The post Virtual Power Plants Catalyze Grid Stability in Texas appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>Bringing Energy Equality to Renters in Texas with Virtual Power Plants
Historically, choosing solar energy as a way to cut down on electric bills and add value to homes has only been a viable option for people with good credit and the ability to purchase a home. With a new program, however, the opportunity to power one’s place of residence with solar is being extended to renters and people with lower credit scores through virtual power plants, community solar and innovative storage.
Project TexFlex
The apartments at 2410 Waugh Street in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood will become the first installation of “Project TexFlex,” a program created by flexible energy provider PearlX Infrastructure and global leader in smart energy technology, SolarEdge Technologies. Together, these two companies have collaborated to create a novel residential clean energy solution for renters in Texas. NATiVE Solar is also a part of this innovative project, and has been granted an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract. These companies are working together to install community solar and battery storage in apartment complexes to create “Virtual Power Plants” (VPPs), also known as resilience hubs, which are meant to help stabilize the Texas grid. By installing these systems on the roofs of apartment buildings, Project TexFlex is empowering renters who would otherwise be shut out of the residential solar market.
How it Works
Project TexFlex aims to increase energy resilience in Texas by reducing strain on the grid. “A lack of localized renewable energy sources makes ERCOT vulnerable to failure and power outages such as the ones that occurred in the winter storm in February 2021. The battery storage in VPPs facilitate the delivery of energy back into the grid during a blackout which helps to both support and stabilize the grid. By increasing the number of VPPs within a community, power becomes more reliable for everyone. VPPs have the ability to significantly reduce grid strain during energy shortages, and as more VPPs are installed, the likelihood of mass power outages will continue to decrease” says Alex Rozenfeld, Founder and Managing Director of Climate Impact Capital.
Bringing Clean Energy Solutions to Renters
The ability to bridge the gap between renters and clean energy solutions is extremely important due to the growing trend in families with children who are renting their homes instead of buying them. According to an article posted by CultureMap Houston, this demographic is on the rise in the thirty largest US metros, with Houston being no exception. Many of these tenants are also low to medium-income families, and should benefit from the more affordable, flexible, and resilient energy that solar provides. PearlX’s mission is to use Project TexFlex to help reduce energy poverty and expand clean energy access.
Working Towards Energy Equality
In striving for energy equality, PearlX will not require tenants to present an industry-defined adequate credit score, but rather simply show proof that they have paid their most recent electricity bills on time. This allows tenants who live within TexFlex properties to access the benefits of solar even with inadequate credit scores. As stated by Michael Huerta, CEO of PearlX, “Mainstream solar and especially storage has traditionally been an amenity for the wealthy. If you don’t have good credit, you don’t have access…Payment for electricity we believe is the highest form of credit. When you look at the data, electric bills are paid before rent, cell phone bills, even car payments.” With PearlX underwriting the TexFlex project, tenants of all credit scores, provided that they have paid their last electric bill, will be able to access the benefits that solar energy provides to both them and their communities.
Texas and Beyond
While the Montrose apartment community is a smaller scale project with only fourteen individual apartments, PearlX has already signed an agreement with the complex’s developers to continue to scale up the project and offer it at other multi-family real estate properties across Texas. After developing further in Texas, similar projects will continue in California and several other US states later this year.
With the launch of this new clean energy solution, PearlX, SolarEdge, and NATiVE Solar are creating a widely replicable, decentralized model that will facilitate Texas’ energy transition, while offering safeguards against grid failures. At the same time, energy consumers across the state will benefit from more cost-effective and reliable power. This win-win solution is the first of its kind, and shows us how private entities can step in to provide energy solutions when public utilities are insufficient. By continuing to support projects such as TexFlex, we can make Texas more resilient and bring affordable clean energy solutions to those who would otherwise be locked out of participating in the solar market.
Learn more about NATiVE Solar and CIC Energy Holdings
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]]>The post EVs will be the Resilience and Disaster Recovery Solution of Choice for Intelligent Grids appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>OpConnect is a Minority Owned Small Business taking on big names like ChargePoint, ABB, and Shell (which purchased Greenlots). The team has developed a lean model that has enabled EV service providers to quickly integrate their EV charging networks with advanced payment processing and customer care tools.
Mobility and energy are undergoing a massive transformation as transportation moves toward an electric future. The investment will enable expansion of OpConnect’s team and enhancement of its “real-time,” hardware agnostic EV management and billing platform to public and private fleet operators.
