Tag: energy

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Web3 giant Parity Technologies teams up with Watr over platform to track ethical commodities

As the US and Europe bakes in abnormal summer heat, the climate continues to climb up the world’s agenda. With everyone now talking about energy, how commodities are traded is also becoming a talking point.

Creating a “nutrition label” so that it would be possible to track the provenance of a commodity – be it coal or pork bellies – is considered by many to be the holy grail of that sector, and – these days – especially if CO2 emissions is factored in. We covered how the Watr Foundation, a Swiss-registered foundation created by experience commodities founders, plans to do this via the use of blockchains, incorporating the technology into commodities trading.

It’s now collaborating with Parity Technologies, creators of the now globally famous Polkadot (a protocol that connects blockchains) and Kusama, a network of specialized blockchains built on code similar to Polkadot.

Watr will now serve as the public blockchain protocol and decentralized app ecosystem for what it calls “ethical commodities”, alongside their financing and trade. Intended for for both retail and enterprise uses, Watr’s plan is to deploy widely in Africa.

Led by Gavin Wood, co-creator of Ethereum and its founding CTO, Parity’s partnership with Watr is designed to co-develop the Watr protocol and key applications, and execute joint R&D on the functionality required to make the platform perform for the 17-trillion dollar commodities industry.

Watr is Substrate-based, EVM-compatible, and will use the Polkadot ecosystem and security as a parachain. This means developers will be wooed to work on the DevNet, connecting to Rococo by early September.


Omar Elassar, Global Head of Ecosystem Growth & Business Development at Parity Technologies, said in a statement: “This collaboration will bring Watr’s deep commodities’ expertise to the Polkadot ecosystem and kick-start a platform for Web3-enabled solutions that solve pressing industry issues. This is a big first step on the path towards greater adoption of Web3 within a massive industry that’s crucial to the global economy.”

Watr Foundation Council President Maryam Ayati added: “The opportunity to create new classes of ethical commodities and traded supply chains is tremendous. We are thrilled to have the legendary team at Parity join us and our existing partners in enabling commodities’ transition to Web3 business models and liquidity while safeguarding the security and decentralized ethos of a public blockchain servicing both retail and regulated institutional users.”

Because there has been a capital shortfall of some $1.5 trillion for commodities, partly due to ESG concerns, the timing might be right for WATR’s aspirations, since the market is now looking for tools for suppliers – and consumers – to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in the pricing of commodities.

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Oil and gas didn’t benefit from investor largesse in recent years — but renewables did

With the climate-and-energy-focused Inflation Reduction Act expected to be signed by President Joe Biden this week, The Wall Street Journal asked Dealogic to analyze the amount of money being loaned to “green” companies and to oil and gas companies. Investors, WSJ concludes, aren’t ready to give up on fossil fuels.

But the data suggests that they’re starting to pull back already.

Fossil fuel financing has been more or less steady since 2015, when the WSJ/Dealogic data series begins. For oil and gas companies, that should be a worrying trend given overall low rates and the amount of money that’s been sloshing around the market the past few years.

Investment-grade bond issuance surged in 2020 before dropping to still-elevated levels in 2021. Yet fossil fuel investment didn’t follow the trend, dipping slightly instead of rising along with the market.

Bonds and loans for renewable projects and companies did the opposite, ticking steadily upward from 2015 on. In 2021, they more than doubled the previous year, matching the amount invested in fossil fuels for the first time.

This year, renewable companies remain neck-and-neck with oil and gas companies.

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Porsche signs 25-year solar energy deal

Apparently, solar power is hot right now.

Porsche said Monday that it plans to build and operate a solar power microgrid at its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, reducing its annual carbon emissions by 3.2 million pounds. The news came days after Ford announced what it called the largest-ever renewable energy purchase from a utility in the U.S., to power its electricity supply in Michigan with renewable energy.

The installation of Porsche’s microgrid, an on-site electrical network that harnesses power from solar panels, will begin in September and conclude in 2023. The renewable energy project is part of a $50 million development at the Porsche Experience Center campus in Atlanta.

