New Energy Tech To Watch
Energy Terminal Weekly Newsletter
April 11th 2023 | Issue #47 | Subscribe here
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
💲Capital Management Intern Role
🛑 The Impact of Rising Oil Prices
💥 A Faster Way to Buy Clean Energy
📈 Are Bricks the Future?
🤝 A Surprising Climate Disucssion
🚨 Top 3 Energy Jobs 🚨
1) 8 Rivers, Capital Management Intern
8 Rivers is a Durham, NC firm focused on the invention, development, and commercialization of sustainable, infrastructure-scale solutions to global problems through impactful technologies. The intern will work directly with 8 Rivers’ Capital Management team which touches all facets of the business, financing the company and projects, structuring/negotiating commercial agreements, and developing strategic industry and finance partners
2) National Resources Defense Council, Sustainable FERC Intern
NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC is seeking a summer intern to work with the Sustainable FERC Project team in our Washington, D.C., New York, or Chicago office. The successful candidate will take ownership of a major challenge or barrier facing the integration of clean energy into wholesale power markets regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
3) Form Energy, Energy Storage Chemical Engineer
Form Energy is developing, manufacturing, and commercializing a new class of cost-effective, multi-day energy storage systems that will enable a reliable and fully renewable electric grid year-round. Interns will build on existing results to improve our electrolyte product integration process and help optimize the electrolyte workflow for Form Energy’s long-duration energy storage system.
🌟 Startup Spotlight: Rondo Energy
Can bricks help eliminate emissions? Rondo Energy is harnessing the power of bricks to make a heat battery. Learn more about how this company is converting intermittent wind and solar power into an efficient, and affordable supply of continuous industrial heat and power here.
📣 Episode 26
The European Energy Crisis flipped the energy world on its head in one of most influential events in energy history. Gas and electricity prices surged, Europe scrambled to replace the 40% of its natural gas supply that came from Russia, and the world scrambled to stem the worst outcomes. Now a year on from the inception of the crisis, what does the situation look like? How has the balance of power in energy shifted? And how has the speed of the energy transition changed?
Here to answer these questions is Gerard Reid, founder and host of the Redefining Energy podcast and founder of Alexa Capital, a European investment bank supporting the energy transition. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Energy Council, which brings together business and government leaders to shape our energy future. As a well-known voice on all things energy, he brings his expertise to the episode to break down Europe’s energy situation and what it means for the energy transition going forward.
📚 Reading List
The Banking Crisis? Geothermal + Direct Air Capture? Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Catalyst, SVB, the banking crisis and climate tech
Amid so much uncertainty with the collapse of SVB, climate tech is alive and well, albeit a bit stunned by the chaos
SVB was the primary bank for more than half of climate startups, including 62% of community solar projects
The economic downturn has changed the funding landscape for climate tech startups, but there are also many opportunities that will emerge from the challenges
Climate One, Two Voices On Climate That Will Surprise You
Climate change is a highly polarized issue, but the issue is often portrayed as more binary than it really is. In reality, opinions on energy and climate lie on a spectrum
The first speaker in this episode, Arjun Murtis, holds a board position at a large oil company but also is a big EV supporter, and he argues that being affiliated with oil and gas companies doesn’t make you “evil” because it’s an essential energy source
The second speaker, House Rep. John Curtis, is Chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus which has a goal of “reducing emissions, not energy choices”, and he states that the majority of caucus members “care deeply about the earth”, which contradicts stereotypes about conservative views on climate
Curtis concludes the episode by describing how extremism can scare Republicans away from the conversation around climate change, but if we want to make real change on the issue, there needs to be a more bipartisan approach
Redefining Energy, Zero Carbon Europe - Blue Pill or Red Pill?
Gerard Reid and Laurent Segalen interview Doug Houseman, Principal Consultant at 1898 Burns McDonnell
Doug says Europe needs to focus more on storage and less on generation
Right now much of Europe’s produced energy is intermittent (wind)
Without proper storage, all of Europe’s renewable power can not be properly supported
Doug believes Europe should be investing in saltwater pump storage
📰️ Articles:
Canary Media, Companies need a faster way to buy clean energy. Here’s a new solution
Google and LevelTen Energy just produced a new model that simplifies and speeds up corporate clean energy purchases
Model benefits include:
Decreasing the risk of clean energy purchases falling through
Helping clean energy developers make a larger profit by increasing the number of projects they can move to completion
Helping large corporations reach carbon-cutting goals faster
The LevelTen-Google partnership is a start for normalizing and expediting clean energy purchase processes, but this model will not work for all corporate clean-energy buyers
CNBC, These are the countries that will be ‘most hit’ if oil prices reach $100
Analysts say that India, Japan, and South Korea, all of which are major oil importers, will be the most impacted if oil prices hit $100 per barrel after the OPEC+ production cut
India is the 3rd largest oil consumer globally and has been purchasing Russian oil at a discount since sanctions were imposed, and although they’re still profiting from this, if oil prices increase, India’s growth will be hurt
Japan and South Korea have little/no domestic oil production, despite it being a crucial energy supply for both countries, as it makes up 40% of Japan’s energy supply and South Korea is over 75% dependent on imported oil
Other emerging economies, like Argentina, Turkey, and South Africa, that don’t have the foreign currency capability to support fuel imports will also be negatively impacted by the OPEC+ cut
Fervo Energy, Fervo to develop combined geothermal and direct air capture facility
Achieving our 1.5 degree C goal will require the removal of hundreds of gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere, but this process is energy intensive
Fervo aims to supply the carbon-free electricity needed to power direct air capture facilities and announced that it will design and engineer a combined geothermal and DAC facility with funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
⏰ Missed Episode 25?
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