?? Entrepreneurs for Impact #169 (#ClimateTech): 15 climate companies you should know

Welcome to my free weekly newsletter from EFI (Entrepreneurs for Impact). It’s a three-minute read about climate tech startups, finance, wisdom, and a little humor.

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Climate Startups + Investors

1.

MIT loves these 15 climate tech companies.

Each year, the MIT Technology Review highlights companies with strong potential to make a dent in climate change.

Here’s the 2024 list.

1. LanzaJet - Sustainable aviation fuels
2. PanoAI - Wildfire detection
3. Solugen - Bio-based chemicals
4. Ceibo - Sustainable mining
5. Rondo Energy - Thermal energy storage
6. Rumin8 - Sustainable livestock production
7. BYD - Chinese EV maker
8. First Solar - Solar panel maker
9. Electric Hydrogen - Electrolyzer maker
10. Pivot Bio - Sustainable agriculture
11. Kairos Power - Nuclear fission
12. Form Energy - Long-duration batteries
13. Gogoro - EV two-wheelers
14. Sublime Systems - Low-carbon cement
15. Sun King - Energy access

If you’re not on the list yet, remember:

• Lists are imperfect.
• We still love you.

—

2.

Solar’s world dominance by 2030.

The figure below shows the lowest-cost power sources by technology.

The metric is LCOE, or the levelized cost of energy. This includes all capital costs, operating costs, and power produced over the power plant's life.

Blues are wind. Pink is solar.

We have a clear winner:

• It’s pink for gold!

But the authors * are not saying:

• Let’s throw out all climate worries and eat grapes in a hammock.

Instead, they give warnings about:

• Grid stability in a renewables-dominated power system
• Availability of finance in underdeveloped economies
• Capacity of supply chains
• Political resistance from regions that lose employment

Those feel like challenges we can handle.

* Femke Nijsse et al, 2023, Nature Communications: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41971-7. Thanks to Toby Couture, Founder of E3 Analytics, for highlighting this for me.

Personal Growth => Business Growth

3.

T.S. Eliot’s wisdom on our seeking.

This picture comes from a quaint cafe in the forest near Snow Monkey Park (Jigokudani Yaen Koen) in Japan.

It’s an apple pizza drizzled with honey. The apples are famous in that region.

It looked tantalizing.

But…

It was overcooked. Too sticky. The ice cream not creamy.

Instead, my mom’s homemade apple pie from Kentucky is way better.

It reminded me (obviously) of T.S. Eliot's poem Little Gidding:

• "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Sometimes, the things we seek in faraway places are actually very close to home.

—

4.

Quit whining. Instead, solve problems.

Last week, I read Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown.

He shares wisdom on automation, reduction, rest, and other tonics for overachievers.

He also contrasts these two approaches to handling problems:

1. Blamestorming — Who’s the idiot here?
2. Brainstorming — What are possible solutions?

Between these two, there is only one good choice.

But wait…

Then I finished this book yesterday,?Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things,?by Adam Grant.

He suggests a third and better option:

• Brainwriting — Everyone writes down ideas and shares them anonymously

Why?

• Brainstorming — Not all voices are heard. Power, gender, race, title, time allotment, and personality play a role.
• Brainwriting — All voices are heard. The best ideas arise through meritocracy.

Three ways I help you grow.

• Join EFI’s private climate CEO group — Only 4 seats left.
• Let’s do some executive coaching — Remove your bottlenecks.
• Learn from climate CEOs and investors in our EFI podcast — 198+ guests.

That’s all, y’all.

Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.

~ Chris