Solar and wind are coming. And the power sector isn’t ready
My favorite climate change joke: &quot;They say we won&#x27;t act until it&#x27;s too late... Luckily, it&#x27;s too late!&quot;<p>I have a startup in cleantech software, and often I feel very alone on HN. Every time the energy transition or climate change comes up on HN, it seems like most of the replies are either armchair-quarterbacking (&quot;What they should do is...&quot;), dismissive (&quot;They don&#x27;t take into account...&quot;), or futile (&quot;This isn&#x27;t going to be fixed because...&quot;).<p>What I don&#x27;t see is gravity for the magnitude of what&#x27;s going to happen in the next few decades. Over 80% of the world&#x27;s energy currently comes from fossil fuels[1], and the vast majority of that will switch to clean sources within our careers. It&#x27;s a $10.2 trillion dollar transition that will happen in just a few decades[2].<p>So why the the lack of interest from &quot;high growth&quot; HN crowd? There&#x27;s fuck ton of money to be made in the energy transition, and I&#x27;m betting that much of it is going to be in software. Intermittent solar&#x2F;wind generation + storage requires a ton of software to (1) deploy enough to displace fossil sources and (2) actually work reliably. The energy transition isn&#x27;t a research problem anymore, it&#x27;s a scaling problem, which means software opportunity.<p>Maybe it&#x27;s the assumption that salaries aren&#x27;t competitive? Maybe it&#x27;s because most business models in energy tech aren&#x27;t compatible with VC? Maybe it&#x27;s because you have no idea what specific problems there are that need solving? Maybe the assumption is that energy is super slow and bureaucratic?<p>Anyway, it&#x27;s always sad to see the 2nd largest industry in the world (the 1st largest is killing people over energy) always get so categorically poo-pooed on HN. I&#x27;ll keep posting[3][4] and hoping that attitude will eventually change, because we could very much use your talent in making this transition happen.<p>Because it really is too late.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eia.gov&#x2F;todayinenergy&#x2F;detail.php?id=11951" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eia.gov&#x2F;todayinenergy&#x2F;detail.php?id=11951</a><p>[2]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sdg.iisd.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;investments-in-renewable-energy-to-top-us7-trillion-by-2040&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sdg.iisd.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;investments-in-renewable-energy-to-...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=13250336" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=13250336</a><p>[4]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15127154" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15127154</a>