Porsche’s 25-year operating agreement with Cherry Street Energy, the largest non-utility provider of solar energy in Georgia, will power Porsche’s on-site fleet of Taycan EVs, among other applications. The energy company will own, operate and maintain the microgrid, selling the power to Porsche.

Both Ford and Porsche said the energy will accelerate their sustainability goals over the next decade. Porsche said in a statement that the energy from solar panels will provide “a significant portion of annual electricity needs.”

Porsche aims to become carbon neutral across its operations by 2030. Ford has set a target to power all of its global facilities with renewable energy by 2035 and go carbon neutral by 2050.

 

 

 

 

 

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Massive iron batteries could be key to displacing natural gas from the grid

With the impending passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, renewables are about to get a fresh jolt in the U.S. They’re already some of the cheapest sources of electricity to build and run, but they haven’t taken over because they’re often dependent on the weather.

The simple solution is to store any excess power produced, but that raises the overall cost of renewable power. That’s set off a race among startups to find the cheapest way to do it, from batteries to compressed air and even giant concrete blocks.

The front runner so far appears to be batteries, many of which use the same lithium-ion chemistries found in EV batteries. The scale of EV battery production has made lithium-ion easy to obtain, allowing it to get a foothold in the sector, but its long-term prospects for grid-scale storage are murkier given its high cost of materials.

Competition for battery materials is intensifying, and there are many uses for batteries beyond EVs, which is why some companies, like Germany’s VoltStorage, are trying to build batteries using the cheapest, most widely available materials possible — chiefly, iron.

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Ford locks in solar energy deal with DTE Energy

Ford said Wednesday it has reached a deal with DTE Energy to power its electricity supply in Michigan with clean energy, a step toward its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The automaker’s deal with DTE, Michigan’s largest producer of renewable energy, will add 650 megawatts of new solar energy capacity in the state by 2025, allowing the carmaker to assemble each vehicle it makes there with renewable energy.

Ford called the deal the largest-ever renewable energy purchase from a utility in the U.S. The arrangement will help Ford decarbonize its operations and meet its sustainability goals, including a target to power all of its global facilities with renewable energy by 2035.

Ford said the purchase will help it cut its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 600,000 tons. Overall, Ford’s arrangement with DTE will increase Michigan’s solar capacity by 70%, according to the automaker.

The announcement comes one day after Ford said it will raise the price of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck between $6,000 and $8,500 for new orders.

“Due to significant material cost increases and other factors, Ford has adjusted MSRP starting with the opening of the next wave of F-150 Lightning orders,” a statement read.

The entry-level Lightning will now retail for $46,974, while the top-tier “Platinum Extended Range” version starts at $96,874. The price increase will not apply to customers who have already ordered a truck and are awaiting delivery.

Ford also said the truck’s standard range battery can now travel 240 miles, up from 230 miles, on a full charge.

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BMW hedges its EV bet, appears poised to repeat mistakes of the past

For a while, it seemed like BMW had turned a corner with its EV strategy. Its i4 and iX have received stellar reviews, and this spring the company announced an all-electric platform, the Neue Klasse, which it said will underpin EV versions of the 3-series sedan and the X3 crossover starting in 2025. The company that had squandered its once-promising EV lead seemed poised for a comeback.

Seemed.

It’s increasingly clear that Neue Klasse isn’t going to be a dedicated EV platform, at least not in the way just about every other automaker conceives of one. “We could also imagine a hydrogen drivetrain for this new vehicle generation,” CEO Oliver Zipse said in last week’s earnings call.

If BMW follows through and makes the Neue Klasse accommodate both batteries and hydrogen, it’ll have created yet another compromise platform, a futon of automotive engineering that doesn’t excel at anything except making waffling board members happy.

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That big climate bill might actually make a difference

With the Senate passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 last night, and House passage later this week all but assured, it’s likely that the U.S. will be taking significant — though not comprehensive — congressional action on climate change.

The bill is expected to trim U.S. carbon emissions to 40% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. That’s short of President Joe Biden’s target of 50%, and not quite enough to help put the world on the preferred path of warming no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. But it’s still a major step, one that could restore confidence in global climate agreements.

It’ll also give a big boost to climate tech, a sector that’s been red hot and seemingly immune to cooling sentiment.

