[HN Gopher] Request for Startups: Climate Tech ___________________________________________________________________ Request for Startups: Climate Tech Author : jeremylevy Score : 164 points Date : 2022-12-15 17:07 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.ycombinator.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.ycombinator.com) | carapace wrote: | 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 | | 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/ | | I dunno if you could make a startup out of it though. | paxys wrote: | Funny that after so many years of funding and encouraging crypto | mining the VC industry now decides to go "green". | ebiester wrote: | With 800 billion dollars of funding from the government, there | are going to be a lot of opportunities to follow the cash. | kokanee wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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. | atlasunshrugged wrote: | 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). | manv1 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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. | nawitus wrote: | You can add a bit of insulation inside the concrete to make the | house require less cooling than (any?) wooden house. | phillipcarter wrote: | 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 wrote: | There are lots of things involved in the regen ag sector they | should be looking at. | gumby wrote: | 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 wrote: | This sounds amazing! Could you share more info about your | startup? | gumby wrote: | 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 | karol wrote: | Twitter: explaining through power of free speech why climate | change is a fraud. | JulianRaphael wrote: | 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. | chasd00 wrote: | Make liquid O2 or Methane 5% cheaper and/or 15% cleaner and you | can sell it to SpaceX all day long. | janalsncm wrote: | 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. | tdaltonc wrote: | 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? | quelsolaar wrote: | 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. | tdaltonc wrote: | Electro-fuels currently cost about $15 per gallon - In case | anyone else was curious. | | https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/fuels-us-euro... | quelsolaar wrote: | Thanks for the link! $15 is a reasonable price where a | company hyper focused on lowering the cost of manufacturing | of C02 extraction machines, could become very competative | withing a reasonable timeframe. | tdaltonc wrote: | It kind of floored me when I first heard it. Tripling the | cost of jet fuel would be bad, but not that bad. And that | number is likely to fall. | kokanee wrote: | 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. | bryanlarsen wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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. | psadri wrote: | 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. | aliqot wrote: | I think you're on to something, it makes me curious what the | energy expenditure of one of these operations is in a | conventional deployment, then what it would be over time with | solar being the producer of energy. | c54 wrote: | This is the play that Terraform Industries is engaging in as | well. Cost for synthesizing a unit of methane from atmospheric | CO2 and water using solar power is set to drop lower than the | cost of drilling it out of the ground. | | https://terraformindustries.com/ | bryanlarsen wrote: | > lower than the cost of drilling it out of the ground. | | Shipping is a huge component of the price of natural gas. So | it'll be a long time before they're cheaper than the price of | natural gas in Alberta or Siberia, but they'll be able to | beat the price in Los Angeles a lot sooner. | bryanlarsen wrote: | According to their December newsletter, they project that | point will occur in 2027 without subsidies and 2024 with the | subsidies provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. | DoreenMichele wrote: | 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.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_ wrote: | 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/... | carabiner wrote: | 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. | someweirdperson wrote: | > 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. | tdaltonc wrote: | > 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... | HockeyPlayer wrote: | > 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 wrote: | 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. | AdamH12113 wrote: | 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? | pclmulqdq wrote: | 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. | bombcar wrote: | > 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 | nawitus wrote: | You just need a spot market for electricity and then you can | program the water heater to follow the spot price (or rather | avoid heating when it's expensive). | | This is available already in a few heat pump water heaters in | Finland. | ibejoeb wrote: | >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 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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 wrote: | Yeah the "max amount" can vary - I have mine set higher | than "you should" to prevent Legionnaires' disease and | then have a mixer that reduces the temperature back to | safe for the house. | | https://www.amazon.com/Cash-Acme-Thermostatic- | Temperature-Ap... | | That's a very low tech solution that could take some | advantage, and thermal mass of water is pretty