Most recent 40 articles: Green Tech Media
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What the Frack Is Happening With Natural Gas Prices? - Green Tech Media (Oct 23, 2021) |
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Oct 23, 2021 · At the beginning of the pandemic, energy prices crashed. We did an episode of this show trying to figure out how oil prices fell to negative $40 per barrel.Times have changed. Oil is up over $100/barrel. But far more acute is what’s happening with natural gas, particularly in Europe and Asia. In the US, natural gas prices have doubled in the last year. But in parts of Europe, the price has risen more than 5 times.
The disruptions are clear. We're seeing stories of power shortages in China, fertilizer plants being shut down in the UK, and fears about home heating costs in the Northeast US as winter approaches.
So what the heck is going on? How long might it last? ... Read more ...
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Where Will DOE's Loan Program Make the Next Climate Tech Investments? - Green Tech Media (Oct 21, 2021) |
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Oct 21, 2021 · The U.S. Department of Energy is crucial for funding, researching, and testing emerging energy tech.Now, in the Biden era, the agency is orienting itself toward deployment. How difficult is that transition?
Our former co-host Jigar Shah joins Stephen, Katherine, and Ed to discuss his experience running the Energy Department’s loan programs office.
In March, Jigar left his position at Generate Capital (and this podcast) to head into government service and run the loan programs office. Jigar has $40 billion in authority to back a wide range of climate technologies -- and he’s been working on the first round of investments with those dollars.
In the second ... Read more ...
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With an Energy Crisis Brewing, No Peak in Sight for Emissions - Green Tech Media (Oct 14, 2021) |
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Oct 14, 2021 · EIA and IEA are out with projections for emissions and fossil fuel consumption. And they don’t look good. On our current policy trajectory, there is no peak in sight, according to EIA By 2050, we will likely see a 50% increase in energy consumption. And even though renewables will be the fastest-growing new source of energy, hydrocarbon liquid fuels will meet the majority of demand.
That means emissions could rise through 2050, absent massive changes to policy.
In July, the International Energy Agency issued a similar analysis showing that carbon emissions will hit record levels in the coming years. And that spending packages around the world — even at ... Read more ...
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Where Green Hydrogen Is Headed - Green Tech Media (Oct 14, 2021) |
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Oct 14, 2021 · Suddenly everyone is talking about green hydrogen. From South Africa to the United Arab Emirates. From China to Utah. Governments and developers are eyeing hydrogen as a decarbonization tool.
But the rush is also raising lots of questions: Where will hydrogen be most useful? How do you create a supply chain to support it? And how can we ensure it has climate integrity?
For answers, we turned to two experts who are obsessing over the future of hydrogen: Janice Lin and Stephen Lamm.
Janice Lin is the founder and CEO of Strategen. And she’s president of the green hydrogen coalition.
Stephen Lamm is the director of sustainability at Bloom Energy, a company ... Read more ...
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Why TransitTech Is So Vital to Struggling Public Transportation Systems - Green Tech Media (Oct 10, 2021) |
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Oct 10, 2021 · Ride sharing has swept transportation systems over the last decade -- bringing convenience, but also congestion, inequities, and political fights.Now a new category of transportation networking is emerging: TransitTech.
It makes up a class of companies that are using tech to help maximize public transit systems. So what does TransitTech look like post-pandemic?
Tiffany Chu joins Katherine and Stephen this week to discuss the path forward for transit. Tiffany is the co-founder and CEO of Remix, which was recently acquired by Via for $100 million.
We’ll also dig into a new study from Carnegie Mellon University that shows Uber and Lyft are increasing external ... Read more ...
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Carbon Recycling: Microbes, Jet Fuel and Leggings - Green Tech Media (Sep 30, 2021) |
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Sep 30, 2021 · Shayle has been brewing up an investment thesis around how decarbonization will create stratification in traditional commodity sectors, like chemicals and materials.If you can produce the same thing in the same cost range -- but you can do so in a CO2-free or carbon-negative -- you'll reap the rewards.
