Benjamin Wolkon’s Post

Let's go Aepnus Technology!!! Making battery manufacturing cleaner, safer, and more cost effective. Congratulations Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum, Ph.D. and team. Check out the article in TechCrunch.

"Advanced computing is starting to serve utilities..." As the rise of AI is contributing to a near-doubling of five-year energy load forecasts (from 2.6% to 4.7% growth), AI is also at the core of some of the innovation to solve the biggest problems in climate and energy. A couple of weeks ago I was in a room of investors who were asked if it's "too early" to be investing at the nexus of AI and climate. I was surprised to even hear the question, because we've been doing it for years. This article from Utility Dive highlights three companies in which MUUS Climate Partners was an early investor: - BrightNight, which created an advanced simulation tool to optimize the design and operations of clean energy projects; - Amperon, which has built the world's most accurate energy demand forecasting system; - Utilidata, which has partnered with NVIDIA to deliver the first distribution system AI platform. If you're interested in the AI-climate nexus (and not just the buzzwords, but the actual solutions being built and deployed), this article might be of interest. https://lnkd.in/evkkY4nX

Looking forward to speaking with family offices at the Institutional Investor symposium about why sustainability is a winning investment strategy, if you know the right places to look!

Sometimes I feel compelled to public transit post. Those times are usually when I’m traveling during rush hour from my office to JFK, and it costs me under $20 and takes about 50 minutes door to door. My preferred route is Subway to Penn Station - LIRR - Airtrain. It’s about the same cost and time from anywhere in midtown or lower Manhattan. As you can see from the picture, had I taken an Uber instead, it would have cost over $130 (6.5x) and taken an hour and 20 minutes (>1.5x). But so many people I know, especially business travelers who are expensing their travel, still opt for the car. Taking public transit reduces traffic and emissions, and has a positive feedback loop of creating the case for more funding to improve public transit. In most US cities, transit sucks. New York is one of the few with a decent system, though that’s just by US standards. It’s nothing compared to Switzerland or Japan, where traveling by train is even faster compared to cars, and often a high quality travel experience similar to business class flying. But New York has good enough transit that using it is often the fastest way to get where you’re going. Great to remember next time you’re thinking about getting that car to the airport.

Now that’s some good in-flight entertainment! Nice to see Steve Wolf on the Today Show this morning, talking about the technology that Team Wildfire built to combat wildfires. MUUS Climate Partners invested in Team Wildfire last year. Wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, and, unfortunately, they also accelerate climate change due to the deforestation and emissions released in combustion. Team Wildfire is building products to reduce the severity of these fires, using jet engine technology to spray water and fire suppressant hyper-efficiently and at ultra-high speeds, while controlling microclimate conditions such as wind. Deserving of the national coverage it received today!