The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding round to expand its energy management platform into neighbouring Nordic countries (so around $8.7M at current exchange rates). The energy tech startup is serving around […]
Farmers have got to do something about pests. But nobody really likes the idea of using more chemical pesticides. Thomas Laurent’s company, Micropep, thinks the answer might already be in the plants themselves. Micropep is exploring how naturally occurring compounds, known as micropeptides, might work as an entirely new class of pesticides. If the startup
Micropep taps tiny proteins to make pesticides safer Read More »
After hearing that a U.S. Navy submarine ran into an underwater mountain, Joe Wolfel was surprised to find out just how little both government and commercial organizations knew about the ocean floor. It stuck with him throughout his time in the Navy and years later he launched a company to try to fix it. Wolfel
Terradepth wants to map the rest of the ocean floor Read More »
Air traffic for many airlines ground to a halt after a buggy update from CrowdStrike took down Windows computers around the world. At the time of publication, nearly 3,500 flights have been canceled worldwide, according to FlightAware. While the IT outage is causing headaches for travelers, it may also have an unexpected effect on the
CrowdStrike chaos leads to grounded aircraft — and maybe an unusual weather effect Read More »
A nuclear fusion experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has set a record for the strongest steady magnetic field confining a plasma, ushering in new hope that forthcoming demonstration reactors will deliver on their promises to produce more power than they consume.. The new magnets came from Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a pioneering startup in
WHAM! Nuclear fusion experiment hits new record for magnet strength Read More »
Rice is the staple crop of more than half of the world’s population. Demand is growing with the rising population in South and Southeast Asia. However, a significant portion of rice farming still relies on traditional cultivation methods that lead to substantial methane emissions, which are a major contributor to climate change — methane is
Mitti Labs aims to make rice farming less harmful to the climate, starting in India Read More »
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is shipping a pair of its specialized magnets to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. The move comes years before CFS anticipates starting its demonstration reactor, SPARC. It’s the first such deal, though possibly not the last, suggesting that the fusion sector has matured to the point where it
Why Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ superconducting magnet sale is more than it seems Read More »
Solo founder Cat Jones took the plunge on setting up a travel business right around the time the pandemic was hitting Europe in March 2020. Fast forward to summer 2024 and her curated package tour business, Byway, is announcing close of an oversubscribed £5.04 million Series A round (around $6.4M at current exchange rates). Jones’
Byway is using AI to help travelers slow down and take the scenic route Read More »
Google has issued its 2024 Environmental Report, a more than 80-page document describing all of the massive company’s efforts to apply tech to environmental issues and to mitigate its own contributions. But it totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI using — perhaps because the answer is “way more than we’d care
Google’s environmental report pointedly avoids AI’s actual energy cost Read More »
Electricity demand is booming on account of AI. In a May 2024 report, Goldman Sachs predicted that data centers will use 8% of the U.S.’s total power supply by 2030, up from 3% in 2022, as cloud service providers expand to meet the demand for AI infrastructure. Assuming the current trend holds, U.S. utilities will need to
