$120 million to Tackle Steel Emissions?
Energy Terminal Weekly Newsletter
January 31st 2023 | Issue #37 | Subscribe here
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back everyone to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
🥳 Boston Metal's recent fundraising success!
📊 Getting your dream climate role
💰The cost of building electrification
⭐ A 10-week fast track to energy careers
📈 Nuclear power's comeback
🌟 Startup Spotlight:
Boston Metal
This MIT-spinout startup has raised over $200m to tackle one of the biggest sources of GHG emissions in the world: steel production. The innovative company uses molten oxide electrolysis to create high temperatures needed for production without fossil fuels. See the Canary Media article featured in our Reading List below for more!
📣 Episode 22
You want to get involved in cleantech, but how do you find the right role?
To answer this question, we brought product management expert and author of the B2B Innovator’s Map, Daniel Elizalde, on the show. Daniel has worked with companies like Tesla, Microsoft, ABB, and GE to help them drive innovation and product success. He also serves as a mentor for cleantech startups through Third Derivative and Greentown Labs. Having worked with companies across the industry, Daniel has an unparalleled perspective on what opportunities are out there and how people can find their dream job in climate tech. In the episode, we cover this and more, including what product management jobs look like, the biggest problems facing cleantech startups, the best opportunities at cleantech startups, the most important skills to work on, and the fastest growing verticals in energy transition.
🕺 Emerging Leaders Program
Energy Terminal’s Emerging Leaders Program is designed to help college students fast-track their career growth in energy. The 10-week program will include weekly sessions with experts from the world's top companies across renewables, engineering, finance, venture capital, consulting, policy, and more. Check out our website for more info!
📚 Reading List (1/31 - 2/06)
Green Steel?!, Benefits of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), and the Argument for Biofuel. Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Catalyst w/ Shayle Kann, The journey to monetizing DERs
DERs are beneficial because the chance of a performance risk with one resource connected to the grid is much larger than when there are thousands of resources connected to the grid
Challenge with DERs is implementation: who is the aggregator, what does the customer experience, etc.
The technology is not the issue with DERs, the problem is more on the data and scale side
Data collection sometimes has to be done on site in order to get real time data
Energy Gang, The Renaissance of Nuclear Power
High natural gas prices coupled with concerns about energy security and international pressure to mitigate climate change have created a renewed interest in nuclear energy
Governments in countries like the US, France, and Japan are investing in innovative technologies, passing supportive legislation, and even creating plans for new reactors
The IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), for example, included a $15/megawatt-hour tax credit for existing plants and $700 million to build a domestic supply chain for modern reactors
However, there are still various challenges when it comes to nuclear, ranging from safety concerns to efficiency problems
HIBT with Guy Raz, BlocPower: Donnel Baird
Duke alum Donnel Baird is on a mission to electrify buildings across the country and bring jobs to low-income communities through Blocpower
Buildings account for more than 30% of energy-related CO2 emissions in the U.S. and upwards of 60% in major cities
It will cost $5 trillion to electrify all buildings in the U.S. and is a huge financial opportunity for people to get involved
Blocpower recently received a contract to electrify all of Ithaca, NY, which will be one of the first fully electrified cities in the world
📰️ Articles:
Canary media, Green steel startup Boston Metal Raises $120m for it's fossil-free tech
Steel production accounts for 7-9% of global GHG emissions due to the high-heat processes required to create it
Startup Boston Metal is developing a new heating process that uses electric currents
The investment will support expansion of it’s pilot plant to produce more green steel
The Guardian, US Renewable Energy Outstrips 99% of Coal Plants Economically - Study
It is cheaper to build new solar panel or wind turbine farms and connect them to the grid than to keep operating 99% of the US’s coal fired power plants
On average, the marginal cost of operating coal plants is $36 each megawatt hour, in comparison with solar’s average of $24 each megawatt hour
Coal production was at a 55 year low in 2020, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused an increase in coal production
Advocates of coal claim it is a reliable fuel source
Wall Street Journal, Will Using More Biofuels Be Good for the Environment? Two Experts Square Off.
Biofuels are made from plants and other organic matter, and then mixed with gasoline or diesel. Therefore, the mixture of biofuels requires a smaller amount of fossil fuels than traditional fuel sources
Adding biofuels to the U.S. fuel supply would decrease consumer costs and provide some environmental benefits
If the EPAs newest proposal is followed, Americans would save $200-$223 million annually
Biofuels are becoming more cost-competitive and it’s expected that while they only represent 7% of U.S. liquid fuel consumption currently, this will increase as they become used more frequently in industries like transportation
Arguments against biofuels include: the environmental impact isn’t actually that great; fossil fuels need to be eliminated completely in order to stop climate change; and utilizing edible plants for biofuel is a poor use of land and crops
⏰ Missed Episode 21?
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