The company plans to expand its private-labeling offerings focusing on multi-family properties and communities. Headed by CEO Dexter Turner, OpConnect is leading innovation in the electric transportation, with seven EV charging and access control patents. “The Biden administration envisions an aggressive acceleration of the country’s move to vehicle electrification,” said Dexter Turner, which creates enormous opportunities for small business growth, EV owners and reduction of local and greenhouse gas pollution. Jessica Nigro, OpConnect BoD and General Manager at Daimler North America, agreed, “Industry cannot underestimate the influence of immediate federal and state policy in fostering the EV ecosystem.”
“Smart EV charging networks are a critical element of ensuring grid resiliency as we progress to a micro-grid centric utility model where consumers and building owners play a strong market role,” said Alex Rozenfeld, the Founder of Climate Impact Capital, “and as we saw during the near-collapse of the Texas ERCOT grid early in 2021, microgrids with EVs as a core will increasingly provide resilience and backup power in the coming decades as we see more climate change driven mega weather events.” With options like the Ford Lightning, Rivian R1S, and the VW ID.4, consumers may rapidly migrate to EVs.
About Climate Impact Capital
CIC invests in energy technology companies and supports global energy corporations through CIC’s Venture-as-a-Service program. CIC identifies resiliency opportunities to prepare our partners for a world challenged by climate change risk and resource scarcity. With a diverse team and a global partner network across oil and gas, power, and energy technology manufacturing, CIC is at the forefront of the energy transition.
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]]>The post 60Hertz Energy Closes $1.3M Round to Improve Remote Microgrid Operations appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>“Maintenance is a critical element of ensuring grid resiliency, as we saw during the near-collapse of the Texas ERCOT grid early in 2021,” said Alex Rozenfeld, the Founder of Climate Impact Capital. “Microgrids will become an increasingly important part of the mainstream grid in the coming decades as we see more climate change driven mega weather events and 60Hertz will be part of the suite of solutions needed in that future.”
The 60Hertz software and services already are actively deployed supporting remote and critical microgrids in seven countries. 60Hertz enables customers to improve the asset performance and overall lifespan of their existing power generation facilities and speeds their transition of microgrids to resilient and renewable power generation sources. 60Hertz facilitates maintenance on over $140M of microgrid assets with over 4,600 maintenance records filed per month through the platform. This financing will accelerate the company’s growth in North American and Sub-Saharan African markets.
60Hertz Energy is a Women-Owned Small Business. At a time when only 2.8% of venture capital goes to female-founded start-ups, 60Hertz is a success story. New 60Hertz Director, Susan Preston of SeaChange Fund, notes that “I am delighted to start working with 60Hertz on the strategic pathway to further growth and success. I am particularly pleased to be working with an excellent CEO, Piper Foster Wilder.”
Piper Foster Wilder launched the company in 2017. With co-founders Whitney Gantt and Tonya James, the team has created and deployed maintenance software designed for low- and intermittent bandwidth in off-grid locations in Alaskan villages and Sub-Saharan African countries and for users new to technology, maintenance, and energy assets.
The need for efficient, resilient, and sustainable microgrid infrastructure is critical to boosting economic growth. Microgrids are rapidly expanding from rural markets that 60Hertz Energy currently serves to become key elements of grid management worldwide.
“The clean energy revolution is happening everywhere, not just in the cities and suburbs,” said John Harper, a Partner at Clean Energy Venture Group. “Rural and remote power generation assets have a critical role in transitioning to a cleaner and more resilient future. 60Hertz’s CMMS is an essential tool in this effort. We’re eager to help 60Hertz Energy grow dramatically over the next several years.”
60Hertz Energy is the only offline-first Social Impact CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) for remote assets and teams. 60Hertz is innovative because of[its focus on emerging markets, serving users without strong reading skills, and for use in rural/remote settings with limited bandwidth.
Factor[e] is a global venture development firm dedicated to supporting the growth of early-stage, technology-enabled companies solving challenges in energy, agriculture, mobility, and waste in emerging markets.
Climate Impact Capital, LLC invests in energy technology companies and supports global energy corporations through CIC’s Venture-as-a-Service program. Focusing on climate change risks, CIC identifies resiliency opportunities and prepares our partners, customers, and portfolio companies for a world challenged by climate variability and resource scarcity. With a diverse team and a global partner network across oil and gas, power, and energy technology manufacturing, CIC is at the forefront of the energy transition.
