July 2018 Cleantech Roundup
Blog Posts
On the CET Blog, we discussed why there’s so much activity around carbon pricing policies (such as a carbon tax) despite the divisive politics that currently exist around climate policy, and what it means for the cleantech sector. And, it appears we spoke too soon — two more carbon pricing bills are on their way as well from Democrat Tim Deutch and Democrat Paul Tonko just in the last week. Link to CET blog post on carbon taxes.
We also talked about the new investment dollars flowing in to long-duration energy storage companies, why that’s happening, and how it’s different from ‘cleantech 1.0.’ Link to CET blog post on long-duration energy storage.
Other
Even as renewable energy costs fall and deployments grow in the United States, global investment in renewable energy actually dropped in 2017. The International Energy Agency explains why that’s such an ominous sign. Link
Greentech Media’s The Energy Gang podcast had an interesting episode recounting the rise and fall of electric vehicle battery-swapping company Better Place. Plenty of lessons to learn on this failure, from due diligence to execution. Link.
Not cleantech
Ben Evans works at a16z. He does a fantastic job framing up how we should think about innovations in (software) technology and is the publisher of my favorite weekly newsletter. Link.
This is an interesting podcast between economist (and surprisingly interesting interviewer) Tyler Cowen and Vitalik Buterin (Creator of Ethereum). Link.
For Further Reading:
These publications and newsletters are what I typically pay attention to and are great sources for cleantech and investing news.
Energy:
- GreenTech Media — Good source for news and analysis on all kinds of clean energy.
- Axios’ Generate — Daily energy news roundup, with coverage that includes (but is not limited to) federal goings-on
- The Energy Gang Podcast — weekly cleantech news digest podcast produced by Greentech Media
Investing and Technology:
- Benedict’s Newsletter — Ben Evans’ weekly summary of interesting tech and investing news, along with his own interesting takes
- A VC — Blog by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures — lots of interesting commentary on venture investing in general, and blockchain in particular
- Fortune’s Term Sheet — Weekday morning newsletter by Polina Marinova