Lanzatech is a great test case for that thesis, as well as a great story to tell about the history of this sector. It was founded in 2005 as a biofuels company. Now, it captures industrial waste gasses, such as CO2 and CO, and recycles them into the chemicals used to make everything from plastics to medical supplies to fabric for Lululemon. It has even spun out an entire company ... Read more ...
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The Hidden Science Behind Decarbonizing Buildings - Green Tech Media (Sep 30, 2021) |
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Sep 30, 2021 · All around us, hidden inside our buildings, are a series of choices and tradeoffs -- choices with direct impacts on our health, our money, and our energy use. Our buildings are wasteful and are filled with a lot of “embodied” carbon. As a result, buildings directly and indirectly account for 40 percent of global emissions.
How do we make those choices with better building science?
And how do we use that science to design carbon out of our buildings?
This week, Katherine and Stephen are joined by Christine Williamson, the creator of Building Science Fight Club. She is a building scientist who teaches architects how to think more intelligently about ... Read more ...
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Microsoft’s $1B Climate Innovation Fund - Green Tech Media (Sep 24, 2021) |
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Sep 24, 2021 · In January 2020, Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft, announced that the company had set a target of becoming carbon negative by 2030.
How does the company plan to do it? What does going carbon negative actually entail?
Brandon Middaugh, the Director of Microsoft’s $1B Climate Innovation Fund, comes on the show to explain. The fund invests in various climate technologies as a part of the company’s overall climate efforts. Investments in its portfolio cover carbon removal, carbon marketplace innovation and the circular economy, among others.
(The fund’s first investment was in Energy Impact Partners, where Shayle is a partner).
Shayle and ... Read more ...
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Will Direct-Air Carbon Capture Be Viable? - Green Tech Media (Sep 20, 2021) |
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Sep 20, 2021 · Carbon capture has long been criticized as too nascent, too expensive, and too distracting. Is that changing?This month, the Swiss company Climeworks officially launched a direct-air capture plant in Iceland, called Orca.
The company has already signed deals with SwissRe, Bill Gates, Stripe, and Shopify to sell them credits from the plant. But the tech is still pretty expensive and relatively small scale.
Climeworks wants to build megaton-scale plants by the end of the decade. Lots of other plants are in the works. So what does this commercial launch signal for the carbon-capture industry?
Plus, new research shows just how drastically we need to slash fossil fuels ... Read more ...
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Will Hydrogen Look Like Solar? - Green Tech Media (Sep 16, 2021) |
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Sep 16, 2021 · The road to solar glory has been littered with failed companies -- the ones you may know (Solyndra) and hundreds you probably do not.
Will the burgeoning hydrogen space follow a similar bumpy road? Hydrogen is at a similar phase of market and technological maturity, with similar levels of hype.
In this episode, Shayle talks to Raffi Garabedian, the former CTO of pioneering solar manufacturer First Solar and now the co-founder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen Co. (Disclosure: Shayle just led Energy Impact Partners’ investment in the company).
First Solar was one of the very few Western companies that survived the price pressure, commoditization and trade dynamics ... Read more ...
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Power After Carbon - Green Tech Media (Sep 14, 2021) |
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Sep 14, 2021 · The electric grid is a central pillar of a zero-carbon economy. But in an era of unrelenting weather extremes, it’s also one of the most fragile.This week: what does power after carbon look like?
Katherine and Stephen are joined by Dr. Peter Fox-Penner, author of a new book called, “Power After Carbon.”
Peter is the founder of the Boston University Institute of Sustainable Energy. And he’s a partner and chief strategy officer at the VC firm Energy Impact Partners.
At the turn of the last decade, Peter wrote a book called “Smart Power” that looked at the new pressures that utilities were facing around climate policy, emerging ... Read more ...
