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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

287 points by jeremylevy 4y ago

powera 4y ago
The 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.
- gustaf 4y ago
  Which ideas are doomed to fail? I would love to hear your feedback
  - powera 4y ago
    I'd rather not give a thorough list, for obvious reasons. I will note one example, they note "Long-haul aviation does not currently have a generally accepted path to electrification", but include it on the list anyway.
- kokanee 4y ago
  YC's business model is to invest in "everything you can try." I don't think this intended to be a list of opportunities that YC believes are 100% likely to succeed; it's intended to be a list that probably includes one or more ideas that will succeed.
quelsolaar 4y ago
Lately 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.
- kokanee 4y ago
  https://www.twelve.co 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.
  - psadri 4y ago
    The first step is to reduce emissions, then stop them all together and finally sequester them to return to pre-climate-change level. I'd welcome all solutions along that spectrum.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    There's no fundamental difference between burning a synthetic fuel or burning a fossel fuel and sequestering the resulting carbon. Both are zero-carbon. Yes, sequestration can go negative-carbon, but that doesn't help anybody who has a difficult to replace fuel burning process.
  - pcl 4y ago
    Storing liquids (or solids) from at STP is far simpler than storing it in gaseous form. If we can cheaply extract CO2 or methane from the atmosphere and make liquid from it, we could sequester it in all sorts of trivial ways.
    - kokanee 4y ago
      Sure, but that's not what Twelve is doing or what the "I should start an oil company" comment suggested. They're talking about extracting CO2 to make fuel, and then burning it again in the same petroleum-based economy.
      - pcl 4y ago
        Yeah sure. And that ties into all our existing infrastructure, which seems fair. If we can extract and burn and extract and burn and keep going with that loop (without dinosaur input), then all that extract-burn cycle is zero-carbon. We can then separately decide to pump some of that cycle’s output into easy liquid storage, thus going carbon-negative.
notlukesky 4y ago
The 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: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Independence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Independence
- r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
  Why do people keep spouting this nonsense? Yes there is a place for nuclear in the mix, but renewables have already moved the dial in a lot if countries. I the uk about 40% of our energy is from renewables, mostly wind at 25% and biomass for much of the rest. Or does that not fit your narrative? Or do you not consider that moving the needle? It's a damn sight easier, quicker and cheaper to put up wind turbines and solar panels than it is to build new nuclear reactors as well
  - notlukesky 4y ago
    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.
    - r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
      The recent electricity issues are because Putin invaded Ukraine and reduced the gas supply. Which is nothing to do with sustainable energy.
      - yongjik 4y ago
londons_explore 4y ago
The 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.
- tdaltonc 4y ago
  You might be interested in the EUs new carbon border adjustment tax. https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab95b https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab...
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    It appears that all solutions to this problem require one of: * All countries to agree on an incentive scheme (unlikely - although big trading blocs like EU/China/Russia/USA might be able to bully the rest of the world into it with the threat of sanctions if they do not agree) * Some countries to agree on a scheme, and to break WTO rules to penalize (carbon tax) imports and subsidize exports to/from those who do not. Or... the world continues on the current trajectory of decarbonizing highly visible things only (Electric cars, solar panels on the roof!) to appease voters while avoiding decarbonizing anything that much affects nationwide competitiveness (eg. steel/fertilizer production).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- toiletfuneral 4y ago
- theptip 4y ago
ravenstine 4y ago
> 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.
- fundad 4y ago
  Venture capitalists using Tesla in some kind of virtue signal is the most 2022 thing
  - snordgren 4y ago
    Considering what a terrible year this has been for Tesla stock and their absentee CEO it would be more fitting in 2021. The brand has enough baggage by now that the second-highest comment chain is about its unsuitability as an ideal, rather than discussing the content itself.
    - fundad 4y ago
      That was the point. It’s vey 2022 to gaslight us about how we’re experiencing these VC darlings.
- SalimoS 4y ago
  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 4y ago
[deleted]
datalopers 4y ago
I'm confused, I searched for both "crypto" and "web3" on that page and there are no results?
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  Hopefully YC stops investing in those companies to help the environment
- z3c0 4y ago
  Then may I ask why you're shoehorning it into the conversation in such an unsubstantial way? Seems more like a cheap jab than a worthwhile opinion.
  - wintogreen74 4y ago
    Well, if YC is positioning themselves as "helping to solve the problem" I think it's completely valid to call them out for previously "helping to create the problem", in a humorous way.
  - datalopers 4y ago
    Because YC and other VC shops wouldn't shut the fuck up about crypto, web3, and blockchain across 2020-2021 and that sort of behavior doesn't get a free pass. Now they've moved onto Generative AI.
    - z3c0 4y ago
      I'm sure they've learned their lesson, thanks to your cutting insights.
- cjcenizal 4y ago
  There is a bit under "Tarpit ideas": "Carbon removal credits on the blockchain. Using blockchain technology to solve the double-counting of carbon credits is an attractive idea but in our experience it’s just a technology choice and a small piece of the product you ultimately have to build."
- 4y ago
bokohut 4y ago
A great list to start with yet there are still several items missing from their projected speculations. As a core software architect and founder who has built multiple acquired ecommerce systems prior to and since the dotcom bust long ago I feel it prudent to emphasize to those that lack the experience to see what is happening yet again in an even more critical modern societal industry. The coming energy opportunities for those entrepreneurs among us here that possess the appropriate subject matter knowledge across hardware and software is significant, I cannot state it enough, “extremely significant”. Should you have the tenacity and drive to create and build something which others state is not possible then there is no time like the present to start and prove them wrong as every living person NEEDS energy. Who knows, maybe along the way you even enjoy the journey and make a little income too.
- jerrygenser 4y ago
  This paragraph seems gpt-like
  - bokohut 4y ago
    I unfortunately regret to disappoint you that a living breathing homo sapien wrote this, me. My writing style is mine and mine alone although GPT could very well imitate my style but in this case it did not.
gumby 4y ago
We plan to remove 4 Gt of atmospheric methane but the YC terms are too high for us. We're just funding it the old fashioned way.
- cjcenizal 4y ago
  This sounds amazing! Could you share more info about your startup?
  - gumby 4y ago
    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
    - kokanee 4y ago
      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!
    - chris_va 4y ago
      Ah, the ISA approach. I could never calibrate the fringy-ness of that idea. Do you have evidence that it works in-situ, or any ideas of how to test this in an observable way? If so, there are folks interested.
      - gumby 4y ago
        It is demonstrated in the lab and we are developing a way to assay what’s going on in the open air. Lot of interesting work in this area.
tdaltonc 4y ago
> Tarpit Ideas > Carbon removal credits on the blockchain. Using blockchain technology to solve the double-counting of carbon credits is an attractive idea but in our experience it’s just a technology choice and a small piece of the product you ultimately have to build. I can't believe how often I hear this reasoning from people: Carbon credits have a double-counting problem? Blockchains prevent "double-spend"! Perfect solution! But as the quote points out, double-counting of carbon credits is not a software problem. At Jasmine, we're tokenizing climate assets but not to prevent "double-spend." https://medium.com/jasmine-energy/why-is-jasmine-building-on-a-blockchain-a5a37d98822b https://medium.com/jasmine-energy/why-is-jasmine-building-on...
- danrocks 4y ago
  I read the linked article and I could not make any sense of it.
AdamH12113 4y ago
Are high-margin luxury products really going to decarbonize the world? It seems pretty rare for companies that start on that path to move downmarket, but isn't that what we need to fight climate change?
mjhay 4y ago
Attempting to solve climate change with virtue-signalling consumption and production is worse than useless. That doesn't mean such things are necessarily bad startup ideas, though, but few things turn me off more than this sort of thing.
- mym1990 4y ago
