Pique Behind the Curtain Vol. 41

How One Startup is Making Batteries Last Longer

Hi there! Welcome back to our weekly newsletter, Pique Behind the Curtain. If you’ve come in search of climate content, new film features, and all-around positive vibes, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re enjoying this, don’t just keep it all for yourself. Please share it with a friend!

New Release: Coreshell

Long gone are the days of arguing over whether renewable energy is necessary, cost-effective, or scalable. It’s all three.

Solar energy is now at a point where it's the lowest cost form of new energy in the world. However, we also need massive batteries for our electric grid. Electric vehicles should be substantially cheaper than combustion engine vehicles due to their fewer parts and lower maintenance requirements. The problem is in the cost of the battery.

Coreshell can increase a battery’s capacity by 25% or more and still maintain its lifetime. It’s like supercharging storage. By unlocking the highest capacity and lowest cost potential of batteries, this startup is helping to speed up the clean energy transition so that energy solutions can be accessed across the globe in an equitable, cost-effective manner.

Watch the full film here.

Climate Success: The End of a Fuel Car-tastrophy

Leaded gasoline is a no-no. It’s bad, and we’ve known about it for a long time.

In 1921, researchers at General Motors (ever heard of them?) found that adding a compound called tetraethyl lead to gasoline could significantly improve its efficiency. We still use additives today to give gasoline a boost. Ethanol, for example, is a much safer modern-day compound. But at the time, lead was rapidly becoming the standard.

Thankfully, people already knew that lead was toxic.

There was ensuing concern about the risk to workers and individuals exposed to the lead additive, but representatives working for auto industry claimed the public would be unaffected by leaded gasoline.

Which turned out to be - you guessed it - wrong! Children are vulnerable to minuscule amounts of lead exposure. Data has shown that the use of leaded gasoline actually correlates to lower IQs and high rates of crime - not to mention heart disease, cancer, and its obvious environmental effects like air, water, and soil contamination.

But just recently the last stockpile of leaded gasoline located in Algeria, according to the U.N. Environment Programme, was used up. This follows a decades-long campaign for the improvement of clean fuels and vehicles, globally. The U.N. estimates that the phaseout of toxic fuel around the world has saved $2.44 trillion per year in health care costs and lessened criminal activity, as well as prevented 1.2 million premature deaths.

If you’re wondering when the last time you inhaled a lung full of lead was, don’t be too concerned. The United States started to phase out leaded gasoline in 1973 with the enactment of the Clean Air Act, which helped raise a cleaner generation of cars and fight smog. By the mid-80s, most types of gasoline in the U.S. were unleaded and today leaded fuels can only be used in aircraft and off-road vehicles.

A century after the compound was developed, leaded gasoline is, thankfully, largely irrelevant. But the fight for cleaner vehicles continues. Progress is not a straight line, but rather a windy road. Wouldn’t it be nice to drive down it emissions-free?

Watch our TikTok on how we phased out this polluting fuel here.

Good Climate News!

This week in good climate news 🌍:

All Algae, All the Time.

Researchers Harness Algae to ‘Grow’ Construction Cement

There are thousands of different kinds of algae that grow on our planet. They come in all types of colors and forms and can be found in our oceans, but also in more remote regions of snow and ice. Algae requires very little to grow, simply needing water, sunlight, carbon, and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. When they do grow, their photosynthetic nature allows them to draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It’s why scientists focused on sustainability are using the natural resource for all kinds of exciting applications like biofuels and bioproducts that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, algae is also being used in the nutrition industry as a source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, in makeup, in sustainable animal feed - even as a thickening ingredient for pastries, ice cream, and other desserts. Where else might this mighty material be used, you may ask? Look no further than the ground you’re walking on. (If you’re walking on cement, that is. If not, please pretend for the purpose of my punchline.)

The DOE recently backed research developing algae-based cement, investing $3.2 million for scaling up the cultivation of the coccolithophores species used in production.

Concrete causes between 4 and 8% of global CO2 emissions by trapping heat and pollution in the atmosphere of cities. In addition to helping prevent the climate warming that’s led to increased drought and wildfires, the carbon-neutral concrete out of CU can improve the urban heat island effect by producing whiter cement that absorbs less heat.

Also, the researchers claim that concrete-dominated urban areas would look less gray as a result of the new cement being lighter in color and more reflective. We don’t have a picture, but we’ll take their pretty word for it.

Concrete is one of the most abundant materials on the planet and a sustainable alternative would have a substantial impact on helping both industries and countries meet their emissions targets. The federal funding awarded this month to the CU Boulder engineer team will help launch the idea to scale and get us there. All hail algae!

What We’re Watching, Reading, and Listening to

Searching for more positive climate content? Look no further!

• The Crowdfunded Personal Wind Turbine that Sold Out in 5 Days - Freethink

• Why Being ‘Environmentally Friendly’ Is a Scam - AsapSCIENCE

• In a Twist, Old Coal Plants Help Deliver Renewable Power - NYT

• What is Climate Equity? - VonWong