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Climate Tech Brings in $16 Billion. Where’s It Going? - Green Tech Media (Sep 09, 2021) |
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Sep 09, 2021 · In the world of venture capital, climate tech is about as hot as it gets. In the first two quarters of 2021, climate tech companies raised $16B from VCs. New designated funds are announced regularly, startup valuations are sky high, and times are frothy. It's never been a better time to be a climate tech entrepreneur.
It's easy to get lost in the noise -- so what does the hard data say? How much investment are we talking about, really? Where is it coming from, and who is it going to? And what does that tell founders about how to operate and grow their businesses?
To answer these questions, Shayle turns to Climate Tech VC, the leading newsletter on climate and innovation. ... Read more ...
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The Climate Workhorse: Extremely Cheap, Clean Electricity - Green Tech Media (Sep 02, 2021) |
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Sep 02, 2021 · There is no path to deep decarbonization that doesn't involve a clean power sector. And there is no path to a clean power sector that doesn't involve deploying massive amounts of wind, solar, and lithium-ion batteries.Those three technologies don't solve the entire problem of climate change, but they are the workhorses that will power a broader, multi-sector decarbonization approach.
The power sector itself is around a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. And a net-zero electricity sector is the key that unlocks a host of other decarbonization pathways, from hydrogen to carbon removal to transportation.
So what exactly is happening in the utility-scale renewables ... Read more ...
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Why This IPCC Climate Report Is Different - Green Tech Media (Aug 30, 2021) |
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Aug 30, 2021 · The world’s most scrutinized and peer-reviewed document is out: the IPCC report on climate change. Thousands of scientists have spent decades pouring over every measurement and research report known. The findings are clearer than ever: It is “virtually certain” that the increases in extreme temperatures and droughts are caused by human activity.
The economic and human toll from climate change is here. So how is this report different from previous IPCC reports?
Plus, is the push for hydrogen a real pathway, or a clever way to lock in more emissions? We’ll look at the debate over “blue” hydrogen emissions.
And, how far have the ... Read more ...
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Why Fertilizer Is Such a Big Climate Problem - Green Tech Media (Aug 26, 2021) |
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Aug 26, 2021 · The Nobel prize in chemistry in 1918 was awarded to a German man named Fritz Haber for a process to fix nitrogen from the air. The technique, which later became known as the Haber-bosch process, is probably one of the four or five most important inventions of the last century.
Because nitrogen feeds crops. And as our population boomed during the 20th century, nitrogen fertilizer became the core fuel of our food system. It is estimated to have fed about half of the world's population.
Nitrogen fertilizer is incredibly important, and we still produce the vast majority of our fertilizer using this same process. This has all sorts of ramifications that are less than ideal ... Read more ...
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As Profits Rise, Oil Majors Face New Pressures - Green Tech Media (Aug 13, 2021) |
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Aug 13, 2021 · We started the Covid pandemic at negative oil prices. Today, benchmark prices are above $70. And top oil companies are reporting billions of dollars in profits.And now there is more scrutiny than ever on how they’re going to spend that money.
Activist shareholders are starting to get climate champions on oil major board seats -- most notably, climate tech investor and former wind executive Andy Karsner on Exxon Mobil’s board.
A dutch court is now forcing Shell to reduce the emissions from its products by 45%, after a successful lawsuit from environmental groups. Oil executives now have their lawyers on speed dial.
And big asset managers, like BlackRock, ... Read more ...
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The Big Moment for Carbon Accounting - Green Tech Media (Aug 13, 2021) |
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Aug 13, 2021 · Carbon accounting and disclosure is getting attention at the highest levels.Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, said in July: "I think updates to public company disclosures and to fund disclosures [on climate] could bring needed transparency to our capital markets. When it comes to disclosure, investors have told us what they want. It’s now time for the Commission to take the baton."
Gensler directed SEC staff to pull together a rulemaking proposal on mandatory corporate climate risk disclosure by the end of this year. It could be a watershed action, so to speak.
