Ørsted
What: Ørsted is a key participant in renewable power, notably in Europe. The corporate had put in 15.1 gigawatts of renewable power capability worldwide as of 2022, and it plans to triple that by 2030.
Ørsted has been particularly central to growing new offshore wind energy. The corporate operates wind farms in Denmark, Germany, and the UK and plans to broaden to new markets, together with the US.
Offshore wind tends to be dearer than each land-based wind energy and photo voltaic, but it surely might nonetheless play a central position in powering coastal communities. Within the US, practically 80% of electrical energy demand happens in coastal states or close to the Nice Lakes, locations the place offshore wind might assist meet demand. Offshore winds are sometimes stronger and are typically extra constant than winds on land, offering a extra fixed electrical energy provide than photo voltaic, for instance.
Why: Ørsted is a superb instance of an organization we included due to its work in scaling present applied sciences. It has invested in commercial-scale offshore wind tasks and helped broaden the availability chains wanted to help them. As well as, Ørsted is pushing into new applied sciences, like fuels that may be made utilizing renewable electrical energy.
I’m additionally fascinated by the pivot Ørsted has remodeled the previous 15 years. The corporate used to primarily function fossil gasoline property; as of 2008, 85% of its warmth and energy technology got here from fossil fuels. As we speak, renewables make up 91% of the corporate’s capability.
Blue Frontier
What: Blue Frontier is constructing a brand new, extra environment friendly air-con system by splitting up the work of cooling and lowering humidity.
The gadget makes use of supplies referred to as desiccants to suck moisture out of the air, lowering humidity. It then makes use of a method referred to as evaporative cooling to decrease the temperature. (For extra on the way it works, try this story.)
Blue Frontier continues to be within the early phases of constructing its expertise, with two demonstration items working and some dozen extra deliberate for 2024. Nevertheless it says its course of is as much as thrice extra environment friendly than a standard air conditioner and will lower whole power consumption by AC items by 60%.