"Green Hydrogen International, a company planning a cavern project in South Texas, estimates it would take around 38,500 Tesla Megapacks—a type of battery popular for large-scale utility installations—at an estimated cost of $59 billion to store the amount of energy it is hoping to keep in its caverns, which it estimates will cost $150 million to make."
Better heat pumps for commercial buildings are coming soon
"Ten commercial partners have joined the accelerator, including retailers Amazon, Ikea, Target and Whole Foods, as well as the Los Angeles Unified School District. They’ve promised to be early adopters, and may well be test beds for heat-pump prototypes, though they haven’t yet made any firm commitments as to how many newly developed offerings they’ll purchase, Vargas told Canary Media."
The U.S. Urgently Needs a Bigger Grid. Here’s a Fast Solution.
"In many places, upgrading power lines with advanced conductors could nearly double the capacity of existing transmission corridors at less than half the cost of building new lines, researchers found. If utilities began deploying advanced conductors on a nationwide scale — replacing thousands of miles of wires — they could add four times as much transmission capacity by 2035 as they are currently on pace to do."
NBA Legend Rick Fox’s Next Act: Green Concrete Entrepreneur
"Fox wants to do something about those emissions with his startup, Partanna Global Inc. He’s the co-founder and chief executive officer of the company, which has offices in the Bahamas. They make concrete by swapping out cement for a proprietary mix containing blast-furnace slag from steel-making, or materials with similar properties, such as volcanic ash. Then they add brine, which is fluid waste from desalination plants, and aggregate, or crushed rocks. The process requires no fossil-fuel burning or analogous emissions from cooking limestone, the company says. Once set, the material absorbs some CO2, flipping the cement equation on its head."
Leading Experts Talk Energy Innovation
The United States is an energy powerhouse, and the development of promising new technologies provides even greater opportunities for human flourishing and a cleaner environment.
Toyota’s VC Arm Pours $300 Million In Funds Targeting AI And Green Tech Startups
"Founded in 2017, Toyota Ventures began as Toyota AI Ventures, a subsidiary of the Toyota Research Institute. It rebranded to its current name in 2021, when Toyota committed an additional $300 million to the arm. In addition to Toyota Ventures, Toyota operates Woven Capital, a startup investment arm targeting 'growth-stage' ventures in automation and clean energy. Woven’s six portfolio companies include AI and machine learning startup Nuro, which has raised over $2 billion from investors including SoftBank, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, Greylock and Tiger Global."
Google Goes All In on Carbon Dioxide Removal
Google’s recent investment is a welcome step that could help improve the validity of both CDR technologies and carbon credits.
Windfall Bio Raises $28 Million to Scale Methane-Eating-Microbe Industrial Emissions Solution
"Founded in 2022, California-based Windfall Bio provides a nature-based solution to capture methane emissions and transform it into organic fertilizer. The company’s solution utilizes methanotrophs, naturally occurring soil methane eating microbes, or “mems,” that capture methane from any source, along with nitrogen from the air, to produce bioavailable nutrients for plants, enabling industries ranging from agriculture and oil and gas to waste management to reduce their emissions footprint, while providing farmers with the ability to improve profitability and reduce environmental impact."
Funds awarded to assist Xe-100 deployment in the UK
"The two companies also announced a partnership with Kier Group, a leading UK provider of construction and infrastructure services, to support constructability and supply chain analyses. Kier joins steel producer and engineer Sheffield Forgemasters and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC) to support X-energy and Cavendish in completing the scope outlined in their FNEF proposal. The companies' goal is for 80% of the value of the Xe-100 projects to flow to UK firms."
A Gates-Backed Startup Is Making Fuel From Water and Carbon Dioxide
"On any given day, Infinium produces nearly 8,300 liters of what’s known in the industry as electrofuel or e-fuel and distributes it to customers across the US. A slogan on the company’s trucks reads: 'Clean fuels made from renewable energy and carbon dioxide.'"