SeaChange Fund was founded in 2015 and has $47.5 million assets under management and a pooled average IRR of 55.6% across six funds. The Fund has made 46 investments in 33 early-stage Pacific Northwest startups in nine industry sectors. These investments help support nearly 610 jobs in the PNW region.
About Clean Energy Venture Group
Clean Energy Venture Group is an angel investment group providing seed capital and management expertise to early-stage climate tech and clean energy companies. The group is comprised of seasoned operating executives with strong capabilities in the energy and environmental sectors. With each investment, we bring not only capital but also the value of our experience and network to help companies achieve their financial and impact goals.
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]]>The post Can H2 solve the Texas freeze? appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>By: Keshav Ahuja
The snow has finally melted, and the debate settled. The primary cause of the Texas electrical grid failure during the Great Freeze of 2021? The loss of fossil fuel generation capacity. The solution…
Texas citizens were in the dark and cold when they needed these services the most. The blackout exposed several vulnerabilities, highlighting the lack of critical equipment weatherization. How do we move forward to avoid this disaster again? Some say more gas-fired generation, others say distributed solar. But maybe the real answer for Texas is hydrogen.
Texas is the nation’s largest (gray) hydrogen producer on the back of the state’s massive petrochemical sector, relying on cheap natural gas. However, the state also has the largest wind capacity at nearly 40 GW and a solar capacity of 7 GW. There is a clear pathway to CO2-free (green) hydrogen: renewable energy to power electrolysis. Apart from production infrastructure, Texas has 1,600 miles of dedicated hydrogen pipeline infrastructure and houses three hydrogen storage fields with a cumulative capacity of 6 Bcf.
With more extreme weather events than ever before, it’s clear that Texas need a more resilient (while sustainable) energy mix. Hydrogen is a viable solution – Texas already has the basic infrastructure in place for large scale deployment. The key to expanding the state’s hydrogen economy, though, will be investment into planning, technology, and infrastructure to reduce costs and a commitment by regulatory agencies and governing bodies (State of TX and ERCOT, that’s you!) to advance green energy and think outside the box. Climate Impact Capital has some big ideas; contact us and we’ll help make the grid like our state – TX strong.
The post Can H2 solve the Texas freeze? appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>The post Energy Storage: New Technologies and Forecasts appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>By Keshav Ahuja
Energy storage is one of the most discussed topics today and is expected to be a key component of the global energy transition and stabilizing the grid for Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards. Over the last decade, energy storage technologies have continued to evolve, adapt, and innovate in response to changing energy requirements and regulatory policies.
Energy storage technologies are broadly categorized into four segments: electrical, thermal, mechanical, and electrochemical storage. Though electrochemical (batteries) and mechanical (hydrogen/pumped hydropower) storage remain the most common forms of energy adoption, research on alternate storage technologies offering higher power capacities, faster charging rates, or greater cost effectiveness is rapidly ongoing.
New Innovations in Storage
Technologies that have gained traction in recent years include compressed-air energy storage, gravity storage, aqueous-air battery, flow battery, and prismatic battery. Furthermore, there is ongoing research to develop new materials that can significantly improve battery efficiencies and support higher charging cycles, such as super-capacitors. Although pumped hydro storage accounts for the majority of installed global energy storage capacity, lithium-ion based storage is expected to record the highest growth rates, with almost all new upcoming storage capacities slated to adopt the technology.
A wide range of technologies are available for energy storage systems, with varying approaches to manage power supply and build a resilient energy infrastructure.
Mind the Gap
The challenge is that each solution comes with its own set of pros and cons. However, the core issue remains: can energy storage enhance grid flexibility, provide economies of scale in transmission and distribution, and offer better power quality and cost savings to customers? This requires a system-wide study to understand needs, applications, economics, and solution potentials. There are also suites of solutions to improve overall grid flexibility, such as demand response, power plant retrofits, smart-grid measures, and advanced energy management systems. These options need to be weighed against the case for implementing energy storage solutions and require a holistic approach to understand high-level market dynamics that can improve energy access and infrastructure.
Grid Stabilization with Renewables
As the world moves towards a decentralized model, it is expected that existing solar PV systems will be retrofit with energy storage capacity, while new solar PV will be increasingly paired with a storage system during the installation process. While this may not always be cost-effective for the grid, co‑siting renewables and storage assets would ensure grid stability during peak demand periods. Adoption of innovative business models and multiple revenue streams, such as virtual power plant solutions, are expected to offset storage charges and will become increasingly important in decentralized energy markets.
