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Resisting change
The global transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles is well underway but not without its speed bumps, potholes, and the occasional mud pit.
Electric vehicles have hit an important 5% market share tipping point in global markets, poised to accelerate adoption if supply chain issues can be resolved before the next heat wave melts the tires to the pavement. As exciting as the progress seems, EV adoption in the US still lags places like the EU and China. Is it range anxiety? Charging infra? Nope. It's more complicated and it has a lot to do with distribution versus technology (hint: it helps to understand car dealers).
There are lessons to be learned about resistance to climate action. Germans are pissed about gas bans. Mr Bean recently offered a confusing and bad take on EVs vs dino juice cars. And hundreds of communities across the US seem less keen to have those new-fangled renewable energy projects in their backyard. Communities have imposed various restrictions, moratoria, and outright bans on wind and solar projects for reasons ranging from protecting views and property values to concerns over impacts to local wildlife. With 293 projects currently being contested across the US, renewable developers may find their projects caught between a hot market opportunity and successful misinformation campaigns. Are you out or in(sured)?
One of the hardest parts of investing in climate is writing deal memos that begin with scenarios dealing with large scale human suffering. Mitigation is ~50% of where we’ve invested, but about 25% of our portfolio is focused on adaptation, including things like public health due to lower air quality. And the market size debate tends to back into questions like "are home owners and developers thinking about resilience upgrades when major purchase decisions happen once every couple decades, and the weather in 20 years is going to be different from the weather today?”
A recent study modeled the impact of a multiday power blackout during a heatwave in major cities and estimated a heatwave in Phoenix could send nearly half the population to the emergency room if the AC went out for 5 days. In a preemptive move, California has funded nearly $100 million in community resilience centers to provide neighborhood cooling centers and resources during heatwaves and other disasters. And in a different kind of pre-emptive move, insurance companies are exiting stage left. Putting investors to work
Hardware startups and investors seem keen to jump on the "venture leasing" bandwagon which allows the "sharing" of assets without diluting equity, making venturing into renewable energy and EV markets more palatable during these tight-fisted times.
We make a lot of customer introductions to unlock distribution for our portfolio companies. The best founders have a super power in knowing how to ask for intros and how to follow up. Offers
Webinar tomorrow by Berlin Rosin on the impacts of policy on tech and how it shapes the future of communications and various markets. Also tomorrow, World Economic Forum, Deloitte, Salesforce and Citi are hosting a workshop and announcing the launch of the San Francisco-based Urban Sustainability Innovation Challenge. Hit reply for details and a formal invite. Also, the DOE recently announced a new decarbonization challenge and prize.
Jobs & Talent
🚌 Circuit is electrifying transit and looking for a SoCal sales manager. 🔋 Swell Energy is building out large battery VPPs and is looking for a Utility Specialist 🗑 Mill is looking for a head of people operations to help people outsmart waste at home. 🏗 cove.tool is looking for an SDR to help architects and engineers easily design low impact buildings ♨ Plentify needs help with customer success as they build the largest VPPs in the world starting with hot water heaters
Another 300 opportunities across 65 companies to work on climate here. Resilience-themed portfolio update
Lots of companies in our portfolio are quietly working on everything from public safety and government program administration to infrastructure inspections and wildfire prevention. Earth Force develops tech for wildfire prevention and mitigation. They’ve partnered with Markit Forestry Management and California State Parks to test equipment that provides precision vegetation management and increases the efficiency of wildfire hardening efforts.
Pi-Lit makes battery-operated flares that provide synchronized traffic control patterns and longer-lasting illumination at emergency scenes and work zones. They recently announced a partnership with Falls Township to provide their fire police and first responders to improve safety and traffic control during emergency situations.
HAAS Alert provides real-time hazard alerts to connected vehicles. HAAS recently announced partnerships with AT&T to bundle connectivity with their software, with Stellantis to provide emergency vehicle alerts to 1.8 million Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles, and with the US Department of Transportation as part of their National Roadway Safety Strategy to improve road safety and work towards zero road fatalities.
Best, Stonly and the Third Sphere Team
You can find our previous updates here.
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