Category: What I’m Reading

  • Hawaiian Electric having a PG&E Moment

    The fires in Maui have had a devastating human toll (111 dead, 1000 missing as of this writing). It is not surprising that it’s raising some questions about the role of Hawaii’s utility (Hawaiian Electric/HECO) played in the disaster.

    While it will take time to sort out the investigation and the class action lawsuit, it’s clear that investors and Hawaiian Electric management are scrambling, with the WSJ reporting that Hawaiian Electric is now talking to restructuring advisors to explore their next steps, in a crisis that very much parallels the series of wildfires that were ultimately blamed on Northern California utility PG&E and resulted in bankruptcy proceedings.

    Utilities now face three simultaneous problems (arguably of their own making):

    • climate change escalating the risks of catastrophic wildfires and storms
    • utilities across the country having aging energy infrastructure
    • homeownership patterns, disaster insurance coverage & premiums, and utility risk management plans built for a pre-climate-change risk environment

    The smart ones will be proactively overhauling their processes and infrastructure to cope with this. The less smart ones will potentially be dragged kicking and screaming into this world in much the same way that PG&E and Hawaiian Electric currently are.

    Hawaiian Electric is speaking with firms that specialize in restructuring advisory work, exploring options to address the electric utility’s financial and legal challenges arising from the Maui wildfires, said people familiar with the matter. 

    Hawaiian Electric is facing a selloff in its stock and bonds, and has been hit with lawsuits alleging that its actions both before and during the wildfires exacerbated the devastation Maui residents have suffered. 

    Hawaiian Electric is in Talks with Restructuring Firms
    Alexander Gladstone | WSJ

  • Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now

    Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… Adoption of a technology is being impeded by too many standards. The solution? A new standard, of course, and before you know it, we now have another new standard to deal with.

    The smart home industry needs to figure out how to properly embrace Thread (and Matter). It (or something like it) will be necessary for broader smart home / Internet of Things adoption.

    The Thread protocol offers a robust mesh network designed to solve many of the smart home’s biggest problems. But only if everyone can agree on how to use it.

    Why Thread is Matter’s biggest problem right now
    Jennifer Pattison Tuohy | The Verge

  • The next big thing on ESPN is… Microsoft Excel

    As a former “Excel monkey”, I am extremely tickled by the fact that what used to be analyst bravado about Excel skills (being able to create big spreadsheet models without touching the mouse was a big thing) is now a sport with viewers.

    But it’s a testament to how powerful and versatile spreadsheets are. And how many people know what it is.

    The joke in SaaS is that every SaaS product is basically competing with Excel. Well, apparently, Excel’s competing with e-sports and games now too!

    This year, there’s a new wrinkle: it’s an elimination race. Every five minutes, the player with the fewest points will be eliminated until there’s only one Excel-er remaining. “We have already shot the game,” says Andrew Grigolyunovich, the founder and CEO of the Financial Modeling World Cup, the organization that oversees the event. It’s now being edited down for ESPN consumption, he says, and the whole match will come out on Friday as well. “It’s a really fun, exciting event.”

    Excel’s esports revolution is coming back to ESPN this week
    David Pierce | The Verge

  • Flow Batteries Resurgent?

    I’ve been pitched by numerous flow battery companies in my days as a deeptech/climatetech investor. The promise of the technology has always been:

    • Long cycle life (the number of charge-discharge cycles you can do before the performance degrades)
    • Easy to scale: you want 2x the storage? Just get 2x the electrolyte!
    • Low fire risk: most flow batteries use water-based electrolytes which won’t ignite in the air (the way the lithium in lithium-ion batteries do)

    Despite compelling benefits, this category never achieved the level of success or scale as lithium-ion did. This was due in part to a variety of technological limitations (poor energy density, lower cycle efficiency, concerns around the amount of Vanadium-containing electrolyte “lying around” in a system, etc). But, the main cause was the breath-taking progress lithium-ion batteries have made in cost, energy density, and safety driven first by consumer electronics demand and then by electric vehicle demand.

    This C&EN article covers the renewed optimism the flow battery world is experiencing as market interest in the technology revitalizes.

    My hot-take🔥: while technological improvements play a part, once again, what is driving the flow battery market is what’s happening in lithium-ion world. There simply is too much demand for energy storage and growing uncertainty about the ability of lithium-ion to handle it in the face of the conflict between the West and China (the leading supplier of lithium ion batteries) and supply chain concerns about critical minerals for lithium ion batteries (like nickel and cobalt). Grid storage players have to look elsewhere. (Electric vehicle companies would probably like to but do not have the option!)

    Considering the importance of grid energy storage in electrifying our world and onboarding new renewable generation, I think having and seeing more options is a good thing. So I, too, am optimistic here 👍🏻

    Note: this is the first in a (hopefully ongoing) series of posts called “What I’m Reading” where I’ll share & comment on an interesting article I’ve come across!

    Redox flow batteries have a reputation of being second best. Less energy intensive and slower to charge and discharge than their lithium-ion cousins, they fail to meet the performance requirements of snazzy, mainstream applications, such as cars and cell phones. There’s no such thing as a flow-battery Tesla.

    But the companies at the International Flow Battery Forum in Prague in late June were adamant that flow batteries are now cheaper, more reliable, and safer than lithium ion in a growing number of real-world stationary energy applications. Flow-battery makers say their technology—and not lithium ion—should be the first choice for capturing excess renewable energy and returning it when the sun is not out and the wind is not blowing.

    Flow batteries, the forgotten energy storage device
    Alex Scott | C&EN