Three Paths to Climate Change Innovation
One of the biggest questions that engineers and scientists must answer for themselves is what should I work on? The scientists motivated by making advances in academic theory have limited interest in social matters or practical applications of any kind and this essay is not for them. This essay is for engineers, scientists and anyone, no matter your field, who has decided that the best use of their academic or professional talents is to solve important social challenges like climate change. I regularly receive requests from prospective students from all levels (from pre-college students to mid-career professionals) for advice on how to pursue a career in solving climate change. While I can’t answer that question for everyone, I can share my decision-making process, which began over 20 years ago, and reflections since then.
Be aware of the trade-offs between working on ‘high-technology’ (also known as ‘deeptech’) topics*, working on clean energy in ‘emerging/developing country markets’ where the bulk of future carbon emissions are likely to occur, and making meaningful and measurable reductions in carbon emissions in the near- and medium-term future. High technology projects tend to find their initial use cases from problems that highly discerning enthusiasts want solved in the developed world. In contrast, technology for the developing world, when transfered from the developed world, must be adapted in design for the wants and needs of the local market, and installed and maintained with local talent and supplies for lasting impact. Tech transfer from developed to developing world requires product localization — not just in language, but also in features. Measurable reductions in carbon emissions can occur in any market but is dependent on policy, local business conditions, and financing.
Clean Energy for the Developing World
I first grappled with these tradeoffs around 2003 as an undergraduate physics major, when I stumbled upon the writings of U.C. Berkeley physicist-turned energy scholar/activist Daniel Kammen on energy and environmental science and policy and ‘appropriate technology’ for the developing world. As an immigrant and undergraduate physics major, I was looking for a way to contribute to alleviating the lack of electricity access in the nation of my heritage, India, that was appropriate to my skills and my life here in the U.S. At the time in the early 2000s, only about 60% of the Indian population had access to electricity, and was subject to blackouts and high air pollution levels from power plants and other pollution sources. I learned of the history of failed international development projects where technology (e.g. solar panels, water pumps, etc) was installed abroad, only to be left broken and unmaintained, adding no lasting value.
The ‘appropriate technology’ approach required more — where an impoverished community is consulted before an international aid project starts, and international development professionals take part in training local people about installation, operations, and maintenance of a technical project so that it can run and provide value over the long-term. As an undergraduate, I studied World Bank incentive programs for rural electrification with solar+battery systems in South Asia for my senior thesis, advised by Stanford Law school professor, Prof. David G. Victor. Thankfully, over the past 20 years, India has achieved near-universal electricity access (over 99%) according to official statistics, although power outages and significant air pollution continue to be challenges.
Deploying appropriate technologies requires a commitment to building in-country installation, assembly and maintenance capacity and a robust supply chain for spare parts, while developed world scientists and engineers apply their design expertise to solve pressing humanitarian energy access challenges in the manner of engineers without borders (or doctors without borders in a different field). However, developing appropriate technologies for the third world may or may not involve solving ‘deeptech’ challenges, given local technical capacity and economic constraints, as much as solving product design, supply chain, and business operations problems with local talent and resources.
Arguably, with the development of a robust cleantech industry here in the U.S. and other developed economies, the international aid approach to transferring clean energy technologies to the developing world is no longer the only viable option. International trade and local manufacturing of solar panels, batteries, inverters, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and other clean energy technologies in the developing world is now an economically viable option as developing country demand for these products grows.
High-Technology (‘Deeptech’) Innovations for Climate Change
Appropriate energy technologies for the developing world, especially in the international aid context, has obvious humanitarian appeal, but may not fit with the career, life goals, and technical interests for most U.S.-based engineers or scientists for their entire professional lives. In international development, a little technical assistance goes a long way, and the ultimate goal should be self-sufficiency for the aid-receiving country and people. In the U.S., many engineers and scientists desire to work on ‘deeptech’ in high-tech industries for much of their careers as these are the most cutting-edge, prestigious, highest-risk, and highest-reward long-term technical problems to solve in developed or first-world economies. However, most ‘deeptech’ work requires long-term investments and until a specific product is developed that uses these innovations, it will be difficult to quantify their carbon emissions reductions in the near- and medium-term (e.g. in 5–7 years). Long-term research with difficult-to quantify benefits are still important as a source of new ideas in an economy, but this work is primarily funded and developed through government, foundations, and highly focused start-ups working to commercialize specific research findings into products. A non-exhaustive list of ‘deeptech’ applications for climate change include:
Advanced Materials: Many renewable energy and supporting technologies rely on advances in materials science for their constituent components, for example EV motor magnetics, solar cells, battery anodes, cathodes, and electrolytes, transistor materials, composite structural materials for wind turbines and buildings, superconducting materials for electric power transmission, electronics, or nuclear fusion reactors, as well as the design of catalysts to accelerate the chemical processes for manufacturing novel materials. New air or water filtration materials are useful for electric power, recycling and water treatment applications.