The world of enterprise carbon accounting, management and disclosure has been garnering a lot of ... Read more ...
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A New Inflection Point for Clean Energy - Green Tech Media (Aug 10, 2021) |
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Aug 10, 2021 · We're at a new phase of the clean energy transition. Extreme heat, drought and floods are increasing in frequency. Public attention on clean energy is stronger than ever. The Biden Administration is putting zero-carbon energy at the core of its policies.And there's another powerful force: making sure the energy transition is as racially and economically just as possible.
Anton Cohen is a partner at CohnReznick LLP, and national leader of the firm’s Renewable Energy Industry Practice. He's been advising companies across a wide range of industries: tech, manufacturing, public tax credits, and energy.
Today, he focuses exclusively on renewables: “All we do is ... Read more ...
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The Crypto vs Climate Showdown - Green Tech Media (Aug 06, 2021) |
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Aug 06, 2021 · In the great debate over crypto mining vs. climate, there are two camps.First, the crypto enthusiasts, like Square, say things like, "Bitcoin is key to an abundant, clean energy future".
And then there are the energy wonks, who point out that, if bitcoin mining were a country, it would already be in the top 30 for total energy consumption, rivaling Ukraine.
The energy camp tends to dismiss the crypto enthusiasts’ thinking. They’re skeptical of how crypto mines could be assets to a decarbonizing grid, rather than a strain on it.
So to cut through the noise, Shayle spoke to Nick Grossman, a partner at the respected venture capital firm Union Square ... Read more ...
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What Emerging Climate Tech Sectors Are Ready for Growth? - Green Tech Media (Aug 03, 2021) |
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Aug 03, 2021 · After 30 years of R&D and commercial proof, hundreds of billions in institutional dollars are pouring into now-conventional tech like wind, solar and batteries.
But there’s a whole class of technologies that are ready to scale. And investors who are increasingly ready to back them.
As we heard in our previous show, there was a record $17 billion in venture capital going into climate tech in 2020.
With all this money dropping into the space, where can it have the highest impact? What are the areas where we have commercial viability, but still need significant breakthroughs?
Our guest co-host this week is Nneka Uzoh Kibuule, a senior vice president at ... Read more ...
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Form Energy Unveils Its Iron-Air Battery - Green Tech Media (Jul 30, 2021) |
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Jul 30, 2021 · Back in 2016, Mateo Jaramillo left Tesla, where he was leading the stationary energy storage business, and started looking for a new challenge to tackle. He took on long-duration energy storage -- not long duration like 8 hours or 12 hours, but days or weeks or more. In 2017 he came on the show to talk about it. He formed a company, now Form Energy, that has been toiling on this problem in stealth mode. Apart from saying they were building a "metal air" battery, his team held the technology close to the vest.
That is, until last week. The company announced a $200M Series D financing led by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, and in the process finally made public ... Read more ...
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The M&A Turf Battle Over Wind, Solar and Storage Projects - Green Tech Media (Jul 21, 2021) |
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Jul 21, 2021 · In March of 2020, Covid shut down economies, closed off supply chains, and sent unemployment to historic levels. No one knew what would come next for energy.Oil prices went into negative territory. Industrial electricity use plummeted. Residential demand shot up. And there were big pipelines of renewable energy projects waiting to get built.
“I think we were all a little bit nervous about how COVID was going to affect all of the deal flow in the market,” says Britta von Oesen, a managing director at CohnReznick Capital.
Britta is the person at the table brokering tax structures and project sales that move money into renewable energy. So did Covid destroy her ... Read more ...
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A New Era for Climate-Focused Venture Capital - Green Tech Media (Jul 19, 2021) |
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Jul 19, 2021 · During the height of the pandemic in 2020, venture capital poured into climate technologies at record levels. It was a happy surprise amidst a collapsing economy and years of investment stagnation. Venture investments in climate tech topped $17 billion in 2020 across more than 1,000 deals. Five years ago, it had fallen to $5.2 billion — a 30 percent decrease from a previous peak in 2011.