  No one that has an interest in making profit will ever tell someone to stop consuming.
paxys 4y ago
Funny that after so many years of funding and encouraging crypto mining the VC industry now decides to go "green".
- ebiester 4y ago
  With 800 billion dollars of funding from the government, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to follow the cash.
  - kokanee 4y ago
    Yeah, this is not VC "going green" for ethical reasons, this is VC investing in the next tech wave, which luckily is climate tech.
- NationalPark 4y ago
  Those generative AI companies aren't exactly lean on energy usage either. It's about capturing the IRA money, which to their credit they are very up front about. Maybe something good will come out of it, after all, that's the point of the government spending! If they save the world purely out of self interest then we still get the saved world...
  - paxys 4y ago
    And what about when they take the government money and start doing innovative work, then once the funding dries up they realize that bitcoin mining is more profitable after all and promptly switch back to that. That's the problem with putting public good in the hands of private entities who have their next quarterly report to worry about and not much else.
- aussiesnack 4y ago
  What's odd about that? Capitalism, of which VC is the pointy end, is unapologetically nihilistic.
pclmulqdq 4y ago
I'm going to throw this out there: most of the promising companies in this space are likely going to get their seed funding from federal grants rather than incubators like YC. You may not be seeing deal flow because your product is unattractive to them in comparison.
- kokanee 4y ago
  This may have been true a few years ago but climate tech is very trendy among investors right now, and every VC is going to want their piece. https://www.svb.com/industry-insights/clean-tech-sustainability/the-rise-of-climate-tech-investments https://www.svb.com/industry-insights/clean-tech-sustainabil...
  - pclmulqdq 4y ago
    Whether they want their piece and whether the companies want to give it to them are two different stories. I expect that series A/B investors with $5 million to throw in at a $25 million valuation are getting a lot of deal flow here, since that's larger than a grant will reasonably get you. The seed stage is where an appropriately-sized chunk of government money is still readily available, especially if you are a spin-off of a well-known research group. This realistically means that in things like battery technology and carbon capture, YC and other seed funds will get the dregs.
peoplefromibiza 4y ago
a few ideas, in no particular order - stop burning fossil fuels to the altar of the crypto crazy - stop burning enormous amounts of fossil fuel to produce AI models that poorly replicate human skills, without asking if someone wanted it - support power efficient devices or appliances. I despise Apple, for a lot of reasons, but the M series is a big step in the right direction. - don't buy Teslas, buy small cars that occupy a small parking space, if you live in a city. Better yet, don't buy a car, car companies will die eventually, better sooner than later, so we can make them a thing of the past like we did with horsecars. All of us would feel dumb riding or buying one of those nowadays, right? - support companies that actually do what they say, "90% recycled material" or "90% carbon neutral" is a brand, it's green washing, it's almost never true for large corporations. It will take the aforementioned Apple at least another 20 years to become really green, as in CO2 neutral and as of their actions had no terrible consequences on real people, in the real World. - The only ADV I was able to endure in the past 20 years was "buy better, wear for longer" by Levis. Which is actually a very good thing to do for the environment and for ourselves as humans. Fast fashion is stupid.
- smackeyacky 4y ago
  - don't buy a new car ever again, just fix your old one.
  - peoplefromibiza 4y ago
    good one! there's a bit of regulatory problems in Europe[1] about that, cars need to adhere to certain emission standards to circulate in large areas of big cities, but definitely fix before buying is the old way that becomes new again. In this light the right to repair is very important. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards
vsareto 4y ago
>Low or zero emissions concrete Feels like there's already options there. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a40785162/microalgae-carbon-neutral-cement/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a4078516... https://cen.acs.org/materials/Chemex-goes-global-carbon-neutral/98/i42 https://cen.acs.org/materials/Chemex-goes-global-carbon-neut... Although I'm betting it's better to just radically cut demand rather than try to invent a really good carbon-neutral/negative concrete. If we could sink a whole bunch of carbon into concrete though (significant carbon capture -> magic? -> concrete), that would be cool though. That's a really uncomfortable fact with a lot of climate issues: it's way better to just not do the thing instead of trying to find a neutral/net-negative carbon process for the thing.
- gustaf 4y ago
  Making the world cut demand for concrete might actually sound dramatically harder than making zero-emission concrete. (and both are extremely hard!)
  - pclmulqdq 4y ago
    Ironically, wood is starting to look like a very promising building material for tall structures that is comparatively green.
smileysteve 4y ago
Hybrid water heaters, active anode rods, and adaptive timing seem very revolutionary already. The other revolutionary aspect would be smaller point of use instant heaters that the world except the US use. Tldr; a lot of existing innovation exists that the US isn't purchasing.
karol 4y ago
Twitter: explaining through power of free speech why climate change is a fraud.
HockeyPlayer 4y ago
> 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.
- drusenko 4y ago
  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.
DoreenMichele 4y ago
Some thoughts: 1. We know for a fact that mangroves can mitigate tsunami damage. I've been looking into this and a lot of tree-planting programs really suck and are basically failures. Additionally mangroves are tropical plants and -- so far -- I am failing to find an alternative for colder climates. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051028141252.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051028141252.h... 2. We certainly need energy solutions and I'm happy to see people work on that, but we could use more companies working on passive solar solutions as well. Most passive solar solutions are best implemented from the get go (from breaking ground on a new building), but some can be added after the fact. There is likely lots of low-hanging fruit in that second category. 3. Middle-eastern countries and their architectural traditions have many practices that help mitigate heat levels inside buildings and even at street level. These seem to be largely unknown outside such countries and we are missing a huge opportunity to export or adapt such traditions to other places to try to adapt to hotter temps.
- _whiteCaps_ 4y ago
  Kelp is an alternative for the north. Unfortunately it's been disappearing because of warming oceans. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/05/27/5-reasons-to-protect-kelp-the-west-coasts-powerhouse-marine-algae https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/...
- ph0rque 4y ago
  re: mangrove forests, there's a company I'm following that is working on replanting them as part of a permaculture solution: https://regenerativeresources.co/ https://regenerativeresources.co/
browningstreet 4y ago
All this is relatively pointless (save "potentially profitable") without removing fossil fuels from general usage.
- dqpb 4y ago
  The best way to remove fossils fuels from general usage is to make electric options cheaper/better that fuel options.
jandrewrogers 4y ago
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 are massive. It has made most of the climate intelligence analysis we'd like to do, and for which data is available, intractable. And what we can do is so computationally inefficient that we figuratively burn down a small forest every time we run an analysis on a non-trivial model, which isn't very green either. (This is definitely something I'd work on if I had the bandwidth, it is a pretty pure deep tech software problem.)
- babelfish 4y ago
  Where could I read more about this problem and how it's being tackled today?
  - tony_cannistra 4y ago
    I hesitate to link to Twitter here, but Joe Morrison has his finger on the pulse of this and offers a tongue-in-cheek perspective that I appreciate: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison
    - 2devnull 4y ago
      Thanks for posting. His substack piece on the 3 m’s is very appropriate.
- a_square_peg 4y ago
  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.
Raed667 4y ago
Do people really believe we can innovate our way through climate change?
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  Yes, in fact I think we probably already have. There's still some politicss to overcome, but if the cheapest source of energy is low carbon then the problem is mostly solved in the big picture. As long as we don't hit too many tipping points we should be okay.
  - hocuspocus 4y ago
    You're making pretty extraordinary claims here. While low carbon electricity might be the cheapest source of energy on spot markets, that's a really tiny part of the picture. We still need to figure out large scale storage and electrify everything, those aren't solved problems. But let's assume we solve them. Do we have enough metallic resources on Earth that we can extract cheaply? Do we have enough cheap fossil fuels left to actually do that? Historically there's no energy transition: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitution?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitutio... New sources of energy have made the world consume more of the old ones, not less. Same thing with technological innovation and gains in energy efficiency.