The Role of EV Adoption and the Grid
EVs will also play an important role in the future of energy storage as the EV battery market is significantly larger than grid-scale batteries. Vehicle-to-grid charging, which allows charged power to be pushed back to the grid from car batteries to balance variations in energy production and consumption, is also gaining traction. As the number of EVs are expected to grow significantly by 2030, this will account for a large aggregated storage capacity, capable of providing grid stability at peak demand hours. The effects of innovation and reductions in the cost of mobility in the EV battery market may spill-over and boost the grid-scale industry significantly.
The Path Forward, Stay Tuned
New energy storage installation fell for the first time since nearly a decade in 2019 due to wavering policy support and uncertainties regarding battery safety in key markets such as Korea, China, US, and Germany. The COVID-19 crisis is also likely to compound these effects as battery production has a particularly complex supply chain, which will be severely impacted as production is halted. However, the medium to long term future of utility-scale and behind-the-meter storage systems look bright, and are increasingly being used across the globe to provide necessary stability to the national power grids as the influx of DERS continues to grow.
Stay tuned to CIC’s blog and newsletter as we continue to report on emerging trends and innovations on the path towards an intelligent grid
The post Energy Storage: New Technologies and Forecasts appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>The post The Intelligent Grid: Smart, Autonomous, Predictive appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>By Nishant Jain
The Intelligent grid transformation will be the backbone of our new energy infrastructure. CIC defines an Intelligent Grid as having 3Ds – Digitalized, Decarbonized and Democratized – which is actualized by some key elements of ‘smart’, ‘autonomous’ and ‘predictive’.
Smart – The key element for a system to get “smart” is its ability to exchange signals between its components. The underlying technology has evolved from the Internet of Things (IoT) toa combination of low power sensors, connected device, computing, and software to enable digital monitoring and control of systems.
For example, a smart building orchestrates various systems within its ecosystem, such as HVAC, lighting, and security, within a single platform, allowing disparate systems to communicate and enable optimum performance. A smart mobility solution rests within this system and enables our vehicles to communicate key parameters like fuel status, engine parameters, etc. along with intelligent fleet management to know when devices can be used for storage, or balancing the grid.
From the utilities’ perspective, these data-points from buildings, e-vehicles, and public lights provide real-time, accurate status visibility and enable customized solutions, which greatly enhance customer engagement. For instance, an energy supplier can offer a customized electricity rate plan to its consumers, which would encourage a consumption shift towards non-peak hours, ultimately creating a win-win scenario. Such an ecosystem brings a shift from “autocracy” of few large utilities to “democratization” in which utilities and consumers both participate to make optimum decisions.
Prosumer engagement and impact matrix
| Customer Engagement Initiatives | Description | Impact on Energy Consumption Reduction |
| Customized Rate Plan | An optimum plan based on a user’s consumption data, the respective sub-station region, and utilities’ generation pattern | High |
| Value-added Services based on Energy Consumption Analytics | Actionable insights for reducing consumption; rewards for behaviour shift | Medium |
| Customized Third-Party Offers | Customized offers for appliances, software from third party providers with clear ROI based on data shared by utilities | Medium-Low |
In many developed countries that have a deregulated retail electricity market, which allows for a choice of suppliers and price negotiation, customers can choose from a portfolio of customized rate plans that best suit their needs. In turn, suppliers provide the best customer service to retain their market share.
Beyond the utility, customers can also interact with each other in their communities, leading to opportunities for peer-to-peer trading of surplus self-generated power sources like rooftop solar PV, diesel gen-sets, fuel cells, battery storage etc.
Autonomous – As the grid becomes smarter with millions of connected devices and sensors, decision making shift towards decentralization. Grid control mechanisms also mirror this shift of decentralization and point towards a system made of scalable cellular blocks. which can independently function off the grid when isolated.
An autonomous grid with a central control hub and with autonomous parts brings immense resiliency to a system by eliminating single points of failure. Apart from an AI-based distribution grid system, real-time speed is the key in its success, and underlying technologies which enable the transition to autonomous grids are edge computing and mission-critical communications. The set-up of real-time communication and resiliency sets up the perfect stage for the integration of renewables in the form of DERs and microgrids. Thus, autonomous grids enable “decarbonization” as the intermittent nature of renewable generation requires high levels of resiliency.
