Advancing Nascent Clean Energy Technologies: Matching Gaps with Solutions in the Race to Meet Climate and Decarbonization Targets

Tuesday, May 4th

Event Description:

As power generation from wind and solar continues to grow worldwide, corporations leading on climate action are looking for the next generation of climate technologies to invest in and scale to meet deep decarbonization targets.

This webinar brought together corporate trailblazers in the decarbonization space to discuss the gaps and challenges they are looking to solve through innovation. We heard from innovative cleantechs with a wide range of solutions that can play an essential role in achieving fast-approaching climate targets across all sectors of the economy.

This event was co-sponsored by Google. 

Event Recap:

Co-hosted with our member, Google, corporate trailblazers from across the energy sector joined Dynamo to discuss the challenges and opportunities that exist in achieving decarbonization. As power generation from wind and solar continues to grow, corporations leading on climate action are looking for the next generation of climate technologies to invest in and scale to meet deep decarbonization targets. But what is needed to take the next step — how do nascent technologies become profitable investments? What gaps exists to scale existing technologies and how can the industry come together to match carbon reduction targets?

To answers these questions, Dynamo Energy Hub Co-Founder, Kristin Barbato moderated a discussion that included Adam Forni, Technical Program Manager of Energy Development at Google, David Hayes, Managing Partner at BP Ventures, and Tom Burton, Member and Chair of Energy and Sustainability Practice at Mintz.

Adam Forni at Google, kicked-off the event, highlighting Google’s role as an early corporate leader in securing carbon-free energy. Adam noted how Google has been at the forefront of advancing targets, first from offsetting emissions, then reducing emissions, to now targeting eliminating all emissions:

“In 2012 we set a goal to reach 100% renewable energy and we reached it in 2017 and have been 100% renewable since. But we recognize that doesn’t get you all the way there. And so in September 2020, we announced that by 2030, we intend to source carbon free energy, for all of Google’s operations at all places, and at all times.”- Adam Forni, Technical Program Manager of Energy Development, Google

By meeting these program principles, they hope to not only meet their own carbon reduction targets, but to demonstrate and highlight the strategies and approaches needed to decarbonize the electricity system as a whole. But what type of technological advancements are needed to meet the new 24/7 Carbon Free Energy (CFE) target? Forni notes that decarbonizing each hour of Google’s electricity supply will require time-based and location-based energy mapping strategies to match demand and load. Additional clean energy projects will need to be added to the grid, including storage and flexible technologies. But the process of evaluating how to meet the goal has exposed gaps, namely along three main axes: transactions, technology, and policy. But while implementation gaps exist, Google has no intention of backing away from their role as a corporate climate leader:

“[Google is pursuing] carbon free energy technologies that have a path toward reaching targeted 2030 metrics because we want them to be scalable across our fleet. We want them to be actionable today, ideally with Google actually playing a unique role which may consist of a software complement to hardware technology.” — Adam Forni, Technical Program Manager of Energy Development, Google

Moderator, Kristin Barbato asked panelists to comment on what gaps they see in the marketplace, and how innovations in the market are changing such that Google may be able to reach their goal. Tom Burton, noted:

“At a high level, we’re seeing a lot more cash in marketplace right now. Whether the source of cash be private equity funds, venture capital funds, or the public markets through hedge funds and institutional investors, banks, etc. It’s really, I’d say, unprecedented in terms of the amount of capital availability which is really wonderful. It can help promote innovation, and we’re seeing a lot of activity as a result.”

The availability of capital was echoed by all panelists, however, finding the right technologies to scale is an even bigger obstacle. Some technologies, like geothermal, have only recently experienced a large enough drop in their experience curve such that the technology is feasibly scaled. While geothermal may now be market-ready, the same is not yet true for hydrogen and storage technologies, which are needed to accelerate the rate of decarbonization. Tom Burton proposes a regulatory solution:

“In particular in areas where the adoption curve requires an intense amount of capital and a small number of firms are probably not well suited to undertake the risk of getting technology to scale, I think the government can be an early adopter. Essentially, the first customer, to actually help accelerate the adoption curve, and prove the business model and answer development requirements. The government can play a key role by mitigating and managing risk by spreading that cost across the entire populations, so long as such policies allow for the entire population to ultimately reap the benefit.”– Tom Burton, Member and Chair of Energy and Sustainability Practice, Mintz

But while policy helps to address initial investment allocation, David Hayes of BP Ventures suggests that the problem may also need a more thorough financial solution:

“I think some relief is perhaps required in terms of what that return profile looks like for companies that are actually trying to move. And I think if we’re all going to be in this together, there’s a way of maybe facing up to the reality that the only way we’re going to transition by 2050 sooner, is if we all lean into this, and we all take a little bit of pain. Because we know ultimately, it’s going to be great business when we get there, but it’s not a linear path.” — David Hayes, Managing Partner, BP Ventures

As Kristin Barbato concluded the moderated portion of the event, audience members in the attendance relayed questions regarding the status of different technologies, including energy efficiency, nuclear, and ammonia energy sources. Panelists discussed the role of enabling technology, in particular, AI and data resources, warranted further consideration, especially given Google’s market leadership. Commenting on the importance of data, BP’s David Hayes noted:

“There’s all these sorts of digital enabling technologies that are going to push operational efficiency through energy generation, which will lower the carbon footprint. If we can put our arms around all the data and actually be able to bake that into what we’re producing, you can feed that back into the system. It creates an incentive to move the ball forward, to do things better, faster, and cleaner.” — David Hayes, Managing Partner, BP Ventures

And as companies like Google and BP Ventures continue to set ambitious goals, more and more rise to the challenge. The result? A movement forward. Summing it up:

“While maybe seemingly a little risky at first, we’re actually seeing that collectively, we’re moving the needle aggressively forward. And some of these ambitious goals, like Google’s 24/7 CFE target, are helping us to do so.”- Kristin Barbato, Co-founder, Dynamo Energy Hub