high, | especially if the tank is well insulated. | ZeroGravitas wrote: | One existing water heater innovation: | | https://www.mixergy.co.uk/products/mixergy-tank/ | | Has both stupid innovation (Alexa integration) and sensible | (working with the grid to balance demand, innovative design | that saves energy and heats up faster when you need it | quickly) | malfist wrote: | You mean you don't want to download an app to your phone that | steals your data so you can....adjust the temperature setting | of your hot water heater? | bombcar wrote: | If you're heating hot water you already have a problem ;) | (I know, I know). | browningstreet wrote: | All this is relatively pointless (save "potentially profitable") | without removing fossil fuels from general usage. | dqpb wrote: | The best way to remove fossils fuels from general usage is to | make electric options cheaper/better that fuel options. | notlukesky wrote: | 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 | SoftTalker wrote: | > They would have to find another "the sky is falling down" | cause. | | You've nailed it. The people in power don't want to fix these | problems. They'd like them to get worse, actually. "Never let a | crisis go to waste" has the corollary "if a crisis doesn't | exist, create one." | r_hoods_ghost wrote: | 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 | avalys wrote: | Nuclear reactors are expensive because we don't build any of | them. | | Solar and wind occupy way more land for the same power | production and can't produce baseload power without battery | storage systems that cost 5x as much. | pclmulqdq wrote: | Bingo. Solar panels were outrageously expensive 15 years | ago, but that didn't stop us from investing in them as a | technology. | drusenko wrote: | Nuclear reactors are expensive mostly because the | regulatory requirements make them expensive. There is a lot | of room for advanced nuclear (e.g. gen III reactors) that | can address a lot of the problems and bring down the costs. | Unfortunately, we don't have a clear regulatory pathway | here yet, but there is some progress being made recently. | mattwest wrote: | This isn't true and you are also probably confusing energy | and electricity | | Edit: wow, since I'm receiving instant downvotes, here's the | evidence. | | https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/. | .. | r3trohack3r wrote: | Sharing this not to say it's true, but it's my understanding | of the EU's biomass numbers. | | As I understand it, a substantial portion of the biomass is | wood pellets. These are harvested from the American south | causing deforestation, are transported over the ocean with | non-negligible emissions, and then burned in non-clean stacks | releasing carbon, but they are accounted for as green. So you | get a dirty burn, dirty transportation, and deforest a region | as part of these numbers. | | A quick search turned up this article: | https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/07/us/american-south- | bi... | | Its hard for me to accept that this narrative is correct, but | I've struggled to find anything that explains how EU's | biomass is net good for the environment. Do you have any | insight? | notlukesky wrote: | 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. | lolinder wrote: | "Renewables need to be supplemented" is a very different | claim from "the _only thing_ that would move the needle ... | is reliable nuclear energy " (emphasis added). | | Nuclear energy can't solve the problem on its own _either_ | , because you still need plants to deal with rapid changes | in demand. We shouldn't be working towards a silver bullet, | we should be using a lot of different technologies together | to solve the problem. | nawitus wrote: | You just need nuclear and existing hydropower, which | boils down to you just need nuclear. It's not politically | probable or realistic though, but we really just need | nuclear technically speaking. | | Nuclear can also follow loads, but there's no economical | need to build them to do that (in almost any market). | r_hoods_ghost wrote: | The recent electricity issues are because Putin invaded | Ukraine and reduced the gas supply. Which is nothing to do | with sustainable energy. | yongjik wrote: | "We said we were running on renewables, but we were also | dependent on burning Russian gas, and we plan to keep | burning gas for the foreseeable future, sans the buying- | gas-from-Russia part" sounds like a pretty important | detail to talk about sustainable energy, IMHO. | HideousKojima wrote: | The problem is that a lot of the claims of "Renewables | providing X percent of energy in country Y" are massaging the | numbers. See the countless examples from Germany over the | last decade (I'm including one of the most shared examples of | this at the bottom of my post), suddenly shown to be highly | deceptive by what has happened over the last year with | Russian gas imports to Germany. | | https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/renewables-cover- | about-... | gustaf wrote: | We are big believers in Nuclear energy, and it's part of the | RFS. | | But many other sectors need to be electrified for nuclear power | to have its decarbonization impact: buildings, industry, | transportation etc. | peoplefromibiza wrote: | 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. | jandrewrogers wrote: | 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.) | tdaltonc wrote: | Companies with good climate intelligence tech tend to evolve in | to marketplaces because that gets them closer to the money. | Climate projects can't afford SaaS, but offset buyers are | willing to pay a premium for offsets