🌱 How dirty is mobile data?
(155) and Joey "Jaws" Chestnut blocked by big beef for backing Impossible Foods
Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Climate capital guidebook (WH)
Overhyping regenerative ag (JF)
US hot dog contest can't stomach champ's vegan deal (BBC)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
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Xcimer Energy, a startup developing low-cost, high-energy laser technology for fusion energy, raised a $100M Series A led by Hedosophia (BW)
Euler Motors, a six-year-old New Delhi startup that manufactures electric cargo transport vehicles, raised a $24 million Series C extension round led by Piramal Alternatives, with previous investors British International Investment and Blume Ventures also stepping up. (E)
French EV charging startup Gireve raised a $21.9M round led by Partech (EU)
Iyris, a Saudi agri-climate technology startup, raised a $16M Series A led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund (FN)
WindBorne Systems, an AI weather model, raised a $15M Series A led by Khosla Ventures (BW)
Climate risk-solver insurance provider Understory raised a $15M Series A led by True Ventures and Prelude Ventures (PRN)
On-demand transit software startup Spare raised $10M in growth capital from CIBC Innovation Banking (BW)
Seqana, a SaaS platform that measures the climate impact of carbon farming projects, raised a $2.3M seed round led by HTGF and Counteract(FN)
Green Theory
Cell Towers Guzzle Power
Is your smartphone emitting greenhouse gasses? There may not be an exhaust pipe next to your cell’s charging port, and though the total electricity use of our cell phone batteries is relatively insignificant, cell towers draw roughly 9x as much energy.
In the last 20 years, we’ve built over 41 million cell towers, with nearly half put up in 2016 alone. Together, they consume about 178 TWh in electricity each year, or less than 1% of global electricity consumption. An hour scrolling or streaming via cellular data could therefore seem like a harmless way to avoid growing your carbon footprint. On the other hand, mobile data terawatts may be among the dirtiest-sourced electricity we generate each year.
Just how dirty? And what are we doing to clean them up?
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Cell towers are so critical to modern life, nearly all are capable of producing their own electricity onsite. Many simply run on diesel generators full-time, while others merely keep these power plants as backup options, burning for just a few months’ time throughout a year.
Because of all of the dirty off-grid energy, we can’t assume the global average of 481g of carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt-hour, for electricity used in mobile data towers. The real emissions from mobile base stations are likely 2-5x higher per kWh. Cell towers emit, it follows, 170-500 million metric tons annually: on the order of Argentina, Australia, California, or Mexico’s total emissions per year.
Cutting through the wireless knot
Incumbent industry players suggest 5G’s efficiency gains make it a tantalizing climate opportunity on its own. Specifically, Nokia and Ericsson suggest 5G base stations can go dormant during times of low traffic, and even save power by intermittently shuttering during peak network demand, too.
While energy efficiency is an innovative marvel, mobile data offers a perfect example of Jevons Paradox. 5G is expected to outpace the electrical load growth of 4G by twice over, making the absolute demand placed on our electrical generation capacity enormous. Even as next-gen mobile base stations get more energy efficient in terms of data, they explode far past their predecessors in total energy consumed. Unique in this new generation, 5G’s gains help in urban cores and high-traffic areas, but not so in rural or less dense populations. In greening traditional base stations, regardless of the mobile technology generation, the key is to replace diesel generators with battery storage, and ideally renewable backup power from wind or solar, if possible.
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For some inventors, the sky holds more promise for the future of clean data transfer than the ground. The AALTO Zephyr, owned by Airbus, cruises the calm, thin air of the stratosphere, powered by the sun. Launched by hand, and covered in solar panels, this aircraft first climbs through each layer of atmosphere, soaring up through one of the rare pockets of calm that stretch all the way up. Once in the stratosphere, it can safely circle the earth, and beam down cell connectivity to remote reaches. By day, the sun powers the propellers and charges the onboard battery. At night, the plane slowly loses altitude while operating off of the battery alone, but by the time the morning sun rises, the plane is high enough to ascend again to a safer band of stratosphere. The Zephyr solar plane holds a record for 62 days in flight, with the aim of lasting several more months in coming models and updates.
Staying on and off the grid
While solar developers and electrical engineers describe propane generators and DIY solar systems as “off-grid,” many of us say we’re going “off-the-grid” to mean we’re exiting the area where the internet and mobile data networks reliably reach. Over the coming years, you may find these off-the-grid areas rarer and rarer, as new cell base stations offer connection in more and more remote places.
As the mobile network grid stretches further past the reliable range of the electrical grid, however, it’s especially important to consider the local data’s fuel. If you want to preserve some of the charm of going off-the-grid in newly networked spaces, prepare your research and planning before a visit, and you’ll shrink your internet usage’s carbon footprint, too.
As mobile data networks expand, and their energy use soars, telecom companies and infrastructure planners will need yet more innovative solutions to meet climate goals. Will you help by building a zero-energy aircraft, designing a clean off-grid 5G power supply, or simply by saving your countryside google searches for your home WiFi?
The Closer
“NorCal fire season off to a strong start…” Noah Berger