Interchange Recharged - The 'Climatetech' Hype Cycle: Buy, Sell or Hold?

The 'Climatetech' Hype Cycle: Buy, Sell or Hold?

08/13/20 • 41 min

We’re constantly going through waves of hype in different energy sectors: flexible solar panels, vertical-axis wind, electric planes, vehicle-to-grid, the smart home, blockchain. Some are real, some are not. Some just need to mature.

So what phase are we in now? In this episode, Shayle and Stephen are digging into different sectors and trends at various stages of the climate tech hype cycle.

They’ll decide whether to buy, sell or hold based on the current level of fanfare. In other words, do we think it's overhyped, underhyped or just right?

We’re going to do this for six sectors, some of which came from listeners.

Green hydrogen
Micromobility
Residential battery storage
Direct air capture (tons of people on twitter suggested this one)
Blockchain
Virtual power plants

And here’s Shayle’s climate tech hype cycle chart that we discuss on the show.

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So what phase are we in now? In this episode, Shayle and Stephen are digging into different sectors and trends at various stages of the climate tech hype cycle.

They’ll decide whether to buy, sell or hold based on the current level of fanfare. In other words, do we think it's overhyped, underhyped or just right?

We’re going to do this for six sectors, some of which came from listeners.

Green hydrogen
Micromobility
Residential battery storage
Direct air capture (tons of people on twitter suggested this one)
Blockchain
Virtual power plants

And here’s Shayle’s climate tech hype cycle chart that we discuss on the show.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

The Summer of Battery Storage

We may be facing one of the worst economic downturns in American history, but it hasn’t stopped the surge in battery storage development.

We’re constantly hearing the phrase “world’s largest” or “record breaking” as new gigawatt-scale projects are unveiled weekly.

Small-scale batteries are being attached to more than one-third of residential solar systems for leading installers, making distributed batteries a staple of home energy offerings.

New markets like Texas are heating up. And utilities are putting batteries front-and-center in their 100% clean energy plans.

As a result: we will likely see a 14-fold increase in batteries deployed on the grid in the US over the next five years, according to our analysts at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

With us is the reporter at the front edge of all these developments: Julian Spector, a staff writer at Greentech Media.

Read Julian’s coverage here. And check out his newsletter.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Next Episode

The Wild World of ESG

Before the pandemic, one of the biggest news stories of the year was BlackRock’s decision to make climate risk a central part of its investment strategy. This isn’t your average family office; this is BlackRock, a company with $7 trillion under management.

It brought more mainstream attention to ESG, or environmental, social, governance. ESG is a set of standards for valuing ethical business practices, including decarbonization. Suddenly all kinds of ESG funds focused on sustainability are popping up, worth $1 trillion.

The concept is not new. But activity has ramped way up in the last few years. BlackRock’s splashy climate declaration only ramped it further.

It’s also a world that is not well defined, not well regulated, and still very messy. Will that messiness derail progress in the world of sustainable investing?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.