re-verified by high-tech | climate intelligence SaaS. | | Example: Pachama https://pachama.com/ | worldsayshi wrote: | What potential customers are there for climate intelligence | systems? | bmitc wrote: | I would also love any references to existing companies, | research groups, or the problems in this space if you have the | time to share. I found the posted list underwhelming and more | of a marketing shotgun approach to try and take advantage of | the push for "climate tech" but not solve any real problems. | tony_cannistra wrote: | Not OP, but in my experience: | | Jupiter Intelligence (https://jupiterintel.com/) | | Descartes Labs (https://descarteslabs.com/) | | Microsoft Planetary Computer | (https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/) | | Coiled (managed Dask - python HPC) (https://www.coiled.io/) | | CarbonPlan (https://carbonplan.org/) | | Salo Sciences (acquired by Planet, satellite imagery company) | (https://salo.ai/) | | lots of others | bmitc wrote: | Thank you! | PakG1 wrote: | > 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. | | Could you point to any readings or resources that would explain | these gaps? I'd be quite curious why our current spatiotemporal | analysis techniques would be insufficient. Is it the analysis | tools that just need new techniques or is the problem at the | source (i.e. the sensors)? Or? | emmelaich wrote: | We need sensors for carbon presence over distance and time in | the ocean. At huge scale, to test the viability of various | carbon sequestration schemes. That's pretty expensive, with a | large non-software component. | | I know this from a peripheral involvement in one the XPRIZE | projects. | 2devnull wrote: | I guess it would help to be more specific about how this | differs from some of the measurement related startups they | list. Taxonomies are difficult, so maybe they do need an | entirely separate category, or enlarge the one related to | measurement. | tony_cannistra wrote: | This is an excellent point. I think the problem is that because | it's such a pure software problem it doesn't have an immediate | "climate tech" alignment, so it stands to "dilute" these kinds | of calls for funding. | dheera wrote: | Would you mind elaborating on say a few specific asks for tools | climate people would want to have, that are low-hanging fruit | that people might be able to write in their spare time? | | I'm very interested in doing something for climate change but | I'd like to know what people want. | babelfish wrote: | Where could I read more about this problem and how it's being | tackled today? | tony_cannistra wrote: | 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 | 2devnull wrote: | Thanks for posting. His substack piece on the 3 m's is very | appropriate. | a_square_peg wrote: | 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. | baremetal wrote: | Any chance you guys provide a free api for the little guy? I | would love to have access to climate data via a json rest | api. Specifically historical temperature and precipitation | data at minimum. | | I poked around a while back and wasn't able to find much of | anything on the web. Maybe I missed it? | a_square_peg wrote: | Certainly - take a look (https://oikolab.com) and let me | know your use case. There is a free tier but we've also | given free access to a quite a few number of researchers, | non-profits and university students for their projects when | they reached out to us. | jandrewrogers wrote: | There are a couple issues I see with basic access and working | with large datasets. Ease of access for typical users is also | a valid issue. | | First, we still mostly move the data to the computation when | we should be moving the computation to the data. Moving the | data works fine when data is small but if the data volumes | are large (as sensor/geo data tends to be) then it can take | an incredibly long time to move the data. In many cases, more | time is spent shoveling data over the network than actually | doing the computation. This has become worse as storage | density has increased, hundreds of TB/server is ordinary. | | Second, the data is rarely organized in a way that makes it | efficient to extract arbitrary subsets. There is still a lot | of what is essentially "grep at scale" going on. Again, not a | problem if the data is small but if I need a specific 50TB | subset of a 10PB source, this becomes prohibitively slow. The | data needs to be organized such that we can slice and dice it | with high selectivity _in place_ , much more like a proper | database and less of a distributed filesystem. Because | spatiotemporal analysis tends to involve iterative join-like | operations, you want this to be efficient as possible. | | The other big problem is many of these data sources are too | large for everyone to have their own copy. Or if they did | have their own copy, it would be extraordinarily wasteful. | This is adjacent to the first issue. EDIT: And herein is the | likely business model. | counters wrote: | Want to make sure you're familiar with the Pangeo | community: www.pangeo.io | | I don't think any of these challenges are "solved", but | there's a groundswell of technology that is well-situated | to make a big impact in these domains. The largest barriers | that still remain are the ownership of engineering | processes/workflow to transform larger gridded datasets to | ARCO (analysis-ready, cloud-optimized) formats, as well as | tooling to mediate between heterogeneous datasets (e.g. | combining regular vs irregular or arbitrarily gridded data, | such as land surveys or ZIP codes). | | There are definitely players in the space working on these, | but much is left to