- dqpb 4y ago
  Are you suggesting there is a solution without innovation, or that there is no solution at all?
  - carabiner 4y ago
    Public policy >> tech solutions. You might get a few people to replace their water heaters if you come up with one more efficient, but that's nothing compared to federally funded nuclear plants.
    - janalsncm 4y ago
bmitc 4y ago
I'm not convinced that the solutions to climate change are tech related. If anything, climate change is tech driven. Addressing climate change doesn't really require startups and venture capitalist pump and dump schemes. It requires social and behavioral changes, mainly centered around consumption. Basically everything on this list would increase consumption, manufacturing, construction, road building, etc. There are many, many known solutions to climate change that do not require any new science or technology. We just don't want to do them. Lists like these are really just trying to invent new tech and science that allows us to keep current levels of consumption.
- admax88qqq 4y ago
  > It requires social and behavioral changes, mainly centered around consumption. So far it seems these changes are going to be impossible to achieve. Like you say we just don't want to do them. Current levels of consumption will continue, and increase. So given that as a prior what are how do you approach the problem? If we can't change human behaviour can we innovate our way out of the problem?
  - bmitc 4y ago
    I think that's part of my larger point that companies and startups simply cannot solve this problem and are really part of the problem. Governments could mandate and incentivize changes, but companies would come kicking and screaming. > If we can't change human behaviour can we innovate our way out of the problem? Most human innovations have increased climate change. I have little optimism that we can suddenly adjust the dial. And capitalism is simply at odds with reducing or even moderating consumption.
    - agonmon 4y ago
      If you ever want to stop wallowing in misanthropic nihilism, I recommend reading books like "More From Less" - Mcafee which shows that capitalism does in fact reduce/moderate consumption. Next look at "Speed and Scale" - Doerr, or "How to Solve a Climate Disaster" - Gates for a giant list of human innovations that will in fact decrease/reverse climate change.
someweirdperson 4y ago
> Problems & Ideas: > Home pre-wiring Ductwork for cables? The problem unsolved in practice is post-wiring. A neat device would be a robotic remote controlled drill that can work itself through brick walls vertically from floor to floor (including steel-reinforced concrete ceilings) and in curves if needed. Hugely expensive toy, but creating no dirt, compared to classic methods of adding more wires.
atlasunshrugged 4y ago
Curious, anyone working on automation in the mining space? I'm interested in jamming out with people about doing work in the industry. Or using airships in places like africa to transport minerals from mines to regional hubs (e.g. to avoid the huge delays on roadways currently happening between DRC and Zambia).
- johnny313 4y ago
  This company is working on hydrogen powered ultra-class trucks: https://firstmode.com/ https://firstmode.com/
- init 4y ago
  I'm interested in this space and other mining-adjacent industries in the DRC-Zambia copper belt region due to the potential of this region to be a key player in central Africa's development and the world's move into electric vehicles. The main challenge is getting capital. Let's get in touch!
carapace 4y ago
Probably the biggest environmental win would be to make arcologies: ecologically integrated cities. > Arcology, a portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",[2] is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and ecologically low-impact human habitats. > The term was coined in 1969 by architect Paolo Soleri, who believed that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. These structures have been largely hypothetical, as no arcology, even one envisioned by Soleri himself, has yet been built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology You would include the "Living Machines" designed-ecosystem technology of John Todd, et. al. to process waste and produce food and (some) medicines on site. https://www.toddecological.com/ https://www.toddecological.com/ I dunno if you could make a startup out of it though.
manv1 4y ago
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!
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  Air conditioners are already pretty efficient, so you're not going to get huge wins there. But solar-powered air conditioning could be a huge win. You can avoid the DC-AC-DC conversion losses, and avoid any impact on the grid. Most people without air conditioning would be quite happy with air conditioning that only works while the sun is shining.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- nawitus 4y ago
  You can add a bit of insulation inside the concrete to make the house require less cooling than (any?) wooden house.
  - marcosdumay 4y ago
    Concrete insulates quite well by itself. I don't understand the GP's complaint. It can be improved, and there are several improved alternatives on the market since basically forever, but it's not bad by itself, and it's certainly better than wood. (I really thought it would be about concrete CO2 emissions at first.)
bombcar 4y ago
> 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 might be more "smart integration" with the grid, but that is going to have to be a national level thing. [346] https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-water-heaters
- ibejoeb 4y ago
  >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?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    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?
    - nawitus 4y ago
      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.
      - bombcar 4y ago
        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-Application/dp/B01CIRY99A/ 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.
algoatecorn 4y ago
The agriculture section is disheartening. What is the VCs worlds' obsession with cellular ag and mushrooms? Totally missing the forest for the trees here. Global calorie supply is dependent on the Haber-Bosch process i.e. Nitrogen fixation. The next big agricultural breakthrough will be some form of nitrogen fixation: 1. That is not affected by a reduction of fossil fuels 2. Is on par with Haber-Bosch in terms of elemental Nitrogen application 3. Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences Also, the food industry is heavily reliant on energy sources that are not easily replaced by renewables. It needs dense energy like diesel and natgas. So there's another topic that should be funded.
- paulcole 4y ago
  > Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences This is getting more and more irrelevant by the day. If “climate tech” fails to “fix” climate change (a goal which I believe to be impossible), then it’s not going to matter what people’s preferences are — the choices are going to be made for them and it won’t matter what they like/dislike.
  - algoatecorn 4y ago
    Then ignore it, but rest still applies and requires innovation. But keep in mind that if two companies provide N-fixing technology, and one of them doesn't require changes in consumer preference, then they will be the winner
  - xupybd 4y ago
    The only way you will get change at scale before disaster is to help people keep their lifestyle. Climate change is a fixable problem. It is not anywhere near the point that choices will be made for people in the next two to three decades.
    - bmitc 4y ago
      Curbing climate change without curbing behavior and lifestyle are completely at odds with each other.
janalsncm 4y ago
Here are some of my unsolicited and harebrained climate startup ideas. I’m poor and I can’t afford to pursue any of these but I believe a carbon-neutral future will require these things: * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. Young people are the most likely to be open to EVs, but they’re also the least likely to own a house. Charging is a major barrier to entry. Create something so cheap and ubiquitous that charging is not a concern. For example chargers built into lamp posts. * Figure out UHVDC to enable clean energy surpluses to be sold internationally. Reliable UHVDC networks will allow clean energy projects to service more geographic area, making them more competitive. Eventually, storage might not even be necessary, since dark/non-windy regions can always pull from regions with wind or sun. And when fusion power comes online in a few decades, huge energy surpluses will be very profitable. * Passive carbon capture via nuclear barges. We’ve had nuclear reactors in the water for decades, let’s put them to use capturing carbon. * Floatovoltaics. Land isn’t always cheap. Put solar panels in other places. There are other positive side effects as well, such as reducing algae blooms and reducing evaporation.
- gtdawg 4y ago
  > * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. https://www.itselectric.us https://www.itselectric.us
  - dopidopHN 4y ago
    Yep. Also, I moved from France 7 years ago. Last year I went back for vacation and rented a EV on a whim. I thought about charger after the fact. Well; in those 7 year the territory got covered in chargers. Private / public mix. Some will likely disappear once things settle a bit but damn, I was surprised
