Water From Thin Air: A New Frontier?
It is hard to tell whether sustainable energy or water shortages will be the biggest crisis in the future, but both are big. We have been watching for any new ideas to deal with water shortages. The standard approaches of desalination continue to be the dominant...
New Frontiers in Load Flexibility and Load Management
On May 12 we returned to the hot topic of grid edge technologies to match supply and demand while avoiding as much new investment as possible. These technologies involve a combination of hardware for sensing and control and sophisticated software that can use that...
Updates on Low Carbon Fuels Projects from Two Waste-to-Energy Pioneers
On June 2, we gathered for our second post-pandemic in-person MeetUp in Davis to hear from two companies that have spent two decades in innovating systems to convert wastes to energy products profitably. First up, Michael Kleist, VP of Business Development, took us...
MatterCup Wins Big Bang! Sustainability Award
At the final Big Bang! event on May 26, cup recycler MatterCup walked away with $11,000 from the SMUD Energy and Sustainability Award and one of the Little Bang awards. MatterCup was also a finalist in the UC Berkeley Big Ideas competition. Congratulations to Chantal...
An Insider’s View of Clean Energy and Climate Policy
Bob Weisenmiller has been on the inside of clean energy and climate policy in California since 1977, when he started as an advisor to CEC Commissioner Ronald Doctor, pretty much straight out of graduate school at UC Berkeley. With 45 years of engagement, he has a...
Applications Open in Summer for SMUD SHINE Awards 2022
On June 1 through August 1 the window is open for applications for SHINE Awards from SMUD. These awards can create sales opportunities for clean tech companies to install clean energy tech in underserved communities. Here’s one example: With a $10,000 award, a...
State Of CleanTech
Since 2005 CleanStart has been working to build the Greater Sacramento region as a clean tech hub. Because of this work and the growing community Sacramento is well positioned to capitalize on the energy transition. Becoming a self sustaining beehive of activity...
Happy Accident Could Lead to Cheap 2000-Mile EV Battery
Battery scientists have always lusted for a way to use sulfur as the cathode in lithium-ion batteries because sulfur can donate up to 8 electrons per atom—and it is really cheap and abundant. It is largely a waste by-product today. To date, the use of sulfur has...