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The Gist
The Gist is the monthly newsletter of The Ad Hoc Group that covers everything at the intersection of climate tech and policy. Subscribe at the link here to have The Gist mailed to your inbox each month.
The Ad Hoc Gist: The Big Energy Surprises of 2024
As the holiday season begins, our trusted senior advisors reflect on the biggest energy surprises of 2024 and why they matter for the climate and the energy transition. From artificial intelligence’s unquenchable thirst for energy to the existential demands of an increasingly vulnerable electric grid, a lot has changed this year.
The Ad Hoc Gist: The Red Wave’s Casualties and Silver Linings
We’ve known for some time that a second Trump presidency was a high-probability event and that even a Republican trifecta could be a reasonably expected outcome of the election.
Though the dust has hardly settled, in this month’s Gist we give you an “inside-the-Beltway” view on what we and our lobbyist friends believe is the emerging state of play on climate policy.
The Ad Hoc Gist: It’s the Great Heat Pump, Charlie Brown
Since there’s nothing new to write about the election at this point, this month’s Gist is on a more practical and less emotional topic — heat pumps.
We’re now in heating season in much of the country, which is a good time to consider replacing that old gas or oil furnace. Enter heat pumps — the worst named, but most practical way to electrify your home heating system and get off of fossil heat.
However, those who believe the market is ready for massive heat pump uptake are living in a fantasy. The tech works, but, as you’ll learn from the lived experience of the Ad Hoc team, the customer experience remains a mess. We can and must do better!
Blog
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People as Moat – Ad Hoc Expands into Search
In climate tech, we talk a lot about, well, technology. But talk with most CEOs and they’ll share that the hardest part of their job is figuring out how to hire and retain the right people. In my experience, a company’s ability to hire and effectively onboard the right people is what differentiates successful businesses from those that falter. Because, as a CEO, you can have a great vision, but if you don’t have the right people, you can’t execute it.
Press
Climate Disasters are Revealing a Blind Spot
Where Angelo Campus grew up in northern California, evacuations and power outages caused by wildfires were routine. At college, he worked in a lab developing small solar-powered electric grids for places hit by natural disasters or high fire-risk areas to reduce the odds of an errant spark from a conventional transmission line. After graduation, he founded a startup called BoxPower to commercialize the technology, setting up his first system in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Anti-China Fervor Casts a Dark Cloud Over Solar and U.S. Climate Goals
In Congress, there is sudden bipartisan momentum to reinstitute tariffs on Chinese components. The U.S. solar industry is alarmed.
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Could Slow the Transition to Clean Energy
The bank cast a wide shadow over climate tech, with half the start-ups in the sector doing business with it.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has created new challenges not just for the nation’s banking system, but also for the Biden administration’s climate agenda, following a harrowing weekend in which many major clean tech companies faced insolvency.
Podcast
Hear more from our leadership on My Climate Journey and Technopolis.