Tim De Chant
Despite whispers of a downturn earlier this year, investors continue to express confidence in climate tech. Though numbers are down compared with 2021, a year that many agree is an outlier in the VC world, they’re on track to beat 2020 as the second hottest year for investment.
What’s...
There’s been a lot of talk about remaking the electric grid in the U.S. and in Europe, preparing it for a tidal wave of intermittent renewable power and instant-on batteries. It’s happening in fits and starts, with utilities themselves alternately embracing and pushing back against the new, more...
When it comes to consumer-facing climate tech, electric vehicles and solar panels may get all the attention, but every home has some even lower-hanging fruit — HVAC, or heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.
Residential and commercial buildings produce about a third of the carbon emissions in the U.S., and...
“Build it or else.”
That was the gist of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s discussions with the automotive industry regarding EV tax credits. Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, had grown increasingly concerned about China’s dominance of the lithium-ion battery market, and he told car companies that they needed to...
A nonexhaustive list of why Marc Andreessen and Adam Neumann have misread America’s housing problems
When Marc Andreessen announced that he was sinking $350 million of a16z investors’ money into a new venture by WeWork co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann, plenty of jaws dropped. For one, there was...
If the world wants to feed 10 billion people in 2050, it’ll need to find a better way to grow food.
Today, about half the world’s habitable land is devoted to agriculture, yet even that amount can’t provide everyone with the sort of diet enjoyed by people in developed...
Volkswagen dropped a bombshell announcement late last week: Herbert Diess was out as CEO.
As a manager, Diess was controversial, with a style that chafed both executives and labor leaders alike. But as a strategist, he was on firmer ground, deftly steering Volkswagen out of the Dieselgate scandal and...
Hydrogen has been the decarbonized energy sector’s white whale.
Wildly abundant and highly versatile, it has long had the potential to decarbonize entire sectors of the economy. From cars and trucks to planes, trains and even household boilers, the universe’s lightest gas isn’t short on possible applications.
But it is...
Biofuels are the sirens of renewable energy, luring startups with enchanting promises of enormous markets, from aviation to trucking and shipping. Companies just can’t help throwing themselves at the problem, and more than a few have been dashed to pieces in the process.
One new startup, though, hopes it’s...
Investors are used to using their acumen and financial heft to find companies that might disrupt markets. But it turns out their views and investments might disrupt public opinion, too.
A massive survey of Facebook users from around the world shows a vast group of people who are neither...