be done here. | a_square_peg wrote: | +1 for Pangeo. We use these toolsets heavily (Xarray, | Zarr, Dask) to run our service, which is essentially what | you described as taking the larger gridded datasest to | ARCO format. I think this is still a bit too heavy for | casual Excel/GIS analysts so we try to make it as simple | as possible for them to get climate data in CSV or NetCDF | format for their work. | worldsayshi wrote: | This sounds really interesting. Would be really interested | to work around these things. Thinking and working a lot | with similar-ish systems. But not sure how to enter the | related green-tech space when living in Europe. Would love | to try to build a product myself but then I need a customer | to try ideas with. | Guthur wrote: | 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. | londons_explore wrote: | 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. | toiletfuneral wrote: | [deleted] | theptip wrote: | YC can't solve that. I agree it's an important cause, but it's | really hard coordination problem. If we can make progress | without, just by using tech to lower emissions, that's a clear | win. | | Having said that, a CO2 tax just makes the financial incentives | for change better; someone still needs to build the better | system after funds are reallocated. So if you already started a | cost-reduction startup, you'll have first-mover advantage when | the CO2 taxes come into play. | tdaltonc wrote: | You might be interested in the EUs new carbon border adjustment | tax. | | https://www.ft.com/content/51e6bd85-dbb2-4071-b635-8ab9bd2ab... | londons_explore wrote: | 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). | Raed667 wrote: | Do people really believe we can innovate our way through climate | change? | ZeroGravitas wrote: | 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. | kokanee wrote: | Interesting position. Are you suggesting that the solution will | not involve innovation, or that climate change is unsolvable? | | As an employee at a climate tech company, I think the primary | roadblock is simply investing resources (money and time) in the | various solutions available to us. A ton of innovation is | happening along the way (e.g. first ever net positive fusion | ignition yesterday) but even without much innovation, we could | solve the problems by directing our resources at them. | | In other words, I think climate change is very solvable and | that innovation along the way is constant and inevitable. I'm | not saying that we will definitely make the necessary | investments to succeed, which I think might be your point? But | as this post demonstrates, the rate of investment is improving | significantly. | CabSauce wrote: | The real question is did we start too late to curb climate | change? We'll innovate to mitigate its damages either way. | dev_daftly wrote: | Do people really believe the climate was ever going to stop | changing? | dqpb wrote: | Are you suggesting there is a solution without innovation, or | that there is no solution at all? | carabiner wrote: | 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 wrote: | Innovation in nuclear has made it politically viable in the | first place. If we still had to use 1970s nuclear tech it | would be a hard sell. | | In any case, I'm always skeptical of "we can't do X without | doing Y" arguments because they're usually about making the | perfect the enemy of the good rather than X actually being | precluded by not having Y. | powera wrote: | 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. | kokanee wrote: | 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. | gustaf wrote: | Which ideas are doomed to fail? I would love to hear your | feedback | datalopers wrote: | I'm confused, I searched for both "crypto" and "web3" on that | page and there are no results? | candiddevmike wrote: | Hopefully YC stops investing in those companies to help the | environment | z3c0 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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. | wintogreen74 wrote: | YC has generated enough wealth from these and other endless | consumption ideas for a thousand lifetimes. The billionaire's | playbook now dictates you focus on building your legacy by | using disruptive technology to save the world. | cjcenizal wrote: | 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." | mattwest wrote: | 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 wrote: | > 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. | mattwest wrote: | 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 wrote: | 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. | guelo wrote: | You're confounding the people of today with the people of the | future. We've learned over the last couple of decades that | the people of today in general refuse to make any sacrifice | for the people of the future. This doesn't change when the | people of today are negatively affected because any sacrifice | is felt in the future and doesn't mitigate the negative | consequences of today. | hall0ween wrote: | "You kidding me? I love eating bacteria-modified-plastic- | waste-paste. Have _you_ tried the blue flavor yet?" | philipkglass wrote: | Projects to run the Haber-Bosch process with clean hydrogen are | already underway: | | https://www.bicmagazine.com/projects-expansions/renewable-su... | | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/08/26/avaada-to-invest-5-bi... | | https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/egypt-... | | They use electricity from wind and/or solar power to | electrolyze hydrogen from water. Then the hydrogen gets | combined with nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch process like usual. | This is not a good bet for VCs because the capital commitments | are large (billions of dollars' worth of physical chemical | plant) and there's no prospect of winning the market by being | early. Big industrial players are already earlier than VCs | could hope to be at this stage. | | In some ways this is a trip back in time. In the 20th century, | many renewable ammonia plants were constructed and operated | using hydroelectric power: | | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4079/3/2/11/htm | | It peaked in the 1960s (figure 6). A combination of rising | demand for electricity at home and industry, plus optimization | of hydrogen production from fossil feedstocks, made | electricity-to-hydrogen (and from there to ammonia) less | popular. But now rising natural gas prices and climate | concerns, plus falling costs for renewable electricity from | wind and solar, make it attractive again. | pclmulqdq wrote: | Would hydrogen work as a fuel source here? | | It would make sense for heavy machinery to use hydrogen rather | than batteries as an energy store because it is a lot more | energy dense (and lighter), but it's still not as energy dense | as fossil fuels. | vsareto wrote: | >Low or zero emissions concrete | | Feels like there's already options there. | | https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a4078516... | | 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 wrote: | Making the world cut demand for concrete might actually sound | dramatically harder than making zero-emission concrete. (and | both are extremely hard!) | pclmulqdq wrote: | Ironically, wood is starting to look like a very promising | building material for tall structures that is comparatively | green. | ravenstine wrote: | > 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 wrote: | Venture capitalists using Tesla in some kind of virtue signal | is the most 2022 thing | SalimoS wrote: | 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] | slg wrote: | Exactly, they are asking for technology that can shift their | industry. They aren't asking for Tesla's baggage any more | than a request for "Uber for X" implies they want a company | that will ignore regulatory requirements. | failuser wrote: | I'm pretty sure that "Uber for X" implies some degree of | ignoring regulations long enough to have power to change | them. | fabianhjr wrote: | Why not pre/post electric Lada of the 1980s and associated | R&D? | | https://www.reckontalk.com/electro-russian-tesla-first- | elect... | | The biggest manufacturer of electric cars worldwide is BYD | | The biggest driver of sales (trough public policy) has been | China and Europe, including things like announcing bans of | ICE in city centers/cities: | | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Electric_car_use_by_country | | Tesla started as a luxury brand (Roadster and then luxury | sedans) and the only innovation they have managed is name | recognition; even the adoption they have driven in the US has | been mostly trough public policy like tax incentives. | slg wrote: | Because very few people will know what you are talking | about if you go up to a random person and ask them about | Lada or BYD. | | Musk is an egomaniacal idiot that most of us dislike. There | are countless valid reasons to dislike Tesla as a company | and the cars they make. However, that shouldn't cause | people to overthink things when their name is simply being | used as shorthand as it clearly is in this instance. | esalman wrote: | > Because very few people will know what you are talking | about if you go up to a random person and ask them about | Lada or BYD. | | This is why parent said only innovation Tesla has managed | is name recognition. | czbond wrote: | ^ This. There is just a backlash on HN with Elon hurting so | many people's feels about Twitter & having an alternate | political view, that everyone is seeing him in a negative | light. | | Tesla helped push ICE to EV even though technologically some | of the efforts may have been done at other companies and | products before - yet Tesla pushed the experience mainstream. | agilob wrote: | I would be a great disaster if Tesla or HP produced water | boilers. If would be success if Brother or raspberry pi made | them. | MonkeyMalarky wrote: | The idea of "HP Instant Ink"-like subscriptions for home | appliances is vomit inducing. | agilob wrote: | "Your boiler has reached the limit of water it can warm up | this month. We're sending you a new one" | pclmulqdq wrote: | But think of the shareholder value they could accrue. | | Honestly, I'm not very mad at instant ink because the | printer market was so broken. A subscription for another | appliance would be pretty maddening, though. | FredPret wrote: | I have instant ink and I love it. First time ever I've been | able to own a printer without swearing at it once | Grustaf wrote: | Tesla is indeed a strange choice for a simile, considering that | Tesla cars use prodigious amounts of energy compared to other | electric cars, or other cars in general. I doubt they're even | more environmentally friendly overall than a compact combustion | engine car. Tesla made electric cool by building an over the | top luxury car, what we really need is the opposite. | bryanlarsen wrote: | There are some cars coming out next year that are more energy | efficient than a Tesla, like the Hyundai Ioniq 6, but I don't | know of any currently widely available vehicles that are. | robin_reala wrote: | By energy efficient do you mean kilowatt hours / kilometer | (or equivalent units)? The standard range Model 3 - the | most efficient one - is apparently 15/16 kWh