  - andyjsong 4y ago
    https://www.dockcharged.com https://www.dockcharged.com is another one people should check out.
- tdaltonc 4y ago
  For passive carbon capture, I don’t understand what you’re proposing. Let’s pretend: Joe Biden gives you a nuclear aircraft carrier and a team of nuclear engineers. Now what?
Giorgi 4y ago
Wait, what's the point submitting 2022 call?
phillipcarter 4y ago
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.
- tator22 4y ago
  There are lots of things involved in the regen ag sector they should be looking at.
Guthur 4y ago
Private interests have gotten us into this mess, to think that the same can get us out of it is wishful thinking of the highest order.
- agonmon 4y ago
  Better to make mistakes of ambition than of sloth.
  - Guthur 4y ago
    Not advocating nothing. Just don't give monopolies to private interests, it's killing us.
JulianRaphael 4y ago
Anyone wants to kick around ideas? Particularly interested in use cases for technology to improve regenerative agriculture / permaculture operations and water management in the global South (esp. India). You can find my E-mail address in my profile.
carabiner 4y ago
I'm looking for work in this space. 4 years of experience as a DS at a 1m customer electric utility, extensive experience with meter usage data, ML, data pipelines. Traditional background as mechanical engineer so I know physics and stuff.
chasd00 4y ago
Make liquid O2 or Methane 5% cheaper and/or 15% cleaner and you can sell it to SpaceX all day long.
milesward 4y ago
I'm eager to help anyone working in this area, especially if you're needing help with the most green cloud infrastructure: Google Cloud. Miles at SADA.com
siruva07 4y ago
YC was very early to climatetech with a RFS for water back in 2017. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/request-for-startups-water/ https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/request-for-startups-water/ Most people don't equate watertech with climatetech, but climate change is primarily a water crisis—flood & drought—and we need more entrepreneurs in watertech. If you are building something in watertech, ping me, I'm happy to help.
ngoilapites 4y ago
I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?
- brutusborn 4y ago
  I had the same thought. I’m in energy infra design so I care mainly about tech that helps me implement renewables easier. For consumers, simple tools to help them make green decisions would be useful (LCA as you mentioned). Im interested, what kind of behavioural research applications do you mean?
  - ngoilapites 4y ago
    I imagine being able to create new behavioural trends linked to emerging business value. I read serious PR literature and see parallels with the emerging literature on social tipping dynamics. How could this social dynamics be materialised? How to steer them while creating value?
  - CalRobert 4y ago
    For consumer purchases of disposable goods you can use a browser plugin like choosefinch.com/ (disclaimer - I work here).
    - brutusborn 4y ago
      Thanks for the suggestion! Out of interest, do you know if there are any plans to make the impact predictions user-specific? E.g I live in a very isolated city, so transport considerations dictate for some products.
      - CalRobert 4y ago
        We're very, very early and this is valuable feedback, thanks! We do indeed have some plans for personalization.
azhenley 4y ago
What are the opportunities for deep CS research applied to climate? E.g., compilers, databases, program synthesis, and LLMs?
- agonmon 4y ago
  Computer vision for satellite imagery. LLMs might be good for harassing oil companies.
jongjong 4y ago
Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bullshit jobs? How many flights they need to take each year for holidays in order to heal from the accumulated stress of their mind-numbing jobs? How much surplus consumption do these bullshit jobs generate? How much plastic is thrown on the side of the road and into the ocean because people are too concerned about their own survival to give a crap about the environment and the future of mankind? It's quite clear that if we all had less money and worked fewer hours, we would produce less greenhouse gases and live healthier, more fulfilled lives. Unfortunately, the current system is only good at depriving money from some of the population (while giving others a huge surplus) and it only ever demands more hours of work from everyone... So it barely even solves half of the first problem while making everything else worse.
- tofuahdude 4y ago
  Ironically many YCombinator businesses support the opposite. Perhaps the first thing YC needs is a mirror.
  - enduser 4y ago
    Unfortunately they only fund things that people want, not things that people need.
- coffeemug 4y ago
  That's one cultural point of view. Another point of view is that we should get ourselves in a position where we can produce (and consume) infinite clean energy, for example, but building a thousand nuclear power plants. Team mushrooms vs team cocaine.
  - jongjong 4y ago
    We'd still have to take care of the plastics problem and also any population growth problem which would arise from that. It seems that historically, any improvements in efficiency has lead to population booms which negated the efficiency improvements. That's why I think the solution is systemic and cultural. The best that technology can offer IMO is to support a cultural shift and new incentive structures based on scarcity.
roguesupport 4y ago
I guess "Request for Startups: Climate Tech " is easier to stomach than "Help us perpetuate idiotic mythology, and convince the world PLANT FOOD (CO2, which is 0.008% of our atmosphere, of which we only produce 0.004% OF that 0.008%) is somehow 'bad' so we can push communist policies" isn't it? We'll make a site that says "Hur Durr! Duh globul warming" is you give us... Oh , I don't know... 25 million bucks! Deal?
palata 4y ago
> These startups offer commercial solutions to decarbonize society or remove carbon from the atmosphere. By doing this at speed and scale, we have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. The financial opportunity of doing so is massive: an estimated $3-10 trillion in EBITDA will be up for grabs. As one example, Tesla has pushed the car industry to go electric while making $75B in annual revenue at a 60% annual growth rate. I didn't go further than that. They prove in one paragraph that they haven't understood the climate problem at all.
- alchemist1e9 4y ago
  Then I’d be interested if you can explain the problem.
palata 4y ago
The best green startup investment: select very productive engineers, and pay them to stop producing. Maybe they can learn an instrument, or take care of their garden. The less they produce, the better for the planet. Of course that's not what a VC wants. But a VC doesn't really want ecology either, they want money. Pretending to be green just happens to be a profitable strategy.
Brajeshwar 4y ago
Right now, I feel like a kid in a candy store. These comment threads are a gold mine. I will be approaching many of you to learn and get to know you. I hope that that is fine. To let you know beforehand that I'm not spamming, I would like to tell you that I will be sending emails from either brajeshwar@oinam.com or brajeshwar@valinor.earth Since 2018, I have been learning and experimenting with Climate-related activities along with Climate Scientists. The notable ones include building an aeroponics farm inside Bangalore city and delivering rare herbs to a few known cookhouses (YC interviewed and rejected us on this). The other, where I missed most of the involvement but a few, was a prototypical installation of a Vanadium Redox Battery. In 2022, I went all in, and our team figured that most folks (individuals and companies) outside of the ones involved in Climate just want to get things done and don't know what to do about it. We also realize that to be commercially viable while fighting climate change; we need to get involved end-to-end. We started with data and the sexy tech, but we don't even mention that now when talking to potential customers. Some well-known and "successful" climate-tech companies have already started on that path -- building an end-to-end channel -- then sell, up-sell, and side-sell their services, tools, and solutions. Think of how Microsoft owns the channel and introducing a new product is just showing up. We are still very early and have a lot to learn, and act/do. My best wishes and luck to all those doing one or the other thing toward fighting Climate Change.
paganel 4y ago
> By doing this at speed and scale, we have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. I get out from this that the days when one could have had a non-Apocalyptic climate change discussion on this forum are now gone for good. Just saying: "we're doing this for the money, because that's where all the money is now going" would have been better, but whatever it works to keep this forum up and ad-free.
panda888888 4y ago
Climate tech doesn't have to be crazy futuristic ML models or whatever in order to be useful. For instance, I love the Purple Air air quality sensors, which crowdsource data and use a simple existing technology. (See https://map.purpleair.com/ https://map.purpleair.com/). This example may not be "revolutionary" enough for YCombinator, but I'm a fan. Personally, I'd like to see a company that focuses on solar hot water heating. Water heating is usually about 1/3 of a home's energy usage. In several countries, especially in the middle east and in Africa, standalone solar hot water systems are the most common way water is heated. But in the US, solar hot water is nearly non-existent. I'm not talking whole-house solar panels, but rather a small system that you can buy for $~4-5k. There's an opportunity lurking there somewhere.