The new version, which passed after negotiations with Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, has a few changes. The corporate minimum tax reportedly has been tweaked to be more lenient on manufacturers, and the changes to tax on carried interest are out, though it’s not clear whether investors were all that concerned with them anyway. It’s been replaced with a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks that goes into effect next year. Sinema also successfully lobbied for $4 billion for Western states to fight the megadrought they’re currently experiencing.

The rest of the massive bill, which we’ve covered in detail, remains largely the same. That means enticements to get people to buy EVs and heat pumps; carrots for companies to set up domestic supply chains for batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines; and $20 billion to help agriculture overhaul itself with an eye toward trimming emissions.

But will the bill be enough? Among realists, there’s largely agreement that the Inflation Reduction Act is better than nothing. It may not be perfect, but there’s still time to improve on it, right?

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4 principles for building an MVP even if you can’t write a single line of code

Magnus Grimeland Contributor
Magnus Grimeland is the founder and CEO of Antler, a global early-stage VC firm.

Coding is the new literacy — for years, people have been calling programming the X-factor that guarantees future success.

It’s no surprise there is a widespread perception in the startup world that anyone who doesn’t know how to code should forget about trying to create anything. After all, Silicon Valley, which historically has been to software engineering what Hollywood is to acting, built its reputation as the birthplace of world-changing tech companies.

But the reality is that great talent is everywhere, and technical talent is not the only kind that matters. Silicon Valley is by no means the only booming tech hub in the world — in 2013, only 37 cities were home to a unicorn; by 2021, there were unicorns in a whopping 170 cities.

Having a technical background is not a requirement for a founder to build a great company, regardless of where they might be located. We work with plenty of technical and non-technical people, and we encourage founders with non-technical backgrounds to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

Why do we feel so strongly about this?

The proof is in the data. In his book “Super Founders,” venture capitalist Ali Tamaseb gathered 30,000 data points that revealed founding CEOs of unicorns were split down the middle: Half came from a business background; half had a technical background.

And, there have been many non-technical founders who have built huge tech companies, such as Melanie Perkins of Canva, Brian Chesky of Airbnb, Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble, and Evan Sharp of Pinterest.

Coding is “A” new literacy, not “THE” new literacy and is only one of many ways to achieve great outcomes.

If we meet an applicant who doesn’t have a technical background but brings drive, grit and some other specialized knowledge, we will almost always want to partner with them, connect them to our ecosystem and jump-start their entrepreneurial journey.

While this might sound encouraging, it doesn’t change the fact that every company needs to go to market with an MVP. Without coding skills, how do you build one?

You should always try to have at least one technical co-founder on your team. It simply makes for faster building and iterating, easier pivoting, consistency throughout the product lifetime and fewer headaches or incompatibilities down the line.

While we don’t recommend launching a company solo, if you haven’t found a technical co-founder or freelancer to build your MVP, here are four principles that will help in the meantime.

Principle 1: Non-technical is OK; non-product is not

People often confuse technical knowledge for product knowledge, but they are not the same. Each requires different educational backgrounds, team structures, focus areas within the enterprise and the types of questions that need to be asked.

Product knowledge is about being able to articulate what your thing does at the most basic level. Even if you have no clue how the technology actually works, you should be able to explain what the function is in a clear and concise way. On the other hand, technical knowledge is about building the thing itself.

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Beacon Power Services raises $2.7M to improve electricity access for sub-Saharan African cities

Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global population without access to electricity stood at 77% in 2020, according to reports. Also, the average daily electricity supply in some of Africa’s largest cities is less than 12 hours. As a result, individuals and businesses find other options and substitutes, such as generators, to deal with their power issues; however, these solutions can either be costly to use or affect the climate.

While solar grids and panels are another viable option and have compelling use cases for end consumers, there’s still an opportunity to launch products targeted at power distribution companies, and that’s where Beacon Power Services (BPS) plays. The energy tech company, which provides data and grid management solutions to help Africa’s power sector distribute electricity more efficiently, is announcing today that it has closed a seed round of $2.7 million.

