Tag: Energy
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Volteras
One of the most exciting trends in energy is the rise of programmable power. Energy devices have become increasingly software-controllable. Developers can now build large virtual energy systems out of many small decentralized assets. We’ve been investing across the programmable power stack from foundational hardware to app-layer networks. At present,…
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Cactos
The dramatic reduction in the cost of solar energy means we can cheaply produce clean power– but only when the sun is out. Batteries are a natural companion to solar, capable of soaking up surplus energy when the sun is shining, and using that energy or feeding it back to the…
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Presto
Electric vehicles are a prime example of how electricity will be used in more complex ways as we electrify everything to reduce carbon emissions. As batteries, they enable shifting electricity usage in time, and as vehicles, they enable shifting usage in space. At USV, we’ve been interested in facilitating this…
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The Three Kinds of “Deep Tech” Startups
Something that’s frustrating about investing in non-purely-software companies is the poverty of vocabulary. People talk about “deep tech”, “hard tech”, “frontier tech”, “atoms”, and so on. Sometimes they just mean to distinguish hardware from software companies, sometimes to distinguish technical moonshots from more immediately commercial ventures. Despite the linguistic fuzziness,…
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Blixt
(Crossposted to the USV blog) Existing electrical infrastructure is ill-suited to our current needs. It was developed for a world where we simply sent firm AC power from centralized power plants to end-customers. Today, however, electricity flows multi-directionally, as both AC and DC, and more intermittently. As we continue to…
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Making Energy Programmable
(crossposted from the USV blog) We’ve previously written about the storage gap. The proliferation of solar has led to an abundance of energy when the sun is out and a dearth of energy when it’s not. Batteries help address this gap by storing excess energy in times of plenty and…
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Towards a Theory of Decentralization
One force that drives centralization is comparative advantage. If I’m sufficiently good at making clothes, it might be mutually advantageous for me to focus on making clothes all day and to free up the person who’s good at making food to do that and the person who’s good at building…
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Power Electronics 101
I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the grid, which I think will look increasingly decentralized and multi-directional. Power electronics, or devices that manipulate power with semiconductors, are a critical part of that story. They offer greater control and flexibility to facilitate the expanding variety of…
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New Cities
I think new city projects are fascinating. Although it’s definitely hard to start a new community from scratch (especially from the top-down), greater experimentation can help unearth better ways to live together that we can all learn from and might push existing cities to improve lest their residents move away.…
Matthew Mandel 