Our guest co-host this week is Emily Kirsch, the founder and CEO of Powerhouse. She’s also the host of Watt It Takes, the entrepreneurship series about founders tackling climate change.
Suddenly, it’s cool to be putting your money into the sector again. And ... Read more ...
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How Biden's Clean Electricity Standard Might Work - Green Tech Media (Jul 19, 2021) |
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Jul 19, 2021 · This week, we’ll take a peek at the news. Last week, president Biden unveiled his administration's plan for a $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan which the democrats hope to pass through reconciliation. While the details are still sparse, we do know that one of the linchpins of the Biden administration's climate strategy -- a national clean electricity standard (CES) -- is included in the plan.
It's a big deal. If you care about the power sector, a national CES might be the most impactful piece of legislation affecting it in decades. If you care about decarbonization, almost every pathway drives directly through a decarbonized power sector combined with large-scale ... Read more ...
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The Price is Right: Deep Decarbonization Edition - Green Tech Media (Jul 12, 2021) |
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Jul 12, 2021 · In this episode, we’re measuring the energy transition using “Price is Right” rules. Our former co-host Stephen Lacey is back on the show to face off against our current host, Shayle Kann. Producer Daniel Woldorff steps in as arbiter.
We’ll guess stats and trivia about climate tech, and discuss what those figures mean for the energy transition. They cover the MSRPs of popular EVs, the cheapest PPA in the world, carbon prices, carbon capture investments, industrial materials and more.
Who won?* Have a listen to find out!
*Note: Our producer Daniel miscounted the score. It didn’t affect who won, but he’s going back to math classes ... Read more ...
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Extreme Weather Keeps Maxing Out the Grid - Green Tech Media (Jul 09, 2021) |
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Jul 09, 2021 · It’s been a very intense year for America’s power grid. Across the country, the electricity system just faced another stress-test as extreme heat taxed power plants and grid operators in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and New York.Since 2000, outages across the U.S. have increased by 67%. Is the power system ready for tomorrow’s extreme weather -- today?
Stephen and Katherine are joined by Dr. Melissa Lott, a senior research scholar and the director of research at the Center on Global Energy Policy.
Plus, we’ll discuss a secret recording of an Exxon lobbyist bragging about the company’s efforts to delay climate policy. What does it tell us ... Read more ...
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The New 'Valleys of Death’ in Climate Investing - Green Tech Media (Jul 01, 2021) |
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Jul 01, 2021 · There were about eight years when climate tech was wandering in the wilderness, so to speak. It started after the Solyndra bankruptcy in 2011 and ended about two years ago, when the market began heating up again.During that time, people in this space examined the valleys of death. What are the stages in a climate tech company’s life cycle that might be painful -- or even fatal -- to go through? And what resources can a company draw upon to cross these valleys?
To tackle those questions, Shayle spoke to Amy Duffuor, a principal at PRIME Impact Fund, which is set up specifically to help startups cross that chasm (Shayle is on PRIME's investor advisory council).
Amy ... Read more ...
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Where Are the Gaps in Climate Tech? - Green Tech Media (Jul 01, 2021) |
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Jul 01, 2021 · We spend most of our time on this show talking about what's happening in climate tech. What technologies, business models, and markets are being developed? By whom? And how much impact will they ultimately have on decarbonization?But there's an equally interesting topic. What isn't happening? In other words, where is the white space? What areas, technologies, or markets need more attention?
The mandate of a new non-profit called Actuate is to identify and fill gaps across multiple areas, including climate. They focus on R&D, using a model similar to the US federal government’s DARPA or ARPA-e programs.
Today, Shayle talks to Actuate’s Director of Climate Lara ... Read more ...
