reduce the amount of energy needed to access clean drinking water without geographical limitations. There is a lot of energy involved in the phase change of water. We've also had dehumidifiers for over 100 years. The takeaway from that is, dehumidifiers produce don't produce water well i…
So the tech inside Zero Mass Water is not the same as dehumidifier. Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals.
But you're right. It's the company that I was most surprised to see in the list. The economics don't yet make sense to me.
I pushed Carmichael Roberts (BEV's head of investing) to explain. He said he has studied water startups for years, and he really likes the tech. But more importantly, he is very impressed by Cody's skill to sell this unit and far wide. It's already in 16 countries.
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#5I wrote this article, and I'm happy to field any questions
I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male'
I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't investments like these best directed at the companies with most promise, with the investors blind as to gender and race, with equality problems tackled elsewhere (e.g. in employment regulation etc.)?
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#6I wrote this article, and I'm happy to field any questions
I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male' I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't i…
It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/
We've tried being gender and race blind. But it's not helped us much, because systemic biases can't simply be overcome that way. There are good ideas in all corners, but if you want to elevate those that don't come from privileged backgrounds you have to work harder.
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#7Zero Mass Water: A startup selling specialized panels that use solar power and batteries to pull water from the air. The goal is to reduce the amount of energy needed to access clean drinking water without geographical limitations. There is a lot of energy involved in the phase change of water. We've also had dehumidifiers for over 100 years. The takeaway from that is, dehumidifiers produce don't produce water well i…
So the tech inside Zero Mass Water is not the same as dehumidifier. Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals. But you're right. It's the company that I was most surprised to see in the list. The economics don't yet make sense to me. I pushed Carmichael Roberts (BEV's head of investing) to explain. He said he has studied wat…
Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals.
So it's using a dessicant? Heating a saturated dessicant in an enclosed environment can produce a hot, high humidity environment where dehumidification is easy. That said, it will still produce the most water someplace like San Francisco, where the humidity is high. There are places where humidity is high and the rainfall is very low.
Apparently, Zero Mass Water is using some good engineering to get something like a 4X efficiency increase for water extraction over existing commercial dessicant dehumidifiers. It's possible that removing the requirement to process large volumes of air could produce such an efficiency increase.
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#8[deleted]
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#9Start familiarizing yourself with the term "deep adaptation".
Re: Bill Gates-led $1B energy fund expands startup portfolio fighting climate change
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the tech inside Zero Mass Water is not the same as dehumidifier. Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals. But you're right. It's the company that I was most surprised to see in the list. The economics don't yet make sense to me. I pushed Carmichael Roberts (BEV's head of investing) to explain. He said he has studied wat…
Instead, they use a sophisticated absorbent to selectively capture water, heat it to release the water, then sterilize and add minerals. So it's using a dessicant? Heating a saturated dessicant in an enclosed environment can produce a hot, high humidity environment where dehumidification is easy. That said, it will still produce the most water someplace like San Francisco, where the humidity is high. There are places…
Stupid question, is this targeted at producing water or is it targeted at producing clean water where contaminated water is available?