287 points by jeremylevy 4y ago

The 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.

gustaf 4y ago
Which ideas are doomed to fail? I would love to hear your feedback
- powera 4y ago
  I'd rather not give a thorough list, for obvious reasons. I will note one example, they note "Long-haul aviation does not currently have a generally accepted path to electrification", but include it on the list anyway.
kokanee 4y ago
YC's business model is to invest in "everything you can try." I don't think this intended to be a list of opportunities that YC believes are 100% likely to succeed; it's intended to be a list that probably includes one or more ideas that will succeed.

quelsolaar 4y ago

Lately 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.

kokanee 4y ago
https://www.twelve.co 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.
- psadri 4y ago
  The first step is to reduce emissions, then stop them all together and finally sequester them to return to pre-climate-change level. I'd welcome all solutions along that spectrum.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  There's no fundamental difference between burning a synthetic fuel or burning a fossel fuel and sequestering the resulting carbon. Both are zero-carbon. Yes, sequestration can go negative-carbon, but that doesn't help anybody who has a difficult to replace fuel burning process.
- pcl 4y ago
  Storing liquids (or solids) from at STP is far simpler than storing it in gaseous form. If we can cheaply extract CO2 or methane from the atmosphere and make liquid from it, we could sequester it in all sorts of trivial ways.
  - kokanee 4y ago
    Sure, but that's not what Twelve is doing or what the "I should start an oil company" comment suggested. They're talking about extracting CO2 to make fuel, and then burning it again in the same petroleum-based economy.
    - pcl 4y ago
      Yeah sure. And that ties into all our existing infrastructure, which seems fair. If we can extract and burn and extract and burn and keep going with that loop (without dinosaur input), then all that extract-burn cycle is zero-carbon. We can then separately decide to pump some of that cycle’s output into easy liquid storage, thus going carbon-negative.

notlukesky 4y ago

The 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: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Independence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Independence

r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
Why do people keep spouting this nonsense? Yes there is a place for nuclear in the mix, but renewables have already moved the dial in a lot if countries. I the uk about 40% of our energy is from renewables, mostly wind at 25% and biomass for much of the rest. Or does that not fit your narrative? Or do you not consider that moving the needle? It's a damn sight easier, quicker and cheaper to put up wind turbines and solar panels than it is to build new nuclear reactors as well
- notlukesky 4y ago
  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.
  - r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
    The recent electricity issues are because Putin invaded Ukraine and reduced the gas supply. Which is nothing to do with sustainable energy.
    - yongjik 4y ago

londons_explore 4y ago

The 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.

tdaltonc 4y ago
You might be interested in the EUs new carbon border adjustment tax. https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab95b https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab...
- londons_explore 4y ago
  It appears that all solutions to this problem require one of: * All countries to agree on an incentive scheme (unlikely - although big trading blocs like EU/China/Russia/USA might be able to bully the rest of the world into it with the threat of sanctions if they do not agree) * Some countries to agree on a scheme, and to break WTO rules to penalize (carbon tax) imports and subsidize exports to/from those who do not. Or... the world continues on the current trajectory of decarbonizing highly visible things only (Electric cars, solar panels on the roof!) to appease voters while avoiding decarbonizing anything that much affects nationwide competitiveness (eg. steel/fertilizer production).
deleted 4y ago
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toiletfuneral 4y ago
theptip 4y ago

ravenstine 4y ago

> 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.

fundad 4y ago
Venture capitalists using Tesla in some kind of virtue signal is the most 2022 thing
- snordgren 4y ago
  Considering what a terrible year this has been for Tesla stock and their absentee CEO it would be more fitting in 2021. The brand has enough baggage by now that the second-highest comment chain is about its unsuitability as an ideal, rather than discussing the content itself.
  - fundad 4y ago
    That was the point. It’s vey 2022 to gaslight us about how we’re experiencing these VC darlings.
SalimoS 4y ago
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 !

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datalopers 4y ago

I'm confused, I searched for both "crypto" and "web3" on that page and there are no results?

candiddevmike 4y ago
Hopefully YC stops investing in those companies to help the environment
z3c0 4y ago
Then may I ask why you're shoehorning it into the conversation in such an unsubstantial way? Seems more like a cheap jab than a worthwhile opinion.
- wintogreen74 4y ago
  Well, if YC is positioning themselves as "helping to solve the problem" I think it's completely valid to call them out for previously "helping to create the problem", in a humorous way.
- datalopers 4y ago
  Because YC and other VC shops wouldn't shut the fuck up about crypto, web3, and blockchain across 2020-2021 and that sort of behavior doesn't get a free pass. Now they've moved onto Generative AI.
  - z3c0 4y ago
    I'm sure they've learned their lesson, thanks to your cutting insights.
cjcenizal 4y ago
There is a bit under "Tarpit ideas": "Carbon removal credits on the blockchain. Using blockchain technology to solve the double-counting of carbon credits is an attractive idea but in our experience it’s just a technology choice and a small piece of the product you ultimately have to build."
4y ago

bokohut 4y ago

A great list to start with yet there are still several items missing from their projected speculations. As a core software architect and founder who has built multiple acquired ecommerce systems prior to and since the dotcom bust long ago I feel it prudent to emphasize to those that lack the experience to see what is happening yet again in an even more critical modern societal industry. The coming energy opportunities for those entrepreneurs among us here that possess the appropriate subject matter knowledge across hardware and software is significant, I cannot state it enough, “extremely significant”. Should you have the tenacity and drive to create and build something which others state is not possible then there is no time like the present to start and prove them wrong as every living person NEEDS energy. Who knows, maybe along the way you even enjoy the journey and make a little income too.

jerrygenser 4y ago
This paragraph seems gpt-like
- bokohut 4y ago
  I unfortunately regret to disappoint you that a living breathing homo sapien wrote this, me. My writing style is mine and mine alone although GPT could very well imitate my style but in this case it did not.

gumby 4y ago

We plan to remove 4 Gt of atmospheric methane but the YC terms are too high for us. We're just funding it the old fashioned way.

cjcenizal 4y ago
This sounds amazing! Could you share more info about your startup?
- gumby 4y ago
  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
  - kokanee 4y ago
    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!
  - chris_va 4y ago
    Ah, the ISA approach. I could never calibrate the fringy-ness of that idea. Do you have evidence that it works in-situ, or any ideas of how to test this in an observable way? If so, there are folks interested.
    - gumby 4y ago
      It is demonstrated in the lab and we are developing a way to assay what’s going on in the open air. Lot of interesting work in this area.

tdaltonc 4y ago

> Tarpit Ideas > Carbon removal credits on the blockchain. Using blockchain technology to solve the double-counting of carbon credits is an attractive idea but in our experience it’s just a technology choice and a small piece of the product you ultimately have to build. I can't believe how often I hear this reasoning from people: Carbon credits have a double-counting problem? Blockchains prevent "double-spend"! Perfect solution! But as the quote points out, double-counting of carbon credits is not a software problem. At Jasmine, we're tokenizing climate assets but not to prevent "double-spend." https://medium.com/jasmine-energy/why-is-jasmine-building-on-a-blockchain-a5a37d98822b https://medium.com/jasmine-energy/why-is-jasmine-building-on...

danrocks 4y ago
I read the linked article and I could not make any sense of it.

