Insights
Unlocking Climate Tech’s Potential: Geothermal, Clean Energy, & Decacorns | NYCW
Oct 22
At New York Climate Week 2024, Mike Schroepfer and Chris Anderson talked about the huge opportunities in climate technology. They dove into the disruptive potential of clean energy and how AI’s energy demands can accelerate the transition to renewable power.
Key Takeaways:
1. The Promise of Climate Technology: Schrep reflected on how technology moves us away from “either-or” trade-offs and embrace “yes-and” solutions. Just as computing advancements expanded possibilities while reducing costs, climate tech is going through a similar shift. He pointed out the cost declines of solar and batteries, paving the way for a future that’s both energy-abundant and sustainable.
Technology is one of those things that turns either-or questions into yes-and… It’s the yes and. Let’s make everyone prosperous, energy rich, and have a planet we can live on.
2. Timing is Everything in Tech: The success of any new technology hinges on timing—sometimes the market isn’t ready, or the tech needs to mature. Schrep is optimistic about the accelerating pace of innovation in climate solutions. With tools like 3D printing and advanced software, startups are rapidly iterating on prototypes that would have been cost-prohibitive just a decade ago. This speed allows them to move more efficiently and bring products to market faster.
A lot of these core technologies didn’t exist 10 years ago. Now I go to Arbor and they’re modeling supercritical, complicated processes in software. Then building six different versions using 3D printing. Before, they would have burned through all their money trying a bunch of different prototypes.
3. Geothermal’s Big Moment: Schrep sees geothermal energy as one of the simplest and most promising business models: selling electrons to high-demand industries. This new customer base can take risks on new solutions, like geothermal, unlike utilities that can only afford to replace old infrastructure.
Selling electrons to people who want to buy them is the easiest business model on the planet… Geothermal has a chance to provide the 24/7 consistent power needed for data centers.
5. AI Creates Openings for Clean Energy: Schrep highlighted a disconnect in the funding world. Investors are eager to pour billions into AI startups with promises of future potential. Yet hesitate when it comes to funding the clean energy companies that will power them. As AI’s energy consumption grows, Schrep sees a growing customer base for clean energy startups, removing a key scale-up risk.
People are happy to plow $6.5 billion into an AI startup…Then I come one step behind and say, “I’m going to sell that company power, and everyone says, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
6. Speed to Data is Key: When it comes to scaling, speed is everything. Climate tech startups that stand out are the ones that tackle their hardest technical challenges first. Schrep praised companies that embrace a scrappy approach—sometimes running backyard experiments with parts from Home Depot—because getting actionable data allows them to scale faster.
Speed to data is the number one thing that separates successful companies from everyone else… Find your hardest problems and run at them as fast as you can.