Lowercarbon Capital

Last month, Bored Cow rolled into 400+ Target's nationwide with 4-packs of Chocolate, Strawberry, and our limited batch, seasonal flavor: Pumpkin Spice. As anyone in the CPG space knows, LTO flavors do not happen overnight. In fact, this specific idea started way back in a 2023 "What Would be Amazing" flavor taste test. If you've ever been to the Tomorrow Farms office, you've likely done at least one sample from our well stocked collection of paper sample cups. We tried a variety of unique flavors, some were delicious and some were just plain weird (but there's always one team member who loves it). Pumpkin Spice was one that was almost instantly a crowd favorite, but at the time we didn't have the demand or capabilities to make a limited run flavor (yet)! Fast forward to Q2 2024 when Target told us they'd LOVE to order 4-packs of Pumpkin Spice for our debut and our Operations team got to work (shoutout to our R&D superstar Ryan Brish). A couple (read: many) back and forth's on formulation, flavoring, and figuring out production logistics and ~viola~ the team made it happen. If you haven't tried Pumpkin Spice already, give it a try! We're declaring September Pumpkin Spice fest, so what better time to head to Target, pick up a 4-pack, and let us know how we did!

Three years ago, this site was just a dirt lot. Today, it’s a hub where we’re building a real fusion energy machine. In the last six months, we’ve taken over Tokamak Hall, where our SPARC device will live, and begun installing equipment. We’ve also grown to more than 900 dedicated workers — one of the largest fusion organizations in the world. Every day brings significant changes that ultimately will profoundly improve humanity’s access to clean, zero-carbon energy. Be on the lookout for updates as we start installing SPARC’s first large components.

At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, superconductors are our jam. By carrying electrical current with no resistance whatsoever when you get these materials cold enough, superconductors let us build the staggeringly powerful magnets crucial to our fusion power effort. We have thousands of kilometers of the stuff on hand. So of course we sent a crew to the Applied Superconductivity Conference this week in Salt Lake City to hear what others in the field are up to and to share what we’ve learned. Our Vice President of Production, Darby Dunn, was an ASC headliner. Over a thousand people packed a conference room to hear her detail how we’re revving our manufacturing engine faster, turning superconducting tape into machines called tokamaks that’ll generate clean, abundant, zero-carbon fusion energy. This work is as applied as you can get for superconductors. Our 2021 TFMC test, which proved our fundamental tokamak technology worthy, used 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) of superconducting tape and generated a record 20 Tesla magnetic field. And now that we’re focused on building a full-fledged tokamak, called SPARC, Dunn showed how our magnet factory is steadily speeding up throughput to get the job done. It’s a big job. SPARC requires about 10,000 km of superconducting tape. We expect to have all that in hand by the end of the year, Dunn said. Our magnets use high-temperature superconductors (HTS), a class of materials discovered in 1986. They don’t need as much cooling and permit much higher currents than previous superconductors, but they can’t be drawn into wires like earlier metal superconductors. Years after their discovery, researchers figured out how to deposit a very thin HTS crystal inside a flexible tape. That’s what made our more compact and therefore more economical tokamak possible: higher electrical current means stronger magnetic fields, which in turn means a smaller chamber to house the fusion process. It’s pioneering work, and we’ve figured a lot out. CFS staff at ASC this week are giving 12 presentations and scientific posters. Researchers at MIT —?the university where CFS was born and still a strong partner —?have another nine related to what we do. Those presentations and posters cover everything from detecting superconductivity problems called “quenches” that can catastrophically damage a magnet; our work making the magnets now used in the University of Wisconsin’s WHAM fusion experiment; and findings from our soldering and welding processes. We have some proprietary technology, but we also share a lot with our peers and benefit from the independent feedback. That’s just a slice of what’s going on in the world of superconductors. ASC 2024 also features research into superconductors involved in fields like electronics, quantum sensors, and transportation. Other talks delve into new superconducting materials and fabrication methods.? There’s a lot to learn. #ASC2024 #Fusion #Energy #Science

Last month, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman launched Commercial Resupply Mission NG-21. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration invited me to attend this launch from their controlled area alongside some of the top space and climate technology leaders in the country (Anna Brady-Estevez, Lawrence Forsley, Justin Whiteley, Olivia G., Heath Mills, and others). Today, we use fossil fuel-derived hydrocarbons for this whole process. AIR COMPANY will change that. Read more about the work we're doing with NASA for synthetic fuels: https://lnkd.in/eRiBHJxh

Meticulous #manufacturing and flawless assembly are critical to making SPARC, the tokamak we’re building to produce fusion energy. Check out how our partner Walter Tosto S.p.A. crafted the inner shell of the vacuum vessel that’ll become the center of SPARC tokamak. It’ll house a superheated plasma of hydrogen ions that fuse and generate power. #Fusion #Energy #ToughTech

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