Transitioning to Cleaner and Renewable Energy World
Cities, businesses, and even governments are moving to cleaner fuels, resources, and energy, as global emissions continue to rise at an astonishing speed. This has created an intense focus on carbon neutrality, and the importance of renewable energy sources. Leading to a hot market for startup companies looking to optimize energy utilization wherever feasible, from the individual level to large-scale applications.
As the world attempts to move on from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and take a rest after the tumultuous COP26 deliberations, a new feeling of urgency has emerged. New world events such as the war in Ukraine have also revealed the need for better alternatives as gas prices skyrocket around the world. While most of the essential technologies are ready to scale up, accelerated innovation will be a critical feature in the coming years. More nations are putting thought into their environmental impacts, fueling the demand for innovative cleantech solutions.
New clean and renewable trends
While people throughout the world seek answers, there is little question that technology will play a key role in tackling the common global problem. There will, however, be no one universal solution. To make an impact, hundreds of solutions must be adopted and scaled, each addressing a distinct problem. Here are some of the technological trends to look out for in Cleantech.
Green Materials: Green alternatives are being used by startups spanning different sectors to replace fossil-based resources. These resources are made from organic sources, such as food and agricultural waste, and do not contain any hazardous residues. Frequently utilized green materials are biofibers and bioplastics, which minimize waste from single-use textiles and plastics. Furthermore, experts are investigating feedstock options to replace current methods of feeding mass-produced cattle in order to avoid disrupting the natural food chain. These new methods utilize more environmentally friendly processes that focus on using renewable resources and cutting down on carbon emissions.
Renewable Energy: With the current rate of consumption of fossil fuels, there is an urgent need for sustainable energy sources which will be longer lasting without harming the environment. Solar, wind, geothermal, and wave energy are some of the most prominent renewable energy sources. Renewable fuels are used in a variety of sectors to make their operations greener and more eco-friendly. Startups are also pushing sustainable solutions that use renewable energy to improve large-scale, high-carbon activities.
Sustainable Automation: Automation involves reducing the time it takes to complete manual activities in industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. Furthermore, automation is a powerful tool for guiding companies toward long-term sustainability. Building monitoring solutions, which facilitate autonomous systems such as smart thermostats to operate appliances, are an essential use of automation.
The smart electrical strip is another remarkable innovation that stops gadgets from falling into standby mode and turns them off completely instead. This significantly minimizes the amount of energy that gadgets spend when they are not in use. This can cut down on energy consumption in virtually every sector, from residential to industrial.
Energy Consumption Management: The optimization and management of energy usage to decrease energy waste is one of the primary challenges that cleantech addresses. Data centers, for example, consume a lot of energy, but technological advancements are reducing that need.
Modular data centers and liquid cooling are two examples of possible solutions. Liquid cooling is a method of removing surplus heat from the data hall by bringing a liquid coolant straight to the computer processor which inhibits overheating in machinery. Likewise, energy monitoring technologies reduce energy load by automatically controlling the indoor atmosphere in residential and commercial facilities. AI and big data are being used by startups to optimize energy monitoring systems.
Israel is one country pioneering the development of cleantech solutions, sustainability solutions, and climatetech. Climatetech businesses generated around 10% of the $26 billion in funding raised by Israel’s tech sector in 2021, and there is ample evidence to suggest that the industry will continue to grow in importance and size. The country is making a concentrated push to become the go-to center for climate-change-fighting innovation, hoping to compensate for its lack of size with resourcefulness.
One startup focuses on the consumer flexible plastic market, despite the fact that the great majority of these packaging are unfit for recycling and only around 4% of them have been recycled worldwide. This firm has created a variety of patent-protected packaging solutions for industries such as fresh fruit, fresh bread, dry food, and garment packaging, anticipating the significant surge in market demand for biodegradable packaging as a substitute for hard-to-recycle plastics.
Another startup uses superoxide radical technology developed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to remove ultrafine particles, microbiological diseases, and harmful pollutants from the air and convert them to clean air. The breakthroughs of this startup are based on a patented technique created after over a decade of study that helps to stabilize and regulate the superoxide radical, nature’s most potent oxidant. The startup’s air purification, unlike traditional HEPA filters, employs modern chemical science, software, and suitable engineering to effectively eradicate toxic gasses and airborne viruses.
Another startup is on a mission to harvest solar energy in historically unprecedented ways. Their objective is to employ technology and cutting-edge breakthroughs to fuel new energy perspectives and applications. The technology they invented is a revolutionary, perception-challenging notion that converts any surface into an energy source, and it was designed for diversity and adaptability. This technology, which has applications in the automotive, marine, aviation, and other infrastructures, is on its way to providing the world with endless energy.
Cleantech – cleaning up the future with technology
Per the Start-Up Nation Finder, over 650 Israeli technology businesses are working on solutions for climate concerns such as sustainable food production, recycling, afforestation, smart mobility, energy efficiency, and many more. That number will undoubtedly continue to rise as the world shifts to combat the threat of global warming and the depleting fossil fuel supply.
With the help of technology like low-carbon fuels and environmental monitoring, startups are paving the way toward a greener future. Cleantech has the potential to pervade every stage of the value chain, making it critical for a more secure and sustainable economy, both global and domestic.
