Innovation

Breakthrough Tech Start-up Antora Energy to Receive $50M | Thermal Battery

on February 21, 2022February 22, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | February 21, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author; Image Credit: AdobeStock

Decarbonizing American industry in order to reach our Paris Agreement targets and save humanity has seemed like an impossible mission thus far. The high heat necessary to produce materials like steel, cement, paper, aluminum, plastics, chemicals, etc, which require temperatures above 1000ºC, (steel melts at 1500ºC), haven’t been achievable at a scalable cost. This is an alarming reality considering American industry must eliminate 8 gigatons of carbon (GtC) per year. That’s 8 billion tons of carbon per year by 2050, and 4 GtC by 2030. The steel industry on its own must cut 3 of the 8 GtC, and the cement industry, 2 of the 8 GtC.

Some of the most brilliant minds in the world have been stymied by the endless, insurmountable obstacles that have confronted those in search for a solution to this predicament. Research, testing and more testing, more research, more testing. In 2020, global fossil fuel subsidies were a staggering $5.9 trillion, which has kept the cost of oil, coal and gas artificially low. Meanwhile, the slow adoption of clean energy, and meager subsidies, have kept the prices of renewables artificially high. This bizarre incongruity has made clean energy 5x more expensive than dirty fossil fuel energy at industrial sites.

News broke on February 16, 2022 that Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) along with Chris Sacca’s Lowcarbon Capital and Shell’s venture capital arm committed to invest a total of $50 million in Antora Energy’s innovative tech solution for low cost clean energy storage in thermal batteries, to replace low cost high carbon emitting natural gas boilers that are currently used to produce industry materials that require extreme high heat. Antora’s thermal batteries are zero-carbon.

Antora Energy’s CEO Andrew Ponec shared his exciting vision for the future in a Medium article that outlined Antora’s discovery and purpose. “For the first time in history, zero-carbon power from solar and wind is now cheaper than fossil fuels in many parts of the world and the trend is now accelerating on every continent.” Ponec explained that the transition to renewables has begun accelerating at an astonishing rate.

Such a hope-inspiring statement. Climate scientists must be heaving a collective sigh of relief. But will investors and portfolio managers be able to respond at the same rapid pace?

Antora Energy’s Solution

Antora Energy has “developed a thermal energy storage system capable of turning sunshine and wind into reliable heat and power for heavy industry — cheaper than fossil fuels,” stated Ponec. “Just like fossil fuels, we can create the extreme temperatures needed to generate electricity and supply high-temperature heat to manufacturing processes, and we can do it for cheap. But there’s one key difference: We do it with zero emissions.”

Antora had to overcome two significant barriers:

1. Material. What material was Antora able to find that could meet the requirements of durability, cost, performance, and scalability to store thermal energy.

2. Heat Recovery. How was Antora able to turn the stored heat back into useful energy for its customers.

The winning material proved to be carbon itself. Ponec exuded his enthusiasm in his explanation. “Carbon is an extraordinary material. It is available at extremely low cost, it’s virtually unlimited on earth, it has a massive existing supply chain and a long history of widespread industrial use, and it has superlative physical properties. The more we understood about carbon, the more it blew our minds.”

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The Gist of It

Solid carbon blocks for storage are “derived from a solid carbon feedstock that is a waste byproduct of other industrial processes and one of the cheapest materials on earth.”
30 million tons of carbon blocks are produced each year in the metal industry, which is more than enough to generate terawatt-hours per year of energy storage capacity.
Solid carbon has no toxins, nor does it create environmental justice conflicts, and it has no supply chain limitations.

Antora Energy’s CEO, Andrew Ponec inspires enthusiasm and hope that we will succeed at staying below 1.5ºC. His views are not the ones we usually see on social media. He explained that when he and the co-founders (Justin Briggs and David Bierman) began this journey, they were looking to find a way to create a solution that would generate massive greenhouse gas reduction in an area that not many people were working on. They landed on heavy industries that use significant power and heat. “There is a rising movement of engineers, business leaders, policy makers, financiers, and others dedicated to stopping climate change for the future of humanity. In just the past year we’ve seen a marked shift in the momentum behind climate solutions. People are coming together with new hope and new passion for the teams and technologies that will decarbonize our energy system while expanding its benefits to everyone.”