Predictive – A flexible and resilient grid has a price to pay as it carries a higher “standard deviation” of control parameters. Meaning, real-time reactive response to contingencies is not sufficient to meet the required Service Level Agreement. With the availability of significant amounts of grid system data and associated environmental data like weather and traffic information, emergency situations can be predicted and pre-emptive corrections can be made. The underlying technology is the cutting-edge of self-learning algorithms at the core of today’s AI engines, which will improve over time. The systems which can predict contingencies like weather anomalies, physical attacks, and cyberattacks while providing reactive solutions lead to the complete “digitalization” of the grid.
In the coming years, it will be imperative and interesting to see the complex confluence of cutting-edge technologies, innovative devices, and new standards and protocols disrupting the power value chain. These changes to the industry will be key in mitigating the effects of climate change via decarbonization, risk reduction by decentralization, and cost optimization by digitalization. The changing climate of the power industry presents new opportunities as well as risks for the players in the ecosystem, in which CIC is well positioned as an enabler in this transformation.
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]]>The post Capturing the Untapped Value of Edge Computing Investments for the Intelligent Grid appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>By Keshav Ahuja
Smart embedded devices and algorithmic decision making will transform services across many domains, including a smarter and intelligent grid.
Edge computing has gained momentum since the onset of 5G technology. And while 5G deployment for telecoms has been robust, investors have been wary of capitalizing edge computing technologies in the past, awaiting a lucrative operating model to be developed by an industry very much in its nascency. However, the emerging opportunities in the digital grid offer promise for power utilities in a global electrical infrastructure transition.
It is estimated that 75% of enterprise-generated data is expected to be processed outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud from around 10% in 2018. Consequently, several renowned investors in edge computing have quickly adopted mandates to commercialize solutions. Top-tier VC funds, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Softbank, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Berkshire Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Crown Castle, have invested in edge computing tech companies. The industry is also growing at a CAGR of 26.5% between 2019-2024 and is expected to reach $9 billion by 2024.
Edge computing has become an integral part to leverage data and enable IoT devices with smart sensors to become truly intelligent. For example, smart cameras fixed to assets or drones with machine learning capabilities can run remote inspections and leverage algorithms to analyze conditions. Since power utilities and energy players across the value chain require real-time decision making with assets distributed across geographical regions, edge computing can enhance production capabilities, improve processes, extend asset life and capture untapped value from ever-increasing sensor technology and machine data with the right edge computing architecture. This will accelerate the digital grid transformation.
The endless possibilities, like most IoT solutions available today, present an equal amount of challenges depending on the stakeholder. Utilities will have to consider the cost of digitization, while consumers demand equitable returns for use of their new generation and storage assets.
With data-driven technologies being adopted by most organizations, power companies that have strategic footprints in IoT verticals which can be integrated quickly with existing workflows, technologies, and processes, will stand ahead of competition. Harnessing a market leader position in the complex but converging power and IoT industries will require a long-term vision and tremendous collaboration between industry, government, and the emerging prosumer.
Most utilities are not known for their digital and service-focused solutions. Nevertheless, the race is on by OEMs and utilities to invest in edge computing to expand digital capabilities and enable a range of devices behind the meter and the grid’s edge. Thoughtful collaboration, partnerships, and leadership will be necessary to guide regulators into pragmatic policies and procedures. The US and the rest of the world have set aggressive mandates to decarbonize.
However, the grid is not intelligent yet, and utilities are at the nexus of the rapidly changing landscape of electric infrastructure and edge computing. Climate Impact Capital is here to be a change agent in this energy transformation.
The post Capturing the Untapped Value of Edge Computing Investments for the Intelligent Grid appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>The post Texas’ Big Post-Covid Opportunity to Modernize Its Power Grid appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>by Eugene Han and Alex Rozenfeld
Modernizing Texas’ power grid will stimulate jobs and resilience. The time is right to look at ways of cultivating robust power sources that can withstand both pandemics and climate events.
Throughout history, civilizations have seen pandemics as mechanisms for innovation to support the future well-being of their people. In the 19th century, multiple cholera epidemics broke out in New York, causing traffic jams of horses and carriages as people fled for the perceived safety of the suburbs. These outbreaks resulted in the building of underground wastewater systems and green spaces like New York City’s Central Park to make the city more livable and healthy. Covid-19 may have similar effects in Texas and larger urban metropolitan areas around the world.
