December Cleantech Roundup

Energy Usage is Off the Chain

A lot of ink has been spilled about the energy implications of Bitcoin, in particular, that it consumes an incredibly large amount of energy to mine Bitcoin. However, my colleague Ben flagged a recent post on CNBC which pointed out that the estimate of Bitcoin’s gigantic energy consumption stems from a single disputed source.

So, while the energy consumed to mine Bitcoin is definitely substantial, it is probably not the energy usage apocalypse some people are claiming. And there may be a silver lining — as Ben also flagged, some argue that because Bitcoin mining is energy intensive, the industry will drive investments in the most efficient and low-cost energy sources available (because industries in which energy represents a large portion of their expenses are very sensitive to energy costs) — in other words, investments in renewable energy.

My take? Bitcoin mining, along with many other digital activities that leverage data centers, use a lot of energy. That said, it’s not the end of the world — at the end of the day, Bitcoin mining represents a small percent of energy consumption. I also see the increased focus on Bitcoin’s energy consumption as a positive trend that hopefully will also shine a light on the amount of energy used in order to support other modern day innovations and conveniences like the cloud and streaming videos. As smartphone users, the costs to googling answers to trivia questions are not salient to us, but still very real in the aggregate — hopefully this conversation around the energy utilization of Bitcoin mining will be the beginning, and not the end, of a dialogue that helps us better understand how we use energy in our everyday lives.

The Road Less Traveled?

In November’s Cleantech Roundup, we mentioned Tesla’s recent announcement of the Tesla Semi, their new electric truck. Since then, large corporations have been publicly announcing their pre-orders: UPS ordered 125, Pepsi ordered 100, Sysco ordered 50, and Anheuser-Busch ordered 40 (A full list of publicly announced pre-orders is available here).

As Paul touched on last month, Tesla has immense brand value that helps drive purchasing decisions. It actually raises an interesting question — are these companies making these pre-orders because they are embracing new innovation, or because they want to be seen as embracing new innovation? After all, when was the last time you heard anything about what sort of transportation a beer company uses (okay, besides the Clydesdales)? Also, the companies are essentially providing a no-interest loan to Tesla for the privilege of buying a new truck from them, eventually — it’s a transaction the company CFO probably wasn’t that excited about. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the Tesla Semi, quite the opposite; however, at least a portion of the hype around the vehicle is likely driven more by FOMO than DCF.

China Announces New Carbon Market; United States Passes a Tax Bill that….. Does Not Include a Carbon Tax

As this story from Marketplace explains, China’s new carbon market will be the largest in the world, and comes at an interesting time when the United States has begun to recede from its historic global leadership on energy and climate issues. Indeed, the policy decision has been hailed as “a game-changer.” That said, as the Marketplace piece and others point out, none of the details have been worked out for this policy and the market is launching in order to meet a deadline, rather than because it is actually ready to be put in place.

While it’s a move that’s a day late and a dollar short to begin with, this is still a really important step: it is a signal that China’s government recognizes both the magnitude of the problem on their hands and the the importance of taking bold public action. They are spot-on in that regard — I believe China’s polluted skies are the single greatest geopolitical risk to the nation’s government: many citizens may be willing to trade media censorship for a significantly increased standard of living; however, when that standard of living is compromised by heavily polluted air that kills its citizens, the citizenry is unlikely to let it slide for long.

Here in the United States, President Trump recently signed into law the first major update to the U.S. tax code in decades. While journalists and non-profits are still sifting through all the changes in the final version of the law, there was one provision that was never seriously considered — a carbon tax. Despite it’s omission in this legislation, look for this policy to continue to be in the public dialogue. It may actually be a rare potential area of compromise, between legislators interested in addressing climate change, and those looking for other sources of revenue in order to lower corporate and personal taxes.

For Further Reading:

These publications and newsletters are great sources for cleantech and investing news.

Energy:

• GreenTech Media — Good source for news and analysis on all kinds of clean energy.
• Axios’ Generate — Daily energy news roundup, with coverage that includes (but is not limited to) federal goings-on
• Midwest Energy News — Provides both a Midwest and national daily newsletter

Investing:

• A VC — Blog by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures — lots of interesting commentary on venture investing in general, and blockchain in particular
• Fortune’s Term Sheet — Weekday morning newsletter by Polina Marinova
• Social Capital’s Snippets — A weekly newsletter from Social Capital