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How A.I. Will Revolutionize Climate Tech - Green Tech Media (Jun 17, 2021) |
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Jun 17, 2021 · The array of AI applications within climate tech is staggering -- and rapidly expanding. There are lots of exciting point solutions, but there’s no clear example of AI directly and meaningfully reducing GHG emissions on a global scale. Yet.
Last year we had Priya Donti on the show. She’s a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon and co-chair of the Climate Change AI organization. This week, she came back with her Climate Change AI co-chair Lynn Kaack, a postdoc researcher at ETH-Zurich.
Priya and Lynn were co-authors on a blockbuster paper on the topic back in June 2019, called “Tackling climate change with machine learning.”
They came back on the ... Read more ...
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Tracking the Equity Outcome of Decarbonization - Green Tech Media (Jun 16, 2021) |
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Jun 16, 2021 · We can measure the energy transition in any number of ways. The hundreds of millions of solar panels and wind turbines installed. The gigatons of carbon reduced. Or the number of jobs created.But how do we measure the equity outcome?
Our guest co-host, Dr. Destenie Nock, is focused on exactly this question. She is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Nock is creating new models for energy-systems planning that factor in positive social objectives, not just cost or reliability metrics.
Any decarbonization strategy is a de facto justice/equity strategy, as frontline communities will see the most benefit. But ... Read more ...
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Coal Is Uncompetitive. Why Do We Burn So Much? - Green Tech Media (Jun 11, 2021) |
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Jun 11, 2021 · America gets 20 percent of its electricity from coal. That’s a 50 percent drop since the peak in 2007. But if coal is becoming so economically uncompetitive, why does it still make up so much of our grid mix?
This week: Coal is no longer king. But it still has a lot of power across the land. How do we banish it for good?
Katherine and Stephen welcome Joe Daniel as a guest co-host this week. Joe is a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Joe joins us to talk about the problem of coal plant “self-scheduling,” which locks in operation of dirty power plants even when the economics don’t make sense.
We’ll also ... Read more ...
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Where Are We in the Hydrogen Hype Cycle? - Green Tech Media (Jun 01, 2021) |
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Jun 01, 2021 · The excitement around green hydrogen has grown dramatically in recent years. Will it live up to the hype?This week, we turn to technologist, author and investor Ramez Naam.
Ramez and Shayle examine the drivers behind cost improvement -- namely the costs of electricity and different electrolyzer technologies -- and why they are likely still a long way off the deep declines hydrogen needs to scale.
They also cover the hurdles hydrogen may face along the way to scale, including fierce competition from grey hydrogen, fossil fuels, and electrification.
There’s also the location question: Where are you going to make green hydrogen with renewables? The answer: ... Read more ...
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A Wartime Plan for Electrifying America - Green Tech Media (May 23, 2021) |
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May 23, 2021 · What if someone told you that we have everything we need to decarbonize most of the economy? We would just need to start electrifying every new car, furnace, water heater, drier, and cookstove, and industrial process starting right now. And yeah, and put solar on every roof that can handle it.
This week: a wartime plan for winning the climate fight with clean electricity. What’ll it take? How possible is it?
Saul Griffith is our guest co-host. He’s the founder and chief scientist of Rewiring America. He’s also the author of the upcoming book “Electrify,” from MIT Press.
If we are on a wartime footing for decarbonizing the economy, Saul ... Read more ...
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How Cheap and Abundant Can Clean Power Get? - Green Tech Media (May 21, 2021) |
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May 21, 2021 · A decarbonized power sector will unlock massive opportunities across nearly every other sector, either via direct electrification or indirect electrification via the production of low-carbon fuels, like green hydrogen.But here’s the rub. Many of the companies that are working on these solutions rely on pretty heroic assumptions around the cost, availability and cleanliness of electricity in order for the economics to work.
To put it bluntly, many decarbonization business models hinge on a cell deep in their spreadsheets that has 1- to 3-cent per kilowatt-hour electricity. Is it a realistic assumption?
To tackle that question, Shayle Kann turns to his colleague at ... Read more ...
