I spoke with Austin Vernon a couple of weeks back on a call about his new storage product. It is very cool and I am hopeful that they are able to get some pilots in place so that the tech can prove itself and start to scale. If the economics hold up as advertised, it will be extremely competitive in the existing long-duration storage landscape.
I hope the long duration stuff works out too, but I fear we might burn gas to drive heat pumps for the foreseeable future. Mostly because heat pumps can be 2-3x more efficient than the Standard Thermal system, even in cold weather.
I'm more interested in providing industrial heat. The business case for Austin's company is even better there and it's also one of the harder sectors to decarbonize.
> Found seven different solar installation robot companies. But these systems seem complicated. It makes more sense to mount these arms on the back of a pickup truck filled with stacks of solar modules and lay them right on the ground. Or some sort of pre-assambled hinge system like Solarcontainer but without the rails, just unfurl it from the back of a truck.
https://5b.co/ There's an Australian company that focuses on the soft costs of solar
> Imagine personal AC units that run off solar panels during the day, supercooling an insulated home so there’s little need for batteries. Many poor countries have hot climates that are only getting worse due to climate change. AC would be so valuable for reducing heat deaths and increasing productivity.
Unlikely. The rural and the working class can't afford the aircon machine in the first place. That's why electricity subsidies in developing economies is enormously regressive.
More likely it'll start with solar lanterns and solar powered fans. Some rural businesses will deploy solar powered cold storage or solar powered grain milling and stuff. Rice cookers are a good investment as well (I'm biased cause I'm Asian)
Battery swapping stations for electric bikes and trucks powered by solar micro grids.
A lot of manufacturers will likely defect from the grid. In most states in India, industrial electricity prices are higher than residential ones. Developing countries can no longer stifle their industralisation to subsidize upper middle class households.
I spoke with Austin Vernon a couple of weeks back on a call about his new storage product. It is very cool and I am hopeful that they are able to get some pilots in place so that the tech can prove itself and start to scale. If the economics hold up as advertised, it will be extremely competitive in the existing long-duration storage landscape.
I hope the long duration stuff works out too, but I fear we might burn gas to drive heat pumps for the foreseeable future. Mostly because heat pumps can be 2-3x more efficient than the Standard Thermal system, even in cold weather.
I'm more interested in providing industrial heat. The business case for Austin's company is even better there and it's also one of the harder sectors to decarbonize.
Airthium seems cool.
> Found seven different solar installation robot companies. But these systems seem complicated. It makes more sense to mount these arms on the back of a pickup truck filled with stacks of solar modules and lay them right on the ground. Or some sort of pre-assambled hinge system like Solarcontainer but without the rails, just unfurl it from the back of a truck.
https://5b.co/ There's an Australian company that focuses on the soft costs of solar
I like 5B's approach! I'll add it to the post.
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/09/01/mass-timbers-edge-smaller-crews-quicker-builds-new-floors-above/
Mass timber is more likely to deliver productivity growth in the construction than this factory built homes stuff.
Imo, we need to figure out self driving trucks and teleportation before we commercialise factory built homes
> Imagine personal AC units that run off solar panels during the day, supercooling an insulated home so there’s little need for batteries. Many poor countries have hot climates that are only getting worse due to climate change. AC would be so valuable for reducing heat deaths and increasing productivity.
Unlikely. The rural and the working class can't afford the aircon machine in the first place. That's why electricity subsidies in developing economies is enormously regressive.
More likely it'll start with solar lanterns and solar powered fans. Some rural businesses will deploy solar powered cold storage or solar powered grain milling and stuff. Rice cookers are a good investment as well (I'm biased cause I'm Asian)
Battery swapping stations for electric bikes and trucks powered by solar micro grids.
A lot of manufacturers will likely defect from the grid. In most states in India, industrial electricity prices are higher than residential ones. Developing countries can no longer stifle their industralisation to subsidize upper middle class households.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/04/15/photovoltaics-for-cold-storage/