AdamH12113 4y ago

Are high-margin luxury products really going to decarbonize the world? It seems pretty rare for companies that start on that path to move downmarket, but isn't that what we need to fight climate change?

mjhay 4y ago

Attempting to solve climate change with virtue-signalling consumption and production is worse than useless. That doesn't mean such things are necessarily bad startup ideas, though, but few things turn me off more than this sort of thing.

mym1990 4y ago
No one that has an interest in making profit will ever tell someone to stop consuming.

paxys 4y ago

Funny that after so many years of funding and encouraging crypto mining the VC industry now decides to go "green".

ebiester 4y ago
With 800 billion dollars of funding from the government, there are going to be a lot of opportunities to follow the cash.
- kokanee 4y ago
  Yeah, this is not VC "going green" for ethical reasons, this is VC investing in the next tech wave, which luckily is climate tech.
NationalPark 4y ago
Those generative AI companies aren't exactly lean on energy usage either. It's about capturing the IRA money, which to their credit they are very up front about. Maybe something good will come out of it, after all, that's the point of the government spending! If they save the world purely out of self interest then we still get the saved world...
- paxys 4y ago
  And what about when they take the government money and start doing innovative work, then once the funding dries up they realize that bitcoin mining is more profitable after all and promptly switch back to that. That's the problem with putting public good in the hands of private entities who have their next quarterly report to worry about and not much else.
aussiesnack 4y ago
What's odd about that? Capitalism, of which VC is the pointy end, is unapologetically nihilistic.

pclmulqdq 4y ago

I'm going to throw this out there: most of the promising companies in this space are likely going to get their seed funding from federal grants rather than incubators like YC. You may not be seeing deal flow because your product is unattractive to them in comparison.

kokanee 4y ago
This may have been true a few years ago but climate tech is very trendy among investors right now, and every VC is going to want their piece. https://www.svb.com/industry-insights/clean-tech-sustainability/the-rise-of-climate-tech-investments https://www.svb.com/industry-insights/clean-tech-sustainabil...
- pclmulqdq 4y ago
  Whether they want their piece and whether the companies want to give it to them are two different stories. I expect that series A/B investors with $5 million to throw in at a $25 million valuation are getting a lot of deal flow here, since that's larger than a grant will reasonably get you. The seed stage is where an appropriately-sized chunk of government money is still readily available, especially if you are a spin-off of a well-known research group. This realistically means that in things like battery technology and carbon capture, YC and other seed funds will get the dregs.

peoplefromibiza 4y ago

a few ideas, in no particular order - stop burning fossil fuels to the altar of the crypto crazy - stop burning enormous amounts of fossil fuel to produce AI models that poorly replicate human skills, without asking if someone wanted it - support power efficient devices or appliances. I despise Apple, for a lot of reasons, but the M series is a big step in the right direction. - don't buy Teslas, buy small cars that occupy a small parking space, if you live in a city. Better yet, don't buy a car, car companies will die eventually, better sooner than later, so we can make them a thing of the past like we did with horsecars. All of us would feel dumb riding or buying one of those nowadays, right? - support companies that actually do what they say, "90% recycled material" or "90% carbon neutral" is a brand, it's green washing, it's almost never true for large corporations. It will take the aforementioned Apple at least another 20 years to become really green, as in CO2 neutral and as of their actions had no terrible consequences on real people, in the real World. - The only ADV I was able to endure in the past 20 years was "buy better, wear for longer" by Levis. Which is actually a very good thing to do for the environment and for ourselves as humans. Fast fashion is stupid.

smackeyacky 4y ago
- don't buy a new car ever again, just fix your old one.
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago
  good one! there's a bit of regulatory problems in Europe[1] about that, cars need to adhere to certain emission standards to circulate in large areas of big cities, but definitely fix before buying is the old way that becomes new again. In this light the right to repair is very important. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards

vsareto 4y ago

>Low or zero emissions concrete Feels like there's already options there. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a40785162/microalgae-carbon-neutral-cement/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a4078516... https://cen.acs.org/materials/Chemex-goes-global-carbon-neutral/98/i42 https://cen.acs.org/materials/Chemex-goes-global-carbon-neut... Although I'm betting it's better to just radically cut demand rather than try to invent a really good carbon-neutral/negative concrete. If we could sink a whole bunch of carbon into concrete though (significant carbon capture -> magic? -> concrete), that would be cool though. That's a really uncomfortable fact with a lot of climate issues: it's way better to just not do the thing instead of trying to find a neutral/net-negative carbon process for the thing.

gustaf 4y ago
Making the world cut demand for concrete might actually sound dramatically harder than making zero-emission concrete. (and both are extremely hard!)
- pclmulqdq 4y ago
  Ironically, wood is starting to look like a very promising building material for tall structures that is comparatively green.

smileysteve 4y ago

Hybrid water heaters, active anode rods, and adaptive timing seem very revolutionary already. The other revolutionary aspect would be smaller point of use instant heaters that the world except the US use. Tldr; a lot of existing innovation exists that the US isn't purchasing.

karol 4y ago

Twitter: explaining through power of free speech why climate change is a fraud.

HockeyPlayer 4y ago

> 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.

drusenko 4y ago
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.

DoreenMichele 4y ago

Some thoughts: 1. We know for a fact that mangroves can mitigate tsunami damage. I've been looking into this and a lot of tree-planting programs really suck and are basically failures. Additionally mangroves are tropical plants and -- so far -- I am failing to find an alternative for colder climates. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051028141252.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051028141252.h... 2. We certainly need energy solutions and I'm happy to see people work on that, but we could use more companies working on passive solar solutions as well. Most passive solar solutions are best implemented from the get go (from breaking ground on a new building), but some can be added after the fact. There is likely lots of low-hanging fruit in that second category. 3. Middle-eastern countries and their architectural traditions have many practices that help mitigate heat levels inside buildings and even at street level. These seem to be largely unknown outside such countries and we are missing a huge opportunity to export or adapt such traditions to other places to try to adapt to hotter temps.

_whiteCaps_ 4y ago
Kelp is an alternative for the north. Unfortunately it's been disappearing because of warming oceans. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/05/27/5-reasons-to-protect-kelp-the-west-coasts-powerhouse-marine-algae https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/...
ph0rque 4y ago
re: mangrove forests, there's a company I'm following that is working on replanting them as part of a permaculture solution: https://regenerativeresources.co/ https://regenerativeresources.co/

browningstreet 4y ago

All this is relatively pointless (save "potentially profitable") without removing fossil fuels from general usage.

dqpb 4y ago
The best way to remove fossils fuels from general usage is to make electric options cheaper/better that fuel options.

jandrewrogers 4y ago

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 are massive. It has made most of the climate intelligence analysis we'd like to do, and for which data is available, intractable. And what we can do is so computationally inefficient that we figuratively burn down a small forest every time we run an analysis on a non-trivial model, which isn't very green either. (This is definitely something I'd work on if I had the bandwidth, it is a pretty pure deep tech software problem.)

babelfish 4y ago
Where could I read more about this problem and how it's being tackled today?
- tony_cannistra 4y ago
  I hesitate to link to Twitter here, but Joe Morrison has his finger on the pulse of this and offers a tongue-in-cheek perspective that I appreciate: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison
  - 2devnull 4y ago
    Thanks for posting. His substack piece on the 3 m’s is very appropriate.
a_square_peg 4y ago
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.

Raed667 4y ago

Do people really believe we can innovate our way through climate change?

