Why clean energy’s future may depend on molten salt, trains, and cranes

In an effort to make renewable energy more reliable, one company wants to send trains carrying tons of rocks up and down a hill. Another wants to use cranes to stack and unstack heavy blocks.

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2021 Honorees:

Julian Laval and Ali Imani, Cofounders of Center Health

Julian Laval and Ali Imani founded diabetes device and management company Center Health in 2017 to make glucose monitors that connect to a smartphone and work with an app. Center Health raised $4 million from Fuel Capital, Sequoia Scouts, Luma Launch, IdeaLabX, and has 10,000 customers.

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2021 Honoree: Easton LaChappelle, Founder of Unlimited Tomorrow

Prosthetics can be expensive, which is why Unlimited Tomorrow is using 3D-printing and scanning to drive down costs. The direct-to-consumer company sells personalized robotic arms for $7,995. Founder and CEO LaChapelle has raised $6.2 million to scale up the company.

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Industry, Powered By The Sun: Heliogen HelioHeat

Creating the tons of steel and concrete we use to build our world requires a massive amount of heat—and most of it comes from burning dirty fossil fuels. HelioHeat cleans up that process by using the power of the sun.

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Bill Gross, 1990s Dotcom Trailblazer, Is Now Betting on

Green Energy

The pandemic, by decimating oil demand, crashing prices and challenging the economics of some fossil-fuel projects, has accelerated some industry moves toward low-carbon energy. In Mr. Gross’s view, it has also leveled the playing field for green energy’s drive to displace fossil fuels.

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Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough.

Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius.

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Energy Vault raises $110 million from SoftBank Vision Fund as energy storage grabs headlines.

Imagine a moving tower made of huge cement bricks weighing 35 metric tons. The movement of these massive blocks is powered by wind or solar power plants and is a way to store the energy those plants generate. (TechCrunch, 8/14/2019). Learn more

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Energy Vault Press Release

Energy Vault uses cranes powered by renewables to lift giant bricks into a tower.

When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, lowering the bricks back down creates new energy. It’s one of Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards winners. Learn more