Talking Climate Tech 031

Yes, I know it's July and it should be hot, in the Northern hemisphere at least, but it is very hot. Especially over in Europe this week. We have a couple of days' respite here in the UK, because you know, Wimbledon has started, so we can expect some rain this week. 🌦️

On that note, we have some news on the weather and heat mitigation from Trees - proper old-skool climate tech!

A lot of grid action this week as well 🇬🇧 + 🇪🇸 grid updates after the recent 'incidents'.

Also, we have a startup progressing to Series A through their Thermal Metaphotonics solution... every day is a learning day!

Read on, dear reader...

🔦 Startup Spotlight

It's all about the grid as we 'power' on to electrification. We have looked at some grid tech innovation previously in 017, which was on Ionate [transformer innovation], Enline [digital twin and grid tech], and TS Conductor [reconductoring HVDC].

A quick snapshot of another UK startup hoping to bridge the valley of death and scale grid tech innovation to global markets.

AssetCool’s innovative coating range enhances capacity, reduces corona noise or mitigates corrosion. They can be applied in the factory, at the point of manufacture, or in the field directly on existing lines with AssetCool’s proprietary power line coating robots.

Pretty 'cool' then, robots coating powerlines. Full end-to-end digital control system for optimisation and efficiency. The 360° microfluidics anular coating dye gives uniform coverage around the conductor.

Delivers upgraded performance on existing line assets without the need for full reconductoring.

What do the pilot results look like across the x4 coating solutions?

SE01 Coating - Passively manages the temperature of the conductor by rejecting solar radiation and emitting heat, lowering the temperature by up to 25%, offering a 30% increase in capacity or a 10% reduction in resistance.

SE02 Coating - Retrofit to existing conductors, SE02’s advanced photonic coating boosts capacity by up to 30%, at 5% of the cost of reconductoring.

SE03 Coating - Corrosion protection in manufacture or via the robotic system - extends the lifespan of assets, increases reliability, reduces maintenance and reconductoring schedules.

SE05 Coating* - Nano-coating creates a superhydrophilic surface, reducing corona noise and mitigating rain-induced wet audible noise by up to 10dB.

*No, I don't know what happened to 04 either 🤷‍♂️

🔎 Deeper Dive

Heathrow Blame Game ⚡️

You might recall we had a small electrical incident at Heathrow Airport a few weeks back in March. 270,000 journeys impacted, 1,300 flights cancelled, estimated cost to airline operators, £80-100m.

It has raised ongoing dialogue about grid infrastructure and security - which can only be a positive for the energy transition and in the current geopolitical climate.

The report is finally in, and it's not a great look for the world's most famous airport, and especially for National Grid.

Heathrow Airport is considering legal action against National Grid after a report found the fire, which caused the airport to shut down, was a result of a known fault at an electrical substation.

Light touch from BBC here. If you want to go deep, E&T is better. The full report is over here from NESO.

Someone is going to pay heavily for that...

Spain Blame Game ⚡️

You might also recall, there was an even bigger electrical incident in Spain recently, in April. When I say incident, we are of course talking full grid shut-down for whole zones across the country.

Spanning Spain, Portugal and Southern Fance, it was a big one - 2.2GW of power lost. The subsequent blackouts lasted approximately 10 hours, causing significant disruptions in most areas of the Iberian Peninsula.

The report is in for this one as well. Not quite as clear cut as the shambles at Heathrow. Particularly interesting as certain factions of the press and poltical groups were quick to jump on the "blame the renewables and net zero" bandwagon.

Excellent investigative journalism on a day-day basis from Ketan Joshi, which you can track back via his LinkedIn. Summarised in this piece - he really dug into this to track the presumptive and pre-report anti-renewables 'inertia blame game' in the press.

What was the problem? Unsurprisingly, it wasn't specifically renewables, the generation mix, or the lack of inertia portrayed as the defacto-issue from renewable generation.

“The Spanish government has stated that conventional power plants were a key contributor to the incident due to failure to provide voltage control services, along with possible grid management issues”

...primary cause of the blackout was a failure of conventional synchronous generators to adequately control voltage, with secondary factors including Spain’s weak electrical ties to the rest of Europe and the loss of some generation as the transformers that interconnect that generation tripped as system voltage increased.

What's the outcome - well the Spanish Government is doubling down on renewables and needs to work on grid infrastructure improvements and connectivity:

...renewable energy and battery storage were identified as essential to improving system stability and preventing future events. The government report also recommends expanding Spain’s transmission ties with neighboring power systems to improve stability and reduce reliability risks.

In depth insights from Grid Strategies here.

💥 Trump Watch

I'm not talking about Don this week. In short he has been bullying his way around Washington to get the BBB through.

We have already looked at some of the impacts of this in recent weeks - its not only climate and energy, but society, health, wealth and everything else that's about to be given a kick in the proverbial 🥜 🥜.

We will come back to Don next week. To recap, it's like this - make it make sense.

🏡 Konfab News

EP3 Video Podcast is Live 🎙️

And away...this week it's Damian Bemben of Ada Mode, our conversation covers:

🧠 AI in climate tech

📊 Data analytics

👥 Collaboration in industrial decarbonisation

⚡ Challenges of energy system modelling in the UK

⚖️ AI legislation

🏭 Solent Cluster project

And all you need to know about AI, the end of the world and peanuts 🥜 🤷‍♂️

Listen in to Ep03 now.. 🎙️

Watch + Listen Here

Octoverse Electroverse 🐙

Great write-up here from Rishi Mehta with his first piece for Konfab, taking in the Octopus Energy Tech Summit 2025 - a remarkable star-studied event, full of hope for a clean and equitable energy future for all.

Step into the arena - the future is electric!

Read More

😃 Good Stuff

3:30:300 🌳

No its not a secret code, but the simple playbook of Cecil Konijnendijk, an urban forester, academic and co-founderr of the Nature Based Solutions Institute in Malmo, Sweden.

In 2021 he launched this concept as a way of connecting people to nature in urban environments, delivering the benefits of shade and heat protection, while reducing the impact of emissions and a host of other benefits.

We clearly need this in more cities...

Trees for Cities 🌳

So here we are, people doing more trees in cities ⬆️

I love what this charity is doing here in the UK, plus they have an international programme - we should all be pushing our local city planners and councils to engage with this stratgey as we battle urban heat domes and rising temperatures.

More from them here - Trees for Cities. 👏

🌍 Climate Watch

Mediterranean Bath 🛀

Quick dip to cool off? Not likely. A weather monitoring station near Malta picked up a record temperature for the Mediterranean this week. It's around 30℃ 🌡️

Sea surface temperatures in the Mediterranean are currently 3°C higher than average for the same period compared to 1991-2020, with spikes exceeding 4°C around the French and Spanish coast, reported a French weather service.

Welcome to the new normal. The impact on the Mediterranean Sea ecosystem will be significant, as of course it will on human health, agriculture, animal health etc. Summary of all the heat alerts by country here from The Independent.

⚡Pylon of the Month

Here is a sunny number for you in keeping with the rest of this weeks newsletter. We are stepping back to July 2023 for this Tower of Power from Pylon HQ, hailing from New Zealand 🇳🇿

Looking across to the Makara wind farm in the distance and beyond that the South Island, with the Cook Strait in between.

Interesting factoid for you on NZ and the HVDC inter-island link built between 1961-65.

..the cables used for the link were made by a company, British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC), that played a significant role in the construction of the British National Grid.

Go find yourself somewhere cool and have a rest...🥵...maybe sit under a nice shady tree for a while. 🌳

Thanks as always, let's keep pushing forward - remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍

Kane