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What Are 'Transformational’ Utilities Doing Right? - Green Tech Media (May 17, 2021) |
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May 17, 2021 · First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then they transform?This week: a look at some positive trends guiding the utility sector. What are power providers that are leading the energy transition doing right? We’re joined by Julia Hamm, the president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance.
We’re talking about SEPA’s 2021 utility transformation profile -- a survey and ranking system of over 130 electric utilities in the US.
There are thousands of power companies. That means different flavors of corporate goals, management styles, and approaches to building clean energy. Julia’s going to help us understand what they ... Read more ...
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Remaking the Climate-Resilient City - Green Tech Media (May 14, 2021) |
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May 14, 2021 · The pandemic has forced just about every part of society to reckon with resilience, but for cities the question is especially urgent. Will the global trend toward urbanization, which has been underway for more than 50 years, change its trajectory? Will increasing density remain the norm?The intersection of these two issues -- resilience and urbanism -- is relevant in a COVID context, but it's also increasingly important in a climate context.
Shayle has talked about how the increasing prevalence and magnitude of natural disasters are going to slowly but surely foster a "culture of resilience" in society, where we're forced to deal with the likelihood that once in 100-year ... Read more ...
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Jigar Shah Has $40 Billion. What Will He Do With It? - Green Tech Media (May 07, 2021) |
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May 07, 2021 · The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office might be the most talked about -- and yet least understood -- part of the federal government’s efforts to support climate tech. It has already invested more than $35 billion in everything from Tesla's first big factory to the first two nuclear reactors to begin construction in the U.S. in more than 30 years. It was crucial in getting the first multi-hundred-megawatt solar projects ever developed off the ground.
Today it has more than $40 billion of available loan capacity to throw at the next wave of climate technologies to scale.
And now, as of a couple months ago, it has Jigar Shah as the director. ... Read more ...
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Is Offshore Wind Finally Coming to America? - Green Tech Media (May 07, 2021) |
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May 07, 2021 · The lack of progress on offshore wind in America is one of the most perplexing stories in energy. The technology and resource availability are tremendous. Europe has de-risked the technology and proven it can be deployed at scale, and at low cost, with minimal disruption. U.S. states are setting big targets. And at a national-scale, people want it.
And yet, we have not been able to get any meaningful amounts of offshore wind capacity in the water.
That may be about to change. In late March, the Biden team said it plans to accelerate offshore wind development -- with a goal of getting 30 gigawatts of projects finished by 2030, and 110 gigawatts by 2050.
By ... Read more ...
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Pathways to Transforming Heavy Industry - Green Tech Media (Apr 30, 2021) |
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Apr 30, 2021 · here are few areas harder to decarbonize than heavy industry. But the stakes are high. Altogether, industry represents over 30% of global GHG emissions, when counting both direct process emissions and industrial energy use.It’s also a huge opportunity for innovation. This week, Shayle talks with Rebecca Dell, the Director of the Industry Program at The Climateworks Foundation, about the technologies that might transform cement, steel and petrochemicals.
Shayle and Reecca go industry by industry, examining the pathways to decarbonization. They cover a range of technologies, including carbon capture and storage, alternative chemistries, recycling, hydrogen and biomass, ... Read more ...
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Banking Is the Main Pressure Point for Climate - Green Tech Media (Apr 30, 2021) |
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Apr 30, 2021 · In 2015, then-Secretary of State John Kerry called the Paris climate treaty a “tremendous victory.” In the years since, $3.8 trillion has flowed into fossil fuels globally.Now Kerry and other White House officials are focusing on banks and insurers that are still offering a lifeline to new fossil fuel projects. Can they slow the flow of cash?
This week: why finance is the main pressure point for climate.
All the major banks are collectively supporting hundreds of billions of dollars worth of renewables projects every year. But few are giving up on fossil fuels. One environmental campaigner put it to The Guardian this way: “the banks are gorging on ... Read more ...
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