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To: The Impact Readers
Greetings & Salutations! š§
It seems like yāall love our podcasts so we are gonna keep on pushing hard forward to get you more insider content and knowledge by speaking with more and more founders and CEOs in the clean-tech space. Knowledge is power so we are going to make sure The Impact is your go to resource when learning about what is going on in the space and how to use that information to help society.
In your inbox:Ā #decentralized EV charging; Flow batteries might have a fighting chance in the market and Shell is green-washing?
You would think with the current status of the economy we wouldnāt hear about funding being poured into what I classify as 5 years from profitability companies – but what do I knowā¦
The two big headlines that stood out the most wasĀ FreewireĀ – a battery integrated EV charger –Ā raises $25M in Series AĀ funding to bring their yet to be priced – but likely priced at ~$120K battery integrated fast charger to market. How we got that pricing for Freewireās boost charging solution – insider infoā¦
AndĀ SparkChargeĀ – a portable fast EV charging station that promises to be the roadside “refueling” provider for EVs –Ā raising a $3.3M seed round.
What this brings to attention is the ongoing capital being poured into making EV charging work around our outdated grid to keep up with demand for Electric Vehicles. Freewire is looking to build a system that can be charged via a wall outlet or a single phase connection so fast charging can be made to work anywhere. Which leads to companies like spark charge hoping to help people who couldnāt plug in have backup power wherever and whenever they need it most with their portable chargers.
This makes an interesting conversation to be had – because it seems the problem we are dealing with is the associated costs & overhead required to deploy public charging.Ā Will utilities push for a more modernized grid or will companies like Sparkcharge and Freewire see sustainable growth as we move towards more nano-grid driven real estate assets.
For a little more than 10 years now we have been hearing the conversation of “flow batteries will beat out lithium ion batteries in the market“. Even today with the news of the merger betweenĀ redTĀ andĀ AvalonĀ to consolidate efforts under the name Invinity to drive flow batteries into the market it still leaves us a bit skeptical, but hopeful at the same time.
The advantages of flow batteries are clear:
While the above technical advantages are great and might save a developer or homeowner more money on storage over the long haul – since they donāt have to replace a battery every 10 years the pain point in the market isnāt there. People trust a Tesla Powerwall or an LG RESU10H far more than a new flow battery just because of “longevity”. Most people look at storage for resilience – especially since certain counties are banning natural gas and planning on limiting how long you can run a backup generatorā¦*cough* California.
For flow batteries to really break into the market they need to find a way to address a larger pain point. People arenāt actively avoiding energy storage because of price – it’s more an issue of safety.
If flow batteries can demonstrate how they can make storage safer for people they will have a fighting chance in the market.Ā Until then – it’s good to see companies like Invinity consolidating efforts to keep growing.
Fascinating week in oil! As you may have seen in the headlines,Ā oil prices went negative. Specifically West Texas Intermediate (the benchmark for US crude oil) oil price went negative for two daysĀ because theyāre traded as futures contracts. Production has barely changed but usage has sunk so we have way more supply than we can even really manage to store!
Could this be a wake up call for gas giants to finally bend to the loss from fossil-fuel-divested investing and commit to green energy?Ā Shell this monthĀ announced that it aims to reduce its emissions to net-zero by 2050. Sounds fancy for anĀ oil company to go net-zeroĀ but theyāre only focusing on removing the carbon footprint from the manufacturing of its products, not the use of those products themselves. Theyāll also be offsetting anything that canāt be cut entirely. All this while theyāre building a $6 billion petrochemical plant in Pennsylvania (fun factā the state has promised $1 billion in tax breaks for the project and allow them to release 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year).
Back in September NestlĆ© also said that it would go “net zero” by 2050, even though most of its competitors have reduction goals for 2030 or even earlier.
SO ā Can old dogs learn new tricks? Maybe not after all.
2050 is a nice round number that sounds nice and doesnāt seem too far away, but it doesnāt mean action now, andĀ 30 years is a long time to forgetĀ about what a company promised (or for them to blame the old guard). It sounds like commitment, but it seems to be the new number for companies looking to green-wash instead of actually changing their practices.