Founder and chief executive officer Bimbola Adisa, an aerospace engineer, started the company in 2014 after working several years for a power turbine manufacturer and as an investment banker covering the power sector in the U.S. For the latter, most of his clients included electric utilities, service providers and manufacturers. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said these experiences gave him exposure to the application of technology in the power sector, and he saw an opportunity to apply that in Nigeria and across Africa.

Adisa launched BPS in 2014 to address the inadequate electricity supply from power distribution companies. The U.S.- and Nigeria-based utility company provides energy management software and analytics for utilities. Its AI-enabled grid management platform, Adora, solves one of two fundamental problems power distribution companies face in Africa.

The software offers real-time visibility on network performance for electric utilities and connects to every utility asset and customer node on the grid, allowing energy providers to preempt outages and identify network losses, respond to them quickly and distribute electricity more efficiently. “The result is that utilities can operate more efficiently, recover more revenue, and by reducing outages, customers get increased supply of electricity (more hours supplied daily), so everyone wins,” said BFS in an emailed response to TechCrunch on how Adora works.

The other problem is data-focused, tackled by the company’s proprietary platform called Customer and Asset Information Management system (CAIMs). Utilities in Africa struggle to maintain an accurate database of their customers, assets and grid topology (the relationship between assets and customers). The CAIMs solves this by factoring in the unique conditions within which Africa’s utilities operate, for example, poor address systems, and helps them digitize their data, which serves as a foundation for network improvements.

“Africa is home to the fastest growing cities in the world, but when most people think of energy access in Africa, they think of the rural areas with little or no access to electricity at all. However, it is impossible for Africa to develop without significantly improving electricity access and reliability across its major cities,” said CEO Adisa in a statement. “When we realized that solutions designed for mature markets fail to address the unique infrastructure challenges Africa faces, we developed a tailored solution for power companies on the continent to improve daily grid supply of electricity.”

Bim Adisa (CEO)

Adisa told TechCrunch that BPS has grown from a single utility in Nigeria to four utilities in two countries, including Ghana, covering more than 8 million customers (residential and businesses). BPS’ business model entails working with its clients as partners over the long term, and not just to sell products, said Adisa. As such, the company can defer most of the upfront cost of deploying its technology in exchange for service-based payments commensurate with the value it creates.

The eight-year-old energy utility company says it differs from other platforms because it provides “local solutions that factor in the local operating environment in Africa.” For instance, most off-the-shelf solutions created for mature markets do not factor in the frequency of outages encountered in Africa or the network communications issues experienced, but BPS claims its solutions have solved that.

The company’s seed round was led by Seedstars Africa Ventures with participation from Persistent Energy, Kepple Africa Ventures, Factor[e] and Oridun Capital Management. Speaking on the investment, Maxime Bouan, managing partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures, said, “As a society, we have recognized climate change as one of the biggest threats to our generation, and it is critical we use smart capital to support entrepreneurs across Africa who are creating innovative and localized solutions to tackle this challenge.”

The new funding would enable BPS to improve its current products (product upgrades to add new features and incorporate automation) and expand into new markets beyond Nigeria and Ghana, where it currently operates.

Persistent Energy raises $10M to grow its clean-tech venture building business in Africa

CrossBoundary gets $25M for solar mini-grids in Africa

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The road map for building the Uber of climate tech

The world needs a company willing to force governments to take action on climate change.

So far, climate tech has been the polite corner of the startup world. All pleases and thank yous, triple bottom lines and shared upsides, plenty of virtue and virtue signaling.

That’s great and all. Saving the world from probable calamity is an honorable mission statement, one that probably bleeds over into the way companies do business. And certainly the world could use more kindness, not less.

But here’s the thing: Right now, the world is moving too slowly, on track for 2.7 C of warming by 2100, far short of the 1.5 C goal that’s in the Paris Agreement. There’s no longer time for niceties. We need a climate tech startup that’s going to throw its weight around and force evolution on sclerotic governments and companies.

In short, the world needs a climate tech startup that’s like an early-days Uber, a company that won’t take no for an answer, one that tackles an entrenched, slow-moving industry bound by regulation, one with deep pockets and an eye toward the long game. Should it succeed, everyone would want to sign up as a customer. The rewards for the startup and its investors could be handsome.