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Yes, in fact I think we probably already have. There's still some politicss to overcome, but if the cheapest source of energy is low carbon then the problem is mostly solved in the big picture. As long as we don't hit too many tipping points we should be okay.
- hocuspocus 4y ago
  You're making pretty extraordinary claims here. While low carbon electricity might be the cheapest source of energy on spot markets, that's a really tiny part of the picture. We still need to figure out large scale storage and electrify everything, those aren't solved problems. But let's assume we solve them. Do we have enough metallic resources on Earth that we can extract cheaply? Do we have enough cheap fossil fuels left to actually do that? Historically there's no energy transition: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitution?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitutio... New sources of energy have made the world consume more of the old ones, not less. Same thing with technological innovation and gains in energy efficiency.
dqpb 4y ago
Are you suggesting there is a solution without innovation, or that there is no solution at all?
- carabiner 4y ago
  Public policy >> tech solutions. You might get a few people to replace their water heaters if you come up with one more efficient, but that's nothing compared to federally funded nuclear plants.
  - janalsncm 4y ago

bmitc 4y ago

I'm not convinced that the solutions to climate change are tech related. If anything, climate change is tech driven. Addressing climate change doesn't really require startups and venture capitalist pump and dump schemes. It requires social and behavioral changes, mainly centered around consumption. Basically everything on this list would increase consumption, manufacturing, construction, road building, etc. There are many, many known solutions to climate change that do not require any new science or technology. We just don't want to do them. Lists like these are really just trying to invent new tech and science that allows us to keep current levels of consumption.

admax88qqq 4y ago
> It requires social and behavioral changes, mainly centered around consumption. So far it seems these changes are going to be impossible to achieve. Like you say we just don't want to do them. Current levels of consumption will continue, and increase. So given that as a prior what are how do you approach the problem? If we can't change human behaviour can we innovate our way out of the problem?
- bmitc 4y ago
  I think that's part of my larger point that companies and startups simply cannot solve this problem and are really part of the problem. Governments could mandate and incentivize changes, but companies would come kicking and screaming. > If we can't change human behaviour can we innovate our way out of the problem? Most human innovations have increased climate change. I have little optimism that we can suddenly adjust the dial. And capitalism is simply at odds with reducing or even moderating consumption.
  - agonmon 4y ago
    If you ever want to stop wallowing in misanthropic nihilism, I recommend reading books like "More From Less" - Mcafee which shows that capitalism does in fact reduce/moderate consumption. Next look at "Speed and Scale" - Doerr, or "How to Solve a Climate Disaster" - Gates for a giant list of human innovations that will in fact decrease/reverse climate change.

someweirdperson 4y ago

> Problems & Ideas: > Home pre-wiring Ductwork for cables? The problem unsolved in practice is post-wiring. A neat device would be a robotic remote controlled drill that can work itself through brick walls vertically from floor to floor (including steel-reinforced concrete ceilings) and in curves if needed. Hugely expensive toy, but creating no dirt, compared to classic methods of adding more wires.

atlasunshrugged 4y ago

Curious, anyone working on automation in the mining space? I'm interested in jamming out with people about doing work in the industry. Or using airships in places like africa to transport minerals from mines to regional hubs (e.g. to avoid the huge delays on roadways currently happening between DRC and Zambia).

johnny313 4y ago
This company is working on hydrogen powered ultra-class trucks: https://firstmode.com/ https://firstmode.com/
init 4y ago
I'm interested in this space and other mining-adjacent industries in the DRC-Zambia copper belt region due to the potential of this region to be a key player in central Africa's development and the world's move into electric vehicles. The main challenge is getting capital. Let's get in touch!

carapace 4y ago

Probably the biggest environmental win would be to make arcologies: ecologically integrated cities. > Arcology, a portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",[2] is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and ecologically low-impact human habitats. > The term was coined in 1969 by architect Paolo Soleri, who believed that a completed arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. These structures have been largely hypothetical, as no arcology, even one envisioned by Soleri himself, has yet been built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology You would include the "Living Machines" designed-ecosystem technology of John Todd, et. al. to process waste and produce food and (some) medicines on site. https://www.toddecological.com/ https://www.toddecological.com/ I dunno if you could make a startup out of it though.

manv1 4y ago

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!

bryanlarsen 4y ago
Air conditioners are already pretty efficient, so you're not going to get huge wins there. But solar-powered air conditioning could be a huge win. You can avoid the DC-AC-DC conversion losses, and avoid any impact on the grid. Most people without air conditioning would be quite happy with air conditioning that only works while the sun is shining.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
nawitus 4y ago
You can add a bit of insulation inside the concrete to make the house require less cooling than (any?) wooden house.
- marcosdumay 4y ago
  Concrete insulates quite well by itself. I don't understand the GP's complaint. It can be improved, and there are several improved alternatives on the market since basically forever, but it's not bad by itself, and it's certainly better than wood. (I really thought it would be about concrete CO2 emissions at first.)

bombcar 4y ago

> 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 might be more "smart integration" with the grid, but that is going to have to be a national level thing. [346] https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-water-heaters https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-water-heaters

ibejoeb 4y ago
>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?
- bombcar 4y ago
  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?
  - nawitus 4y ago
    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.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      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-Application/dp/B01CIRY99A/ 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.

algoatecorn 4y ago

The agriculture section is disheartening. What is the VCs worlds' obsession with cellular ag and mushrooms? Totally missing the forest for the trees here. Global calorie supply is dependent on the Haber-Bosch process i.e. Nitrogen fixation. The next big agricultural breakthrough will be some form of nitrogen fixation: 1. That is not affected by a reduction of fossil fuels 2. Is on par with Haber-Bosch in terms of elemental Nitrogen application 3. Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences Also, the food industry is heavily reliant on energy sources that are not easily replaced by renewables. It needs dense energy like diesel and natgas. So there's another topic that should be funded.

paulcole 4y ago
> Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences This is getting more and more irrelevant by the day. If “climate tech” fails to “fix” climate change (a goal which I believe to be impossible), then it’s not going to matter what people’s preferences are — the choices are going to be made for them and it won’t matter what they like/dislike.
- algoatecorn 4y ago
  Then ignore it, but rest still applies and requires innovation. But keep in mind that if two companies provide N-fixing technology, and one of them doesn't require changes in consumer preference, then they will be the winner
- xupybd 4y ago
  The only way you will get change at scale before disaster is to help people keep their lifestyle. Climate change is a fixable problem. It is not anywhere near the point that choices will be made for people in the next two to three decades.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    Curbing climate change without curbing behavior and lifestyle are completely at odds with each other.

janalsncm 4y ago

Here are some of my unsolicited and harebrained climate startup ideas. I’m poor and I can’t afford to pursue any of these but I believe a carbon-neutral future will require these things: * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. Young people are the most likely to be open to EVs, but they’re also the least likely to own a house. Charging is a major barrier to entry. Create something so cheap and ubiquitous that charging is not a concern. For example chargers built into lamp posts. * Figure out UHVDC to enable clean energy surpluses to be sold internationally. Reliable UHVDC networks will allow clean energy projects to service more geographic area, making them more competitive. Eventually, storage might not even be necessary, since dark/non-windy regions can always pull from regions with wind or sun. And when fusion power comes online in a few decades, huge energy surpluses will be very profitable. * Passive carbon capture via nuclear barges. We’ve had nuclear reactors in the water for decades, let’s put them to use capturing carbon. * Floatovoltaics. Land isn’t always cheap. Put solar panels in other places. There are other positive side effects as well, such as reducing algae blooms and reducing evaporation.

gtdawg 4y ago
> * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. https://www.itselectric.us https://www.itselectric.us
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  Yep. Also, I moved from France 7 years ago. Last year I went back for vacation and rented a EV on a whim. I thought about charger after the fact. Well; in those 7 year the territory got covered in chargers. Private / public mix. Some will likely disappear once things settle a bit but damn, I was surprised
- andyjsong 4y ago
  https://www.dockcharged.com https://www.dockcharged.com is another one people should check out.
tdaltonc 4y ago
For passive carbon capture, I don’t understand what you’re proposing. Let’s pretend: Joe Biden gives you a nuclear aircraft carrier and a team of nuclear engineers. Now what?

