These 3 climate tech predictions were wrong.
+ Financial Times climate tech primers. Largest solar marketplace in the US. Science takes the joy out of laughter.
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Today’s 4 topics:
🤯 Exponential thinking on climate tech trends breaks the human brain. But it’s still a real thing.
📰 The Financial Times (#NotTreeHugging) has created primers on new climate technologies.
☀️ This CEO runs the largest commercial solar marketplace in the US.
😆 We only laugh 10-20% of the time because something is funny. Here’s the real reason we laugh.
1.
🤯 Exponential thinking on climate tech growth breaks the human brain. But it’s still a real thing.
Below is an RMI analysis showing how the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook forecast for climate tech growth has consistently been lower than what actually happened.
Despite the best data and sharp analysts, part of predicting the future is imagining what seems impossible, what defies past logic.
That should give us some hope among the negative climate headlines that could make a sane person become a prepper.
2.
📰 The Financial Times (#NotTreeHugging) has created primers on new climate technologies.
In case you needed one more sign that tackling climate change through business solutions has gone mainstream, here it is.
The Financial Times, one of the most trusted global news organizations, especially in financial journalism, has written primers on the following topics.
Low-emission steel plants
Grid-scale battery storage
Methane inhibitors (for cattle)
Direct air capture
Sustainable aviation fuels
Carbon capture and storage
Heat pumps
And these overviews are not all “psychedelic rainbows and high unicorns.” Most contain a healthy dose of reality.
3.
☀️ This CEO runs the largest commercial solar marketplace in the US.
My recent guest on the EFI podcast was Yaniv Kalish, Founder and CEO of SolarKal, and Climate Fellow in EFI’s CEO peer group.
SolarKal is a curated marketplace and trusted advisor that makes solar installations easy for commercial real estate owners.
Their clients represent 100 million square feet of real estate, and their 200 vetted solar installers have generated $1.6 billion in project bids to date. Over 80% of positive ROI solar projects are built.
In this podcast episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
How they get paid (it might not be what you think)
How he bootstrapped the business for years until recently taking private equity investment
How they built their software and their roadmap going forward
The origin of their name and how that relates to the reason that clients choose them
Listen to the podcast here:
4.
😆 We only laugh 10-20% of the time because something is funny. Here’s the real reason we laugh.
To connect and bond with others.
To ease group tension.
To trigger positive feelings in another person.
Why should you believe this?
Because it’s based on a survey of 1,200 "laugh episodes” and a 2005 article in the Quarterly Review of Biology.
So, how’s that for turning something fun into an academic investigation?
If that piques your interest, then you’ll enjoy this book — Laughter: a Scientific Investigation.
The author — Robert Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County — also includes an anecdote about ancient torture involving goats, salt, ticklish feet, and cardiac arrest. (Seriously.)
Find out more about taking the joy out of laughter in this WebMD article.
If you want more from EFI, here’s how we might be helpful to you:
Find your tribe — Join our peer group for climate tech CEOs.
Get clarity — Let’s do some executive coaching together.
Meet climate tech CEOs and investors — Listen to our 180+ podcast episodes.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.
~ Chris
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