In Texas, we are now seeing the first glimpse of Covid-19’s impact on the state’s legendary sprawl. Early evidence shows that Covid-19 lifestyle changes may reverse the two-decade-long national trend of people moving back to cities. This would undermine efforts to increase urban energy efficiency and the implementation of so-called “smart” cities, that seamlessly integrate energy management, transportation and social services. It also highlights the need to modernize already strained suburban power grids across Texas.
Texas is among the nation’s hottest and mostly energy deregulated states. Texas’ unwieldy urban sprawl is seen in some of America’s fastest-growing cities: Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. The Texas Triangle, as it is known, is home to more than 18 million residents. From 2010 to 2018, the state’s metropolitan areas were the only places in the U.S. to have added more than 1 million people.
This rapid growth, combined with record heat waves and droughts, has often strained Texas’ electrical power reserve, which faces even more demand if Texans shift in a permanent way to working from home and if the record summer heat waves intensify. With these changes may also come a future decrease in power reliability, impacting businesses and employees working from home.
These important changes in energy demand emphasize the need to modernize the aging networks of power grids across Texas. The good news is that Covid-19 offers the opportunity for a fresh look at how the state organizes its energy infrastructure. The hope would be that the future would bring greater focus on distributed energy resources, which can provide robust and resilient power capable of coping with both the pandemic and Hurricane Harvey-type climate events.
Modernizing Texas’ power grid will also help fill a growing employment void created by the depressed state of Texas’ fossil fuel industry, which has seen thousands of jobs lost since the pandemic began. Texas is already home to more than 263,000 power grid workers. Pandemic or no, jobs in the energy sector are expected to grow. Between 2015 and the end of 2019, electric power generation added 177,000 jobs, energy infrastructure created 156,000, and energy efficiency an impressive 400,000, according to a report by Steven Pedigo Director at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs LBJ Urban Lab.
In the short term, the health needs caused by the pandemic are paramount. But we must also look to the future and be sure to facilitate an economic recovery. By embarking on a smarter and less carbon-reliant energy future, Texas has the chance to serve as a future model for supporting the health and safety of its citizens and its economy.
Original post and comment on Climate & Capital Media
More:
- Op-Ed: How Texas can improve its chances for post-pandemic economic recovery (Dallas Morning News, May 18, 2020)
- Texas Policy Experts Offer Playbook for Post-Pandemic Recovery (UT News, May 13, 2020)
The post Texas’ Big Post-Covid Opportunity to Modernize Its Power Grid appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>The post Pecan Street and CIC develop a strategic framework for grid modernization initiatives appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>Grid Modernization is a critical next step in the world’s energy transition. To accelerate this transition, CIC and Pecan Street Inc signed a strategic partnership in February 2020 to focus on shared learning, collaboration and prioritization of new products and services as we move towards a modern grid and utility model. Our partnership embraces grid resiliency projects to accommodate rapid technological changes in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. We also take a systematic approach to assessing the impacts of climate change on grid infrastructure and resource utilization.
Grid Modernization can be viewed as a cost that needs to be incorporated to mitigate negative impacts to grid infrastructure, reliability, and capacity. Climate Impact Capital (CIC) views risks associated with climate change and Grid Modernization as an opportunity to accelerate the energy transition, reduce long-term costs, and improve the environment. Climate change risk and identifying new impact investing opportunities represent the world’s greatest opportunities towards resource optimization. And with increasing needs for cooling, fresh water, and food, it is vital to identify holistic solutions that will grow the economy, improve people’s lives, and protect our natural resources as we move towards a sustainable global economy.
The Pecan Street and CIC partnership builds upon the PLATFORM program that Pecan Street recently completed in partnership with the Department of Energy, which tested over a dozen technologies to help reduce the perceived investment risk by early customers and investors.
“The ability for utilities to leverage technology and IOT innovations for more efficient energy management and decarbonization of our electric system is hampered by lack of funding for start-ups with promising innovations,” said Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street. “Pecan Street is excited to work with Climate Impact Capital on innovative financial models that de-risk investments in cleantech through independent technology performance testing, market validation, and trusted environmental impact analysis.”