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“We will use our buying power to drive change in industry”

on February 12, 2022February 16, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | February 12, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author; Image Credit: AdobeStock

The formidable US Army, with its massive buying power, arrived on the climate action battlefield this week, armed with its Army Climate Strategy (ACS) and ready for rapid execution. The ACS acknowledges that climate change has destabilized the world, and that the army must move swiftly to stay out in front of our adversaries who are intent on jockeying for an advantage in a climate-altered world.

“The Army will lead by example. We will tap into the creativity, capabilities, and commitment of Army professionals operating on every continent. We will use our buying power to drive change in industry and leverage best practices from many sources. We will engage with local communities and foreign partners to ensure mutual readiness and security in a rapidly changing environment.”
Christine E. Wormuth, Secretary of the Army, in a foreword to the United States Army Climate Strategy (ACS)

Current climate impacts will continue to disrupt the US Army’s readiness, as it combats existing climate change crises that threaten America’s security. The Army’s objective is to build on the momentum it has already established to achieve Army-wide unity with the implementation of the ACS across its 130 Army installations worldwide. The US Army’s long history of excelling at the convergence of modernization and readiness to create a superior armed forces, is woven into the ACS which has outlined three Lines of Effort (LOE):

LOE 1: Installations. Strategic Outcome: enhance resilience and sustainability by adapting infrastructure and natural environments to climate change risks, securing access to training and testing lands into the future, and mitigating GHG emissions.

LOE 2: Acquisitions & Logistics. Strategic Outcome: increase operational capability while reducing sustainment demand and strengthening climate resilience.

LOE 3: Training. Strategic Outcome: prepare a force that is ready to operate in a climate-altered world.

A complete list of intermediate objectives for each of the three LOEs is outlined in the ACS. The following are the top highlights with the corresponding year for deliverables.

LOE 1, Installations:

Install a microgrid on every installation by 2035
Achieve on-site carbon pollution-free power generation for Army critical missions on all installations by 2040
Provide 100% carbon-pollution-free electricity for Army installations’ needs by 2030
Achieve 50% reduction in GHG emissions from all Army buildings by 2032, from a 2005 baseline
Field an all-electric light-duty non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2027
Field an all-electric non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2035

An all-electric fleet of light-duty non-tactical vehicles within 5 years is an example of the kind of urgency climate scientists have been warning is needed to stay below 1.5ºC. The volume of these Army light-duty non-tactical EVs will help drive down EV prices for American consumers as we too transition to electric vehicles within the same 5 years. A massive solar panel investment for microgrid installations is an advantageous accelerator that will drive down the cost of solar for consumers. These hard commitments, with dates and quantities, will drive change.

LOE 2, Acquisitions & Logistics:

Analyze all Army supply chain Tier 1 sources and contracts for climate change risks and vulnerabilities by 2025
Develop plans, policies, and contracts to ensure Army supply chain resilience by 2028
Significantly reduce operational energy and water use by 2035
Field purpose-built hybrid-drive tactical vehicles by 2035 and fully electric tactical vehicles by 2050

The army acknowledges that in order to have the future competitive advantage, it must strengthen its operational capabilities as quickly as possible. The LOE 2 list has 12 objectives, most of which have deliverable dates of 2050, which is too far away to accurately evaluate how each will impact consumer prices, if at all. American corporations should follow the Army’s supply chain resiliency strategies in order to navigate around the existing supply chain challenges in consumer markets. The ACS stresses that “the Army sees great promise for sustainment demand reduction through advanced technology, future contingency basing, clean procurement, and resilient supply chains.”

LOE 3, Training:

Beginning in 2024, publish climate change lessons and best practices every two years
Update Army programs of instruction for leader development and workforce training to incorporate climate change topics no later than 2028
Ensure that all Army operational and strategic exercises and simulations consider climate change risks and threats by 2028
Develop ways to reduce direct GHG emissions resulting from Army individual and collective training by 2028

The ACS emphasizes that it must simultaneously prepare “a force that is ready to operate in a climate-altered world” while “maintaining the ability to win in combat.” It will have to overhaul training practices to cut its CO2 emissions. Additionally, the Army is evaluating what and how it conducts all of its training. Not only the training of its people and units, but also of its headquarters.

