Request for Startups: Climate Tech
ycombinator.com
Request for Startups: Climate Tech
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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#2The 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 there.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#3Lately 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 costs instead? A device that loses 90%+ of the energy when converting sun to fuel, would be viable if the cost of the machine would just be low enough, and scaled up enough. Such a device would in theory have a near 0 cost of operation once installed, so with a long enough life span it would be profitable.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#4The 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…
Which ideas are doomed to fail? I would love to hear your feedback
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#5The 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 conference crowd. They would have to find another “the sky is falling down” cause. That would also lead to less justifications for war from the war crowd if all the world had true energy security. Maybe that’s why?
Reminds me of this previous initiative:
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#6The 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 carbon-free world will end up economically worse off -- it's goods won't be competitive in the global marketplace. A government cannot subsidize itself to competitiveness in all markets.
Solve that problem, and the world will decarbonize itself almost overnight.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#7The 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...
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#8Lately 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.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#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 Tesla vehicles are rated, and the unanimous lack of confidence in "autopilot" I've witnessed in owners, no way in hell am I do I want to "Teslify" everything in my home. In order to prove that there's something wrong with the current consumer experience, you have to bring an example to show it. So far, I've only seen ways to further add more surveillance and advertising into everyday people's lives, not to mention the increased disposability of appliances. No thanks.
Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech
#10Lately 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…
I think you're on to something, it makes me curious what the energy expenditure of one of these operations is in a conventional deployment, then what it would be over time with solar being the producer of energy.