Giorgi 4y ago

Wait, what's the point submitting 2022 call?

phillipcarter 4y ago

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.

tator22 4y ago
There are lots of things involved in the regen ag sector they should be looking at.

Guthur 4y ago

Private interests have gotten us into this mess, to think that the same can get us out of it is wishful thinking of the highest order.

agonmon 4y ago
Better to make mistakes of ambition than of sloth.
- Guthur 4y ago
  Not advocating nothing. Just don't give monopolies to private interests, it's killing us.

JulianRaphael 4y ago

Anyone wants to kick around ideas? Particularly interested in use cases for technology to improve regenerative agriculture / permaculture operations and water management in the global South (esp. India). You can find my E-mail address in my profile.

carabiner 4y ago

I'm looking for work in this space. 4 years of experience as a DS at a 1m customer electric utility, extensive experience with meter usage data, ML, data pipelines. Traditional background as mechanical engineer so I know physics and stuff.

chasd00 4y ago

Make liquid O2 or Methane 5% cheaper and/or 15% cleaner and you can sell it to SpaceX all day long.

milesward 4y ago

I'm eager to help anyone working in this area, especially if you're needing help with the most green cloud infrastructure: Google Cloud. Miles at SADA.com

siruva07 4y ago

YC was very early to climatetech with a RFS for water back in 2017. https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/request-for-startups-water/ https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/request-for-startups-water/ Most people don't equate watertech with climatetech, but climate change is primarily a water crisis—flood & drought—and we need more entrepreneurs in watertech. If you are building something in watertech, ping me, I'm happy to help.

ngoilapites 4y ago

I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?

brutusborn 4y ago
I had the same thought. I’m in energy infra design so I care mainly about tech that helps me implement renewables easier. For consumers, simple tools to help them make green decisions would be useful (LCA as you mentioned). Im interested, what kind of behavioural research applications do you mean?
- ngoilapites 4y ago
  I imagine being able to create new behavioural trends linked to emerging business value. I read serious PR literature and see parallels with the emerging literature on social tipping dynamics. How could this social dynamics be materialised? How to steer them while creating value?
- CalRobert 4y ago
  For consumer purchases of disposable goods you can use a browser plugin like choosefinch.com/ (disclaimer - I work here).
  - brutusborn 4y ago
    Thanks for the suggestion! Out of interest, do you know if there are any plans to make the impact predictions user-specific? E.g I live in a very isolated city, so transport considerations dictate for some products.
    - CalRobert 4y ago
      We're very, very early and this is valuable feedback, thanks! We do indeed have some plans for personalization.

azhenley 4y ago

What are the opportunities for deep CS research applied to climate? E.g., compilers, databases, program synthesis, and LLMs?

agonmon 4y ago
Computer vision for satellite imagery. LLMs might be good for harassing oil companies.

jongjong 4y ago

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bullshit jobs? How many flights they need to take each year for holidays in order to heal from the accumulated stress of their mind-numbing jobs? How much surplus consumption do these bullshit jobs generate? How much plastic is thrown on the side of the road and into the ocean because people are too concerned about their own survival to give a crap about the environment and the future of mankind? It's quite clear that if we all had less money and worked fewer hours, we would produce less greenhouse gases and live healthier, more fulfilled lives. Unfortunately, the current system is only good at depriving money from some of the population (while giving others a huge surplus) and it only ever demands more hours of work from everyone... So it barely even solves half of the first problem while making everything else worse.

tofuahdude 4y ago
Ironically many YCombinator businesses support the opposite. Perhaps the first thing YC needs is a mirror.
- enduser 4y ago
  Unfortunately they only fund things that people want, not things that people need.
coffeemug 4y ago
That's one cultural point of view. Another point of view is that we should get ourselves in a position where we can produce (and consume) infinite clean energy, for example, but building a thousand nuclear power plants. Team mushrooms vs team cocaine.
- jongjong 4y ago
  We'd still have to take care of the plastics problem and also any population growth problem which would arise from that. It seems that historically, any improvements in efficiency has lead to population booms which negated the efficiency improvements. That's why I think the solution is systemic and cultural. The best that technology can offer IMO is to support a cultural shift and new incentive structures based on scarcity.

roguesupport 4y ago

I guess "Request for Startups: Climate Tech " is easier to stomach than "Help us perpetuate idiotic mythology, and convince the world PLANT FOOD (CO2, which is 0.008% of our atmosphere, of which we only produce 0.004% OF that 0.008%) is somehow 'bad' so we can push communist policies" isn't it? We'll make a site that says "Hur Durr! Duh globul warming" is you give us... Oh , I don't know... 25 million bucks! Deal?

palata 4y ago

> These startups offer commercial solutions to decarbonize society or remove carbon from the atmosphere. By doing this at speed and scale, we have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. The financial opportunity of doing so is massive: an estimated $3-10 trillion in EBITDA will be up for grabs. As one example, Tesla has pushed the car industry to go electric while making $75B in annual revenue at a 60% annual growth rate. I didn't go further than that. They prove in one paragraph that they haven't understood the climate problem at all.

alchemist1e9 4y ago
Then I’d be interested if you can explain the problem.

palata 4y ago

The best green startup investment: select very productive engineers, and pay them to stop producing. Maybe they can learn an instrument, or take care of their garden. The less they produce, the better for the planet. Of course that's not what a VC wants. But a VC doesn't really want ecology either, they want money. Pretending to be green just happens to be a profitable strategy.

Brajeshwar 4y ago

Right now, I feel like a kid in a candy store. These comment threads are a gold mine. I will be approaching many of you to learn and get to know you. I hope that that is fine. To let you know beforehand that I'm not spamming, I would like to tell you that I will be sending emails from either brajeshwar@oinam.com or brajeshwar@valinor.earth Since 2018, I have been learning and experimenting with Climate-related activities along with Climate Scientists. The notable ones include building an aeroponics farm inside Bangalore city and delivering rare herbs to a few known cookhouses (YC interviewed and rejected us on this). The other, where I missed most of the involvement but a few, was a prototypical installation of a Vanadium Redox Battery. In 2022, I went all in, and our team figured that most folks (individuals and companies) outside of the ones involved in Climate just want to get things done and don't know what to do about it. We also realize that to be commercially viable while fighting climate change; we need to get involved end-to-end. We started with data and the sexy tech, but we don't even mention that now when talking to potential customers. Some well-known and "successful" climate-tech companies have already started on that path -- building an end-to-end channel -- then sell, up-sell, and side-sell their services, tools, and solutions. Think of how Microsoft owns the channel and introducing a new product is just showing up. We are still very early and have a lot to learn, and act/do. My best wishes and luck to all those doing one or the other thing toward fighting Climate Change.

paganel 4y ago

> By doing this at speed and scale, we have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. I get out from this that the days when one could have had a non-Apocalyptic climate change discussion on this forum are now gone for good. Just saying: "we're doing this for the money, because that's where all the money is now going" would have been better, but whatever it works to keep this forum up and ad-free.

panda888888 4y ago

Climate tech doesn't have to be crazy futuristic ML models or whatever in order to be useful. For instance, I love the Purple Air air quality sensors, which crowdsource data and use a simple existing technology. (See https://map.purpleair.com/ https://map.purpleair.com/). This example may not be "revolutionary" enough for YCombinator, but I'm a fan. Personally, I'd like to see a company that focuses on solar hot water heating. Water heating is usually about 1/3 of a home's energy usage. In several countries, especially in the middle east and in Africa, standalone solar hot water systems are the most common way water is heated. But in the US, solar hot water is nearly non-existent. I'm not talking whole-house solar panels, but rather a small system that you can buy for $~4-5k. There's an opportunity lurking there somewhere.