per 100km, | which is pretty much exactly the same as a VW ID3 (15.5 - | 15.7 in Pro spec) and only a little less than a Hyundai | Ioniq 5 (16.8). | odshoifsdhfs wrote: | Sitting on my hyundai kona ev. In 2833 kms, consumption | was 13.5 kwh/100km | malfist wrote: | Isn't the big problem with smart appliances exactly this? | | I was in the market for a new pellet grill recently and I ran | into huge problems, almost everything on the market is | bluetooth this or wifi that. The last thing I need is an | unreliable radio to be at the center of the controls for my | outdoor appliance, or for any appliance whatsoever, to have a | dependency on my internet connection and the availability of | some manufacturers servers. | | Because who know what might happen. The manufacturer might | decide it doesn't like your hardware anymore and push out a | firmware update that bricks all your devices in 60 days, but | don't worry, they'll give you a coupon for buying the latest | and greatest from them (looking at you sonos). | | Want to know how to not get me to buy your product? Make it | dependent on some unreliable technology that gives no benefit | to the device, but makes the device dependent on the goodwill | of the parent corporation. | ravenstine wrote: | What's amazing is the failed potential of these devices that | do include things like Bluetooth and WiFi. In so many cases, | they sporadically fail to pair with their respective apps, or | are slow to pair, if they can reliably pair at all. Even when | the connection works, you'd better hope the app actually | alerts you when your food is ready or whatever. _Whooops, our | API returned a 500! Our bad, bruh!_ | | I'm particularly baffled because, in my experience designing | and manufacturing my own PCB with a BLE IC on it, integrating | something like BLE and having it work reliably doesn't seem | that difficult. BLE is an annoyingly complicated standard, | but it's by no means impossible to work with. The app I wrote | could pair with the device instantly and reliably stay | connected while receiving data in real time. I don't get why | other BLE devices I've owned have issues while my pissant | attempt had none of them. If it's BLE, you can count on | seeing some loading spinners frequently unless it's being | paired with another devices designed specifically for it | (like a game console). | | The only wireless digital technologies I've found are | beneficial are WiFi internet and Bluetooth audio (which is | still awful in most cases but AirPods work OK). Everything | else ends up being a gimmick, more of a hassle, and even a | trojan horse for more privacy violations. | RangerScience wrote: | > unanimous lack of confidence in "autopilot" I've witnessed in | owners | | I'm an owner and I have a lot of confidence in autopilot. | Generally, if it's possible to use autopilot on the road I'm | on, I do. So that's one owner you're witnessing who's not part | of that "unanimous". | bmitc wrote: | I came here to post this as well. For one, it doesn't even make | sense. Tesla is a car manufacturer and makes objectively worse | cars than the competition. They just happen to be EVs. Making | any thing "Tesla" inside my house means it will be flashy but | work less well than existing solutions, in addition to removing | all knobs. All of which is the opposite of what I want. I've | already de-smartified my Nests because, surprise, they aren't | actually smart and end up being worse than me controlling them. | ghiculescu wrote: | What is objectively worse about them? They seem very popular | with consumers. | bmitc wrote: | Popularity does not necessarily correlate with quality. | Tesla is typically rated at the bottom for quality and | reliability. | judge2020 wrote: | Tesla is pretty high on reliability, just not quality | (ie. panel gaps and build quality issues are still a | thing, but based on CR they're on-par with all the other | non-luxury car brands). | bryanlarsen wrote: | https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability- | owner-s... | bmitc wrote: | Note that that ranking only compares against other EVs, | of which there aren't that many yet, and that Kia's new | model, which has only been out for a year, is already | above Tesla. I have said this for years, and it's been | clear to me that Tesla cannot compete against traditional | car makers moving into the EV space. | | Consumer Reports ranks Tesla at either the bottom or | second to last when compared against all other car | manufacturers. | ravenstine wrote: | For one, their interior is rather unluxurious considering | the price tag relative to other EVs. The only thing it's | got going for it is the tablet screen, which was cool back | in the day but today anyone can install an aftermarket one | in their old beater. | | If someone wants to buy a Tesla because they truly like it | or the brand, they're the only ones who can decide the | right answer for them. I personally don't get it. There are | way better options now in my eyes; it's just they're uncool | brand names like Subaru and Hyundai. | mjhay wrote: | 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. | [deleted] | smileysteve wrote: | 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. | Giorgi wrote: | Wait, what's the point submitting 2022 call? | bmitc wrote: | 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 wrote: | > 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 wrote: | 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. | bokohut wrote: | 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 wrote: | This paragraph seems gpt-like | bokohut wrote: | 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-15 23:00 UTC)