This Year’s Startups Are Focused on Energy Efficiency and Reliability in Buildings Efficient buildings are the focus of this year’s Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) cohort. The $55 million energy technology program—funded by Wells Fargo & Company and coadministered by NREL—welcomed three startups to its next cohort in the Emerging Tech … [continued]
It’s often said that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and the stove is definitely the center of the kitchen. For decades, stoves have been powered by burning things that release harmful emissions into the home. Electrifying stoves is difficult because heating elements pull lots of electricity and … [continued]
Navien, a 50 year old company that leads the market in tankless gas water heaters and boilers, is making a big splash (pun intended) with its first heat pump water heater (HPWH), which came to market this fall. This HPWH (called the NWP 500) is a deviation for the company … [continued]
I wrote another technoeconomic assessment of why hydrogen will not be cheap, and the reaction from hydrogen advocates was familiar. They focused on small pieces of the analysis and treated each point as if it existed in isolation. That pattern confirmed something important. The debate is not about one technology … [continued]
When I wrote recently about the rise of DC power, from long HVDC transmission lines to the direct current loads inside our laptops and EVs, someone pointed me toward what they described as a third type of electricity. They called it fault-managed power, or FMP, and said it combined the … [continued]
Another middle-aged white guy is offering a pragmatic climate reset, me. It seems to be the season for it. Bill Gates has pivoted from “zero carbon at all costs” to “improve human welfare first.” Tony Blair has decided that hard climate targets are too idealistic and that a more rational … [continued]
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC) and The Green Launchpad recently announced the NYC Energy Efficiency Workforce Coalition. Workforce development is critically important for supporting clean energy and energy efficiency jobs. Even though at the moment, the social media sphere and news appear to be nearly dominated … [continued]
This is something I never do. I am writing about a topic I know next to nothing about. But the world of 2050 is 25 years in the future and the next 25 years are expected to be very transformative. It is impossible to know anything with something approaching certainty … [continued]
I recently sat down with Richard Halsall, CEO and Founder of Exhale Fans, for another episode of CleanTech Talk. I’ve been doing CleanTech Talk for more than 10 years, with more than 1.1 million listens on our 359 episodes on SoundCloud alone thanks to the hundreds of super interesting people … [continued]
Here at the nonprofit-led Advanced Water Heating Initiative, we are heat pump water heater dorks. Our favorite day of the year is Heat Pump Water Heater Day — which this year falls on October 23. That whole day and really the entire week, we focus our attention and energy on … [continued]
