• Future Perfect
  • Posts
  • #31. đź’°Bitcoin is as bad as oil | 🪟Thermal window coatings | 🌞AV failures good for climate

#31. 💰Bitcoin is as bad as oil | 🪟Thermal window coatings | 🌞AV failures good for climate

Plus: California airports' flood risks | Climate impact on marine life reproduction | Savant & Sunnova's clean energy | US taking world's clean-energy investment | Seattle's AV permits | Toyota's EVs

🌡 CLIMATE CHANGE

This is a scientific research paper highlighting the risks to California’s coastal infrastructure due to the anticipated eight inches of sea level rise over the next 30 years. Of particular concern are 39 out of 43 coastal airports that will likely suffer damage in the 20-40 year timeframe.

Bitcoin mining requires a tremendous amount of electricity, and new research shows that a single coin mined in 2021 adversely impacted the climate as much as drilling for oil. Quantitatively, a single coin caused an estimated $11,314 of climate damage.

The effects of temperature and pH on the reproductive ecology of sand dollars and sea urchins: Impacts on sperm swimming and fertilization (long read)

This is a scientific research paper finding a harmful correlation between climate-induced temperature increase and its effect on pH, which in turn has an adverse effect on sand dollar and sea urchin reproductive capacity. Temperature and pH affected san dollars’ fertilization rates, but only temperature influenced sperm motility.

🔋 CLEAN ENERGY

Savant Systems’ (Crunchbase) intelligent load management and control solutions will empower Sunnova Energy’s (Crunchbase) EaaS (energy-as-a-service) for US customers from 23Q1.

The “transparent radiative cooler” (TRC) is comprised of layers of silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, or titanium dioxide on a glass base, which is then sealed with a layer of polydimethylsiloxane. The technology could result in annual energy savings of 86.3 MJ/m^2 in warm climates.

America’s new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with its incentives and subsidies will route investment away from Europe, leaving the Old World at a competitive disadvantage in the exploding clean energy space.

⚠️ I NEED YOUR HELP TO GET SUBSCRIBERS:

👋 Hi! Thanks for being one of my first subscribers. Starting a newsletter is tough, and my subscriber base is not growing fast enough. So if you like what I’m doing with Future Perfect, I need you to get six of your friends and colleagues to subscribe. Can you do that, please? 🙏

Share Future Perfect

PS. Please follow me on Twitter @MarcHoag and elsewhere at MarcHoag.com.

đźš— AUTONOMOUS & ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Seattle is home to Amazon, and Amazon acquired Zoox (Crunchbase), an AV startup. Prior to this new permitting system, AV companies could test with little difficulty or oversight; companies were asked to self-certify if they were operating AVs, provide proof of insurance, and assure the presence of a human operator. The new permitting requirements include displaying company logos on cars, sharing information about test driver programs, and submitting traffic incident data such as accidents.

While AV pursuits have largely stalled, EV growth is exploding with EVs now accounting for 11% of vehicle sales. And while development of the two technologies often goes hand in hand, the accelerated growth of EVs before mainstream AV adoption is a faster win for the climate than might otherwise have been the case.

After shunning EVs for decades, Toyota is finally fully on board, with five fully EV models to join the awkwardly-named bZ4X from 2026. The goal is 50% fully-EV sales by 2030 and fully carbon-neutral by 2040 for all Toyota vehicles.

🎉 THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY!

Thank you so much for reading, see you tomorrow!-Marc

Reply

or to participate.