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: There have been many recent advances in large-language models for ‘generative’ AI systems towards the ultimate technocratic dream of creating an artificial general intelligence (AGI) superintelligent computer (a.k.a ‘Deep Thought’) or humanoid robot that could contribute to many areas where labor shortages exist. AI and robotics systems seek to replicate or supercede human capabilities such as vision, hearing, knowledge acquisition and recognition, decision-making, fine-motor control and bipedal or quad-pedal locomotion. AI systems use algorithms from a number of fields, including statistics, machine learning, econometrics, decision theory, signal processing, and computer vision to create thinking machines.
Thinking machines and advanced robotics, no matter their structural form, can help to mitigate or adapt to climate change, e.g. in precision agriculture, managed forestry, advanced robotics-based recycling systems, infrastructure construction and maintenance, and optimizing operations of buildings. The energy & utilities industry has a long history of using simulations and predictive algorithms to forecast energy demand, control the grid, and predict maintenance workload, and AI-based technologies can augment existing methods with the application of new sensors on the grid. The primary motivation for using AI systems in most companies is to increase safety and capability or reduce human toil and labor costs — not climate change. But a high-level review of climate-change related machine learning applications can be found here.
Electronics/Semiconductors: Advanced semiconductors and electronics designs enable faster, smarter, and more accurate AI systems and for advanced control algorithms to run locally for renewable energy systems. Advances in the design of microelectronics beyond ‘Moore’s Law’ for transistors in integrated circuits are important to lower the costs of implementing AI systems. New materials for switching transistors and other electronic device components for power electronics and new power electronics system designs are needed to lower balance-of-plant costs for renewable energy systems.
Biotechnology and Agriculture: Nature can be harnessed to help societies and ecosystems adapt to the worst effects of climate change. Algae can be used to develop new fuel sources or food sources. Microbes can be designed to capture carbon dioxide, and for bioremediation to improve water quality and restore soil health. New agricultural technologies with lower climate impact are also being developed for precision agriculture to reduce water-, fertilizer-, and pesticide-use, to produce meat alternatives, or to reduce land and water-use for current agricultural products through indoor vertical farming. Forest management can also maintain and grow the primary carbon sinks for the planet.
Manufacturing: Advances in materials, electronics/semiconductor design, AI and robotics, and biotechnology will also require co-advances in manufacturing technologies and processes to lower costs and scale-up production. Manufacturing processes can be specific to industry, but advances in specific processes can be applied to many industries. While advances in additive manufacturing/3D printing get a lot of press, the application of fundamental manufacturing techniques like casting, labeling, painting, moulding, forming, machining, and joining, as well as assembly line process design and control to new materials, products, and for a greater range of parts often introduces new technical challenges and opportunities for innovation, although these are often closely-held trade-secrets by manufacturers.
Carbon Emissions Reductions and Climate Adaptation in the Near- and Medium-Term
A third career path that many engineers and scientists interested in climate change may pursue is working on near- and medium-term technical solutions with measurable carbon or social impacts in the industries that face the greatest transformation challenges in either:
(1) adapting to the extreme weather risks of climate change and/or
(2) making the biggest technology shifts to mitigate climate change.
Technology shifts to mitigate climate change are needed in the electric power, automotive, aerospace, buildings, chemical process, retail, and many other industries. Many of these technology shifts involve investments in new hardware (e.g. electric generators, batteries, vehicles, appliances, etc) that consumes cleaner fuels, or using entirely renewable energy sources. While shortcuts exist on your laptop, there are no shortcuts to cutting carbon emissions for the planet. Large climate technology investments require improved modeling, quantification, and forecasting of extreme weather, economic and technical risks so new, lower-cost sources of capital can be tapped as the market grows.
As I reviewed in a previous essay, many software solutions that reduce time and resources required to provide a service can be considered a type of ‘energy efficiency’ that contributes to the lasting trend of reducing the link between energy use and economic activity. A large, though not exhaustive, compilation of climate change solutions (including technical, non-profit, and for-profit options) in many industries can be found from sources like Project Drawdown. Many of climate solutions require solving non-deeptech but still highly valuable software/’digital transformation’ or product design challenges that are not only technical but also require industry- and geography-specific knowledge of economics, business operations, law, and/or public policy and contribute the overall energy (and economic) efficiency of the country, if designed well.
No matter which path you choose at different points in your career — appropriate technologies for the developing world, deeptech, or general product design and software — each path has its own challenges and helps different communities adapt and respond to climate change. Choose your own path based on what you enjoy, what motivates you the most, and your knowledge, skills, and the people in your life.
*Note: The terms ‘high-technology’ or ‘deeptech’ refers to technologies that rely on the latest scientific breakthroughs and engineering advancements in electronics/semiconductors, advanced materials, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, and manufacturing applied to ‘high-tech’ industries.
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