OK, Doomer #2
by Sonam Velani & Lyn StolerSome contagious climate optimism for hot jobs, heat pumps, and hometowns!
A couple days ago, we had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Sam Steyer, and it didn't go as we expected.
We went in hoping to learn more about how climate technologies are creating new professional opportunities. Thanks to Sam, we left wanting to become electricians. (This is definitely also inspired by Nathanael Johnson, a former climate writer at Grist who — you guessed it — left to become an electrician.)
For those who don't know Sam, he's the Co-Founder and CEO of Greenwork, whose mission is to connect climate tech companies with the contractors who put those technologies to work (think electricians, HVAC technicians, etc.). Greenwork is partnering with companies like BlocPower and Elephant Energy to bring real projects to life through skilled work — from home electrification to giant municipal solar farms.
In many ways, our conversation with Sam touched on everything that makes climate solutions so exciting to us. They create jobs, make our lives healthier, and make our homes and cities more beautiful. So today, we're taking a page from Sam's book to share some news and companies that show us that this transition is already happening, here and now!
Climate Industrialism is winning jobs, hearts, and minds across the country.
It's easy to talk about exciting new climate technologies, but they can't do much good if we don't actually install those technologies and put them to work. It's hard to overstate just how important and urgent this task is. In fact, according to electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, the US needs a million new electricians to complete the new wiring needed for the energy transition. That’s A LOT of jobs!
Building electrification startup Blocpower has trained over 1,700 low income New Yorkers to install heat pumps, maintain EV chargers, and perform 3D image modeling for energy upgrades.
Wyoming produces 40% of America’s coal and it’s been a key part of the economic development story of the state. Now, residents of Rock Springs, WY are slowly warming up to the idea of a new direct air capture facility by CarbonCapture Inc., hoping that it will provide new types of jobs for future generations.
Renewell is taking 100s of thousands of idle oil wells and turning them into 100s of gigawatt hours of energy storage — stopping methane leaks, providing energy resiliency, and creating new jobs from California to Texas.
Dalton, Georgia is now home to the largest solar manufacturing plant in the Western hemisphere, and it’s just one of several new factories across the US totaling $25 billion of investment in everything from wind turbines to EV batteries. This is Climate Industrialism in action, and we love to see it!
Exciting new heat pump technologies are being commercialized, and they’re having a huge positive impact.
This graph was adapted (and translated!) from BWP's heat pump sales statistics. It’s the German Heat Pump Association - we love seeing industry associations forming around one of our favorite technologies!
Heat pumps are the gift that keeps on giving. They not only reduce the energy needs (and cost) of cooling and heating your home, but they also increase property value! Our favorite part is that every day, the graph of new installations is going up and to the right.
French startup Equium has just launched a thermo-acoustic heat pump that doesn't use refrigerants. It's perfect for household use, and can heat water to 80C (176F)!
For the first time, we have a prototype of a heat pump that can operate in extreme cold (we're talking -20 degrees Fahrenheit!) thanks to Johnson Controls and the US Department of Energy’s Residential Cold Climate Heat Pump Challenge.
According to a new study from the Center for Global Sustainability, heat pumps increase home values by ~ $10,400 - 17,000!
The German heat pump market grew by a whopping 53% in 2022, with more than 236,000 heat pumps sold across the country. This is testament to the huge political and economic shifts we’ve seen in Europe’s energy infrastructure over the past year.
Climate solutions are coming to a city near you.
One of our favorite stats: 75% of the urban infrastructure of 2050 is yet to be built. How we design our built environment — from our streets to our buildings to our neighborhoods — will have a profound impact on humanity not just for the next 30 years, but for the next 300. We’re excited to see cities take matters into their own hands to ensure that this growth is resilient and sustainable!
Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and starting in 2025, all new homes in the Japanese capital must have solar panels in a bid to cut household carbon emissions.
The Massachusetts state legislature is contemplating using $300 million of its leftover Covid funds to establish a Zero Carbon Renovation Fund to retrofit schools, libraries, public housing, and municipal buildings across the state.
All newly built homes across Scotland will need to abide by Passivhaus standards, creating an opportunity to deploy new building technologies and build ultra-low energy homes.
So, how do you actually retrofit a 1930s telephone exchange in Cambridge, UK? With a whole lot of technology — Wufi modeling to assess your moisture levels, bio-based materials to reduce carbon, and air source heat pumps. No wonder Entopia is the new home of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership!
Doom Diligence
Here are some select highlights from this week's additions to Doom Diligence! For those of you that missed it — Doom Diligence is our database of climate solutions, companies, nonprofits, and everything else we find and research for Parachute, all in one place. All paid subscribers have access!
🍳 Impulse Labs — This weekend we interviewed the brilliant Sam D'Amico of Impulse Labs, who is creating the Tesla of home appliances. They're starting with battery-integrated stoves, which not only give you an insane amount of control and cooking power, but also mean you have back-up power during power outages! We got to test out their prototype, and now we absolutely can’t wait to have this stove in our homes.
🌼 Dandelion Energy — Dandelion is bringing geothermal systems to your home! They replace traditional AC and heating systems with underground pipes that move heat between the earth and your home, reducing the costs and emissions of keeping your house comfortable.
⚡️ Ubitricity — Ubitricity is bringing beautiful, creative EV charging solutions to city infrastructure by integrating public EV charging into lamp posts. In fact, they got their start in 2017 when they won the NYCx Climate Action Challenge to install fast charging solutions on NYC’s streets (Sonam spearheaded this initiative when she was at City Hall - it’s high on her list of ‘cool things on the job’!). Ubitricity has been so successful that it was acquired by Shell in 2021 and they are expanding globally. Thanks to our friend Neil Hacker for telling us about their work in London!
🌆 Sublime Systems — Sublime is making low-carbon cement for infrastructure-scale projects by electrifying the production process. They raised a $40M Series A round this week to ramp up production in partnership with Siam Cement Group, which is the largest cement producer in Southeast Asia and one of their strategic advisors. We need new materials advancements like this to build our way towards a more climate-resilient future, after all!
☀️ Erthos — Apparently, part of what makes solar panels so tricky is the fact that they are physically propped up. Erthos is changing that by installing solar modules directly onto the ground! This takes advantage of the ground's heat-absorption, lowers installation costs, and even makes robotic cleaning easier for a more cost-effective solar power system that can function on the utility scale.
Location check: Lyn and Anson are filming in Los Angeles this week! They're headed to Austin, Houston, and New Orleans next. Sonam’s mantra: every job is a climate job! She’s joining some of our favorite climate rockstars for a Climate Career Week organized by our friends at Climate Draft, Terra.do, MCJ Collective, and Work on Climate. If 2023 is your year to make a career transition into climate, come join the fun. The more the merrier!
by Sonam Velani & Lyn Stoler