It would be very advantageous for US corporations and cities to review the Army’s Climate Strategy. The organizational structure, LOEs and objectives, as well as the Army’s determined speed, would benefit all. Sharing a climate strategy template can be a starting point for others and can be modified to align with key corporate or government objectives. Ultimately, everyone should be doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. If each and every business, corporation, and city in the US was implementing their climate strategies/climate action plans simultaneously, we’d create country-wide unity and many of the obstacles slowing us down would disappear.

“This is not about saving our planet, it’s about saving ourselves…The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild.”
—Sir David Attenborough, *A Life On Our Planet*
“WE MUST REWILD THE WORLD!”

Carbon Capture and Removal Start-up Verdox Launches with $80 Million Commitment

on February 3, 2022February 13, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | February 3, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author; Image Credit: AdobeStock

Start-up Verdox has officially launched after being awarded an $80 million commitment for direct carbon capture and removal from three investment firms: Prelude Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital and Bill Gate’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The revolutionary electrochemical technology was pioneered by MIT’s Professor T. Alan Hatton and Dr. Sahag Voskian.

Electric Carbon removal for a net-zero future. Let us power your climate transformation. Contact us.
Verdox Home Page

Back on April 8, 2020, Verdox was awarded $499,900 under the Special Project Program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The project was entitled “Electro-swing [Absortion] for High Efficiency Direct Air Capture” to develop a scalable, proof of concept (POC) for direct air capture (DAC) prototype with a deliverable date of April 7, 2022. The POC was for technology that would employ electrochemical cells to capture and release carbon that would generate electro-swing absorption. This breakthrough technology prevents the need for the standard heat and water carbon capture method, creating a new model for the carbon capture industry.

ESG Today noted:

“The high energy efficiency and scalability of Verdox’s technology could enable the company to play a major role in addressing the carbon removal challenge. This innovation has provided a paradigm change for both industrial and air capture – and the Verdox team has made great strides to reduce the concept to economical commercial practice.”
Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Removing CO2 from the air before it’s released through novel electro-swing absorption technology, would be worth every penny it may cost. Picture a mammoth battery sucking up a torrent of gaseous waste as the electric battery is charging up, and then releasing it safely when the battery is discharged so it can be stored underground as rock, or utilized to manufacture products. This advanced technology will require 70% less energy than existing technology-based carbon capture methods. At this time, Verdox’s test bed is only functional in the lab. The $80 million will be used to further develop the proof of concept.

In John Doerr’s book Speed & Scale, An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, the OKR (objective and key result) of 10 billion tons carbon (GtC) that must be removed from the atmosphere each year, in addition to curbing existing carbon emissions. “As things stand, our net zero objective — 10 GtC of annual carbon removal — is a truly audacious goal.” Doerr goes on to explain that both engineered solutions, (Verdox’s innovative electro-swing absorption DAC falls in this category), and natural carbon drawdown solutions, (reforestation, aforestation, rewilding, biodiversity restoration, increased soil health, etc) are required. “What makes this challenge really difficult, almost implausibly so, is the colossal scale of the job.”

On the nature-based side of the coin, trailblazer Thomas Crowther (Assistant Professor of Global Ecosystem Ecology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader) recently gave a Countdown TED Talk about restoring biodiversity on the .9 billion hectares of ideal land that’s been identified and mapped out. And that doing so would drawdown 30% of the existing legacy load carbon stuck in the atmosphere that’s causing global warming. Crowther announced that he founded Restor, a new open data platform network equipped with a machine learning model powered by Google Earth Engine and Google Cloud, for the purpose of helping “anyone be part of ecological restoration,” even homeowners who convert their high-maintenance, pesticide-covered monoculture turf lawns, to dense biodiverse no mow lawns.

Don’t Look Up launched on Netflix December 24, 2021. The satirical parody, written, produced and directed by Adam McKay, set the record for the most views in one week, and quickly became the #2 most watched Original Netflix film of all times, with 321.52 million hours streamed in the first 28 days. Peter Isherwell, portrayed by Mark Rylance, is the villain in this classic film about Earth’s destruction at the hands of a profit-seeking tech giant. The scientists’ (LeonardoDicaprio, Rob Morgan and Jennifer Lawrence) alarmed and urgent warnings, and the public’s blind faith in technology, left viewers woke to the perils of betting our lives on technology as our savior. On February 8, 2022, Oscar nominations will be announced and the tech carbon capture industry will have a better idea about what they’re up against in trying to convince the world that they can solve the climate crisis on their own.

