Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:Â
The GreendicatorÂ
Top Deals of the Week
![Mercedes-AMG GT4 race cars with natural fibre composite bumpers Mercedes-AMG GT4 race cars with natural fibre composite bumpers](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fea0aa11e-b271-4a00-afba-2dc444eeaa74_1773x1182.jpeg)
Magnus Metal, a startup building a metal casting technology that is as fast and energy efficient as 3D printing, raised a $74M Series B led by Entrée Capital and Target Global (TC)
GridBeyond, an Irish developer of AI-powered systems to help businesses and grid operators balance electricity supply and demand, raised a $55M Series C led by Alantra Partners (AX)
Bcomp, a Swiss startup using natural fibers to create sustainable, lightweight materials, raised a $40M Series C led by EGS Beteiligungen (EU)
Quilt, a startup building a new heat pump, raised a $33M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners and Galvanize Climate Solutions (TC)
Sustainable insulation startup CleanFiber raised a $28M Series B led by Spring Lane Capital (TC)
EV charging solutions provider SWTCH Energy raised a $27.2M Series B led by Blue Earth Capital (BW)
GA Drilling, a startup specializing in deep geothermal drilling for energy capture, raised $15M in funding from a variety of backers (FN)
Heavy industry energy startup Found Energy raised a $12M seed round led by Autodesk Foundation, GiTV, and more (TC)
Uniqus Consultech, a tech-enabled global platform that offers ESG and accounting & reporting consulting, raised a $10M Series B led by Nexus Ventures (BW)
Captura, a direct ocean capture company, raised a $5.3M Series A extension from National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund (FN)
Carbon accounting startup Sumday raised a $5.3M seed round led by Planeteer Capital (FN)
Condoit, a platform for digitizing the electrical industry, raised a $4.3M seed round led by The Westly Group (VC)
Green Theory
Electrifly America
Imagine a comfortable flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. First, your ears smile as you notice the unusually quiet takeoff. Stretching your legs in SoCal, not so long after, you walk to the curb of a quaint regional airport, rather than the crush of an international behemoth. You’ve just taken your first electric plane ride.
Out of every 40 tons of global emissions, about 1 ton comes from private and commercial jet travel. It’s only 1 in 10 people that take any flights in a given year, and 1 in 100 who make up over half of all flight miles, and thereby emissions. For such an exclusive but substantial source of global pollution, it’s unfortunate many think electrifying aviation impossible, or too far away consider. As with the rapid R&D advances in solar, critics may have missed promising progress while they ignored electric planes’ takeoff.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd339254c-432e-4d3b-9d80-bd782d99cb94_1600x890.png)
Though sustainable aviation fuels strive to offer a petroleum-like experience for airplanes—without the fossil fuels—these technologies are far from scalable, and the net impacts of skyrocketing air travel powered by burning wood and poop are worthy of close attention. We’re electrifying bikes, cars, trucks, boats, and more. So how did planes get left out?
Electricritics Flight Plan
Critics of e-planes point to the range limitations brought about by heavy batteries that don’t get lighter as you fly farther, such as does a fuel tank. The maximum range for development passenger e-planes clocks in a little under 500 miles of range.Â
To put the range in perspective, researchers at Element 84 analyzed the percentage of US continental air travel that could be displaced, given a range of electric aircraft. With the Wright Spirit e-plane’s 460-mile range, 1 in 3 direct flights could be electrified, and another 1 in 3 converted to a one-layover itinerary, for a whopping two thirds of our commercial continental flights’ emissions.Â
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0e31e056-f6da-47c3-8282-3c57b0cef7bd_1600x908.png)
So let’s say we had a big fleet of Wright Spirits e-jetting around. Anti-electric flyers also complain that our major airports aren’t ready to handle the added electrical demand. Indeed, charging just a handful of airplanes can easily take an airport over 10x above their typical base power load.
Thank you for flying electricÂ
Despite the range and power limitations, today, progress on electric aviation marches along, as innovators across fields keep exploring different solutions. For example, in order to spread out demand, we can take better advantage of the many underutilized regional airports in the US: pairing distributed energy resources such as solar farms with flight itineraries through lesser-known airport codes. Spreading out the energy supply and demand, e-planes could gain hundreds of miles of range in as little as a 15-minute stop. Especially since e-planes will start smaller than jumbo commercial jetliners, these fun-sized airports’ revitalization could fly tip to tip with electric aviation’s ascent.Â
What might be the best use case to start electrifying aviation? Today, one group of frequent flyers with short itineraries and high emissions comes in the form of private business jetsetters. Walmart executives in Arkansas, for instance, make a point of visiting their regional stores across the country, and primarily use the company’s fleet of 18 Learjets to build unusual itineraries to remote destinations, and arrive and depart at their leisure. These planes can turn a week-long commercial business trip into a one-day excursion, but could electric planes perform this excessive business function more nimbly?
In terms of fuel cost alone, electricity comes in at half the price of jet fuel per mile traveled. For a company the scale of Walmart, these savings would translate to a free, new jet every 3-5 years, compared to business as usual. Despite these economic benefits to electrifying aviation, our airline tickets are not priced based on cost, nor are private business jets necessarily used for the most sound business reasons. In one study, companies with private jet benefits underperformed jetless peers’ shareholder returns by roughly 4%. Even with the financial opportunity, the savings will take a while to substantially reduce commercial fares, and shake corporate executives from their now-routine flights of fancy.Â
What if trips to glaciers and ice floes didn’t melt them?
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffdd4b234-84d0-4607-b9b3-f8322f52203b_1600x623.png)
Despite electric aviation detractors, the Wright Spirit e-plane is already making life easier around noise-sensitive airports, and you might get the privilege of your first emission-free flight from them in the next few years. With flying growing in popularity, e-planes offer flyers the chance to build a future where their travel doesn’t poison the grounded majority of the human family.
The Closer
This is what hours-old jellyfish look like… -Jelliesfarm (the video in the link is much better than the picture)