SometimesĀ we need a little break from the news. Thereās no good about the unseen enemy that leaves serious illness, death, and mass anxiety in its wake (and that just COVID-19 ā weāre not even going to start on the economy).
But as some parts of the country enter week 7 under shelter-in-place orders, we thought we could all useĀ some good news and happy thoughts. After hours-long facetimes with friends we turned to discussing the (however morbid) silver linings of COVID-19, so today weāre sharing a few of the not-so-morbid:
Less Pollution
Carbon dioxide emissions could fall by the largest amount since WWII. We could be seeing up to a 5% drop in carbon dioxide emissions this year ā just in time. Decreasing emissions will mitigate some of the impacts of climate change.
Connecting More
Despite not being able to see them in person our grandparents are getting so many more calls from us than before. And our friends. And our parents. Weāre in a time of crisis but it hasnāt taken away our innate desire to socialise and connect ā and weāre lucky enough to be in a time where weāre able to connect at distance.
Cleaning Out Our Closets
OH ITāS SPRING. It took a global pandemic but our closets and junk drawers are more organised than ever before. Now time for every other cabinet in the house. And the Garage. Then the basement š°
Commutes are Canceled
As we are stuck inside our homes your vacations may be canceled but heyā so is your commute! And traveling less is great for the environment, too!
You Can Finally Catch Up On That Show
AND see the insides of late-night hostsā houses!
So, yes, we still need to figure out sustainable ways to continually reduce carbon dioxide emissions beyond the pandemic, and your junk drawer will fill up again. But in times of crisis, we have a chance, to value whatās truly important, to grow as we learn from new challenges, and to change when the time comes that we can stand back up. So take a little moment to be happy about something. It may feel weird for some, butĀ you deserve a smileĀ every once-in-a-while.
Last week a lot of you reached out about the technical issues you were facing when listening to our podcast episode with Elliot Roth & Sue Marshall. We took that opportunity to evaluate your feedback and decide how we could make the best of it. Turns out most of you like to have the option to listen & WATCH podcasts – which is why we have now switched our primary posting to Youtube. If you want to support us, please drop us a subscribe, it’s free and if you donāt love our content it’s easy to unsubscribe!
Hereās the link!
But we wanted to also take a moment to share some thoughts on how technologies, even frontier ones like flow batteries never make it to the market. It all comes from a place of fear. We prefer to be in comfortable situations, if something is working and proven we want to stay using that. However, we also make progress when we decide to try new things – which is immediately derived from our state of “comfort” no longer being comfortable. We need to have a problem on hand for us to want to go try new things. For example, solar and storage for homes is still expensive, even with incentives, so companies likeĀ TouchLightĀ help reduce the cost via energy efficiency. When it comes to energy storage for commercial scale and above lithium ion has its drawbacks. From extensive cooling needs to 10 year lifetimes before needing replacement it shows why we need to consider alternative storage mechanisms. However, the pain isnāt being felt by the developer. The scale at which we produce Lithium based storage solutions has driven the cost down to a point that developers are incentivized to keep using it. So where is the PAIN being felt here – from a residents and government perspective lithium can be tough to pass legislation for.
I have been recently involved in helping with local town/city level legislation within NY and have seen it first hand as residents are pushing back on NYSERDAs legislation requirements for energy storage. Large scale batteries are making people afraid, even though the “chernobyl” event that they are worried about from a 1 MWh battery is highly unlikely, it is slowing the process for towns & cities to pass legislation that even allows permitting to occur. Which brings up an unique conversation. Flow batteries might help address a number of the technical fears lithium based batteries have and right now governments are getting heavy pressure from clean tech organizations, residents/citizens and evangelists of the climate action movement. The pain is being felt, but can any company provide the sense of security via flow batteries or other ESS that will enable governments to make the decision to move away from lithium based utility scale storage.
My thought is yes – while I feel most of the complaints people have against the safety issues associated with utility scale storage, for micro-grids – I do think the fear people have and the passion they have to having their voice heard is more than enough to have legislation re-written to enable the adoption of new technologies like flow batteries. Fear & pain are a great tell-tale sign as to where new solutions will rapidly arise. We all like to be comfortable and when we are not – we find innovative ways to get back to comfort.
Tune into Off The Grid on Youtube! #NoStrawberriesInWinter
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