We definitely need tech carbon capture and removal solutions for pulling out CO2 before it’s released, as well as direct air capture for fossil fuel companies to drawdown decades of excessive carbon emissions. But the main point in John Doerr’s Speed & Scale, is that we need ALL the many solutions that he earmarked in his climate action plan. And even with all hands on deck, and the diverse solutions up and running, along with the four accelerators, it’s still an audacious goal.

Don’t Worry, Military Has BIG Plan to Cut It’s Big Carbon Footprint

on January 9, 2022January 15, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | January 9, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author; image by AdobeStock

The US military is ranked number 55 out of the world’s largest carbon polluters (2019). According to Forbes Magazine, the DOD has emitted more than 1.2 GtC (billion metric tons of carbon) since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The military is the largest fossil fuel energy consumer in the US, and is the single biggest buyer of crude oil on the planet. But all of these missteps are about to change.

Although, seven military bases have already transitioned to solar, military outposts around the globe are often in remote locations without easy access to electricity. Constructing large solar arrays for these facilities, isn’t feasible. But, sticking with petroleum isn’t the solution either.

The military has been in search of an energy source that has limited infrastructure that it can tap into from any of its far-flung locations around the world. Enter the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) that appears to have the solution. A set of satellite-mounted solar arrays that harnesses energy on orbit and transmits it back to Earth. Just the type of innovation John Doerr advocates in Speed & Scale, An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.

I loved hearing from people who had far out ideas and plans for catching lightning in a bottle.
Eric Toone, Executive Managing Director and Science Lead, Breakthrough Energy Ventures — Speed & Scale

This innovative concept is referred to as SSPIDR, Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research. It will be manufactured by military contractor Northrup Grumman with tests projected to begin as soon as 2024, and an on-orbit demonstration by 2025.

SSPIDR technology:

captures carbon from sun
converts to radio frequency (RF) on orbit
transmits back to Earth
once on land, converts to rectenna (rectifying antenna)

Northrup Grumman received an award of $100 million to apply to the conversion of solar-to-RF. But that’s not the only contractor involved. Other companies will create the deployable space structures, and lightweight high-efficiency solar cells, etc.

The concern that has the engineers scrambling, is the weight. Everything will have to be miniaturized to keep the weight and bulk down. The entire structure will have to be condensed into a launch payload.

According to Defense News, SSPIDR communications officer Rachel Delaney said that AFRL’s goal is to produce 1,000kW of power from the SSPIDR structures, which per the Naval Research Laboratory is sufficient to run a forward operating base. SSPIDR needs to increase the surface area of the solar arrays, and boost the efficiency of the solar cells, to produce the amount of power engineers are looking for.

Space Solar Power (SSP), as a sustainable energy alternative, has been on the minds of sc-fi enthusiasts for decades. According to Cosmos, The Science of Everything, first mention of such an evocative solution was in Isaac Asimov’s 1941 work, “Reason,” in which two robots, Powell and Donovan, transmit energy to various planets through microwave beams. With access to the sun 24/7, and orbiting above the intense hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and other extreme weather events on the horizon, space solar will be significantly advantageous.

Check back each week for new climate optimism articles featuring innovative solutions that will help solve the climate crisis.

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Making Products by Capturing Factory Carbon Emissions

on January 6, 2022January 9, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | January 6, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author

Converting industry greenhouse gases into valuable commercial products before the carbon dioxide reaches the air is the type of innovation that global leaders and green venture capitalists have been longing for.

Twenty percent of annual carbon emissions in the US come from American industry. In order to reach our goal of cutting carbon dioxide 50 percent by 2030, we have to cut the current 12 GtC emitted by American industry to 6 GtC in the next nine years. This breaks down to 666 million tons of carbon per year.

A scientific collaboration led by an OSU College of Science researcher, Kyriakos Stylianou, discovered a novel way to pull CO2 from smokestacks and use it to manufacture valuable chemicals that can be sold commercially.

The newly discovered metal organic framework (MOF) can also catalyze the production of cyclic carbonates from the mix of methane, CO2 and other gases emitted from decomposing organic material.

“We’ve taken a big step toward solving a crucial challenge associated with the hoped-for circular carbon economy by developing an effective catalyst,” said Stylianou. “A key to that is understanding the molecular interactions between the active sites in MOFs with potentially reactive molecules.”