As Climate Impact Capital launches its energy transition focus on new product and service innovations, Pecan Street will apply its unique capabilities to support the startups within CIC’s value proposition. “Our mission is to identify, prioritize, and invest alongside our partners into technology opportunities that enable the low carbon energy transition and the smart, distributed, and renewable power grid,” said Alex Rozenfeld, CIC Founder and Managing Director “…and together we have a mission to integrate and rapidly deploy solutions across multiple stakeholders.”
More on Pecan Street:
Pecan Street is uniquely accelerating solutions for climate resilience and drought mitigation by providing technology companies and university researchers with access to the world’s best data on consumer energy and water consumption behavior, testing and verification of technology solutions, and commercialization services to help bring breakthrough ideas to market faster and guide policy decisions.
Pecan Street’s lab is a green-built facility where companies of all sizes can develop, test and validate a wide range of products and services. The lab also houses Pecan Street’s secure data center, which powers Dataport – Pecan Street’s interactive web portal to access, visualize, analyze and discuss the organization’s unique data.
Our real-world testbed of volunteer research participants is the first of its kind on the planet and has become an international model for how to develop and conduct energy and resource research and product testing. It comprises of over 1,000 homes from across the United States, which collectively send over 750M datapoints per day to Pecan Street’s data center. That data is then used by over 2,000 academic and policy researchers in over 60 countries.
Our commercialization lab is an affordable, world-class proving ground for major corporations and startups alike. And our database, the largest source of disaggregated customer energy data, is used by university researchers and industry-leading companies around the world.
Headquartered in Austin, Pecan Street Inc. is a 501(c)(3) research and development organization.
More on Climate Impact Capital:
Climate Impact Capital (CIC) invests in technology companies and supports our partners to target today’s relevant issues in energy and climate change. At our core, CIC creates resilience options and prepares our partners, customers and portfolio companies for a world challenged by climate variability and resource scarcity.
In investments, this is specifically to maximize alpha, based on analysis of complex and long-term (climate) issues with high variance potential. In strategy, we seek to help leadership teams identify business critical risks and find opportunities within climate change impacted systems.
The global energy and electrical infrastructure transition represent an immediate opportunity and current innovation focus. CIC’s mission-oriented approach to sustainable investing covers five sectors over time: (1) Energy and Power, (2) Agriculture and Water, (3) Transport and Logistics, (4) Manufacturing and Materials, and the (5) Carbon Cycle. The first two sectors encompass the Energy-Water-Food Nexus, which is our core focus.
We hope and expect that our insights on mitigation and adaptation, alongside our investments, will provide significant solutions and pathways for our partners and allow society to transition quickly to a low carbon economy.
The post Pecan Street and CIC develop a strategic framework for grid modernization initiatives appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>The post The World’s Climate Solution Capital May Be Texas appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
]]>Let me start 2020 with a confession: I’m not a Texan, but I got here as fast as I could. Why, though? What’s so special about this state? Historically, people flocked to Texas to take advantage of its resources, which spurred three big Texas industries: ranching, oil, and real estate. More recently, it has become known for its affordable cost-of-living, business-friendly policies, and of course, as the epicenter of the shale oil & gas revolution.
Texas is the self-proclaimed oil & gas capital of the United States, producing more than a third of the nation’s crude oil, a quarter of its natural gas, and a significant fraction of its liquified natural gas (LNG) export capacity.
However, with the energy transition underway, we now also believe we can become the low-carbon energy capital, with an emerging landscape that both decarbonizes and goes beyond fossil fuels. Given Texas’s 25,000 megawatts (MW) installed wind capacity (nearly 5x that of California), and its 3,400 MW installed solar capacity (still behind California’s 26,000 MW, but getting closer each year), Texas is well-poised to be the frontline of all things energy for the foreseeable future.
And in case you forgot, Texas is a historically red (purple, at best) political state. Combining the very conservative rural areas, which embrace both wind farms and fracking, and liberal urban cities with ambitious climate action and renewable energy targets, we have very diverse viewpoints.
To me, that means this state has the potential to make the largest impact on the future of energy and climate change in the USA, and the world. Whether through reducing emissions from big oil, developing clean energy projects, or growing an energy startup, Texas is THE place to be.
Each month, we will explore a business climate change topic in Texas, looking at views from all perspectives. We’ll let you know how what’s going on in the Lone Star State is relevant to you and to the global energy community.
Original post and comment on Climate + Capital Media
The post The World’s Climate Solution Capital May Be Texas appeared first on Climate Impact Capital.
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