A catalyst is a medium that boosts the rate of a chemical reaction without itself changing its chemical structure. Lanthanides are malleable light metals that are used to make products such as:

night vision goggles
flints for cigarette lighters

Carbon dioxide fixates into the propylene oxide’s epoxy ring to produce cyclic carbonates. Cyclic carbonates have a wide range of applications for global industries:

polar solvents
precursors for polycarbonate materials (ie eyeglass lenses and digital discs)
electrolytes in lithium batteries
precursors for pharmaceuticals

“These are very exciting findings,” Stylianou said. “And being able to directly use carbon dioxide from impure sources saves the cost and energy of separating it before it can be used to make cyclic carbonates, which will be a boon for the green economy.”

*David Le, Ryan Loughran and Isabelle Brooks of the College of Science collaborated on this research, as did scientists from Columbia University and the University of Cambridge.

**The College of Science and the OSU Honors College funded the study.

Check back each week for new climate optimism articles featuring innovative solutions that will help solve the climate crisis.

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Wind Trees & Wind Walls | Wind Is Fastest Growing Clean Energy

on January 2, 2022January 3, 2022 By Gallant Gold Media

Washington (GGM) Analysis | January 2, 2022, by Noreen Wise, Founder & CEO of Gallant Gold Media, and author

Wind power is growing faster than any other utility, including fossil fuels, John Doerr notes in his new book, Speed & Scale, An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now. He explains that wind has a higher market share than solar and that these two clean energy sources naturally compliment each other rather than compete.

Solar operates during the day, and wind turbines are more active at night when the wind is strongest.
John Doerr

The size of the wind turbines determine how much electricity it can generate. The taller the frame, the faster the wind speeds that can be channeled to generate more electricity. The only downside is that the size of the turbines limits the location where they can be placed. The largest wind farms are now being built offshore because of their size.

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Heart of the matter. With wind energy taking off, but the turbine size limiting the location where turbines can be installed, innovators have jumped in and invented several original designs that will enable wind energy to be produced in more congested areas like cities and busy suburbs.

Aeroleaf by New World Wind

Inspired by nature, French inventor Jerôme Michaud-Larivière of New World Wind has created the aesthetically pleasing mini wind turbine Wind Tree, Wind Bush and Wind Petal. The first prototypes were tested between 2013-2016 in France, Belgium and Germany. New World Wind Wind Trees were recently installed at Place de la Concorde in Paris. Photos show additional Wind Trees in a park, along a street, on the boardwalk at a picturesque water front destination, and another on what appears to be a corporate campus. According to New World Wind’s Facebook page, a single oversized Aeroleaf Wind Petal was installed in Seoul, South Korea to power a charging station.

quiet
optimized for low wind speed
32 feet tall
36 Aeroleafs
each Aeroleaf is 3 feet tall
5,400 watts
made of steel
can also recharge a car

Wind Turbine Wall by Joe Doucet

The kinetic wind wall was developed by NYC-based Joe Doucet. The rotary blade wall currently stands 8 feet tall and 25 feet wide, but can be adjusted. The framework is expected to be made of aluminum.

Doucet’s wind wall hasn’t been tested yet, but seems ideal for American neighborhoods that have traditional wooden fences dividing yards. Additionally, the military would likely make good use of these 8 foot wind walls. Military bases usually have endless walls distributed throughout their bases.

Wind wall overproduction will also be able to be stored in wall-mounted batteries just like solar, or monetized and fed back to the national grid.

Power technology ranked the top ten US states for wind production.

Texas – 24,899 MW powering more than six million homes
Iowa – 8,422 MW
Oklahoma – 8,072 MW
California – 5,885 MW
Kansas – 5,653 MW
Illinois – 4,861 MW
Minnesota – 3,779 MW
Colorado – 3,706 MW
Oregon – 3,213 MW
North Dakota – 3,155 MW

The United States is ranked number two in wind power, right behind China. As the wind market continues to grow at a rapid pace, more innovative improvements will be developed. China’s already cornered the market on manufacturing solar panels. It would be ideal if the United States could dominate the market on some segment of renewable energy manufacturing.

Check back each week for new climate optimism articles featuring innovative solutions that will help solve the climate crisis.