How AI and Hardware Innovations Are Disrupting Climate Tech

Zac: Zac Padgett here with David Neff to talk a little bit about what we're seeing at South by Southwest, in particular around clean tech, climate tech and energy tech.

David: Looking forward to it. Thanks for having me.

Zac: I understand you've got a lot of experience in the space, and you've been out on the streets this week checking out a lot of events.

David: Yes.

Zac: What's top of mind? What's kind of the buzzwords that are floating around?

David: You know, it's interesting, right? If you break it up by sector, I think the overall theme surprise, surprise for everyone watching this is AI. And not of the AI is replacing you, but just every software you can imagine having AI sprinkled on it. I think the AI stuff is really interesting given there is the potential if things go the way that a lot of people are predicting, for it to have a huge impact on the problem of climate change.

Another I was hearing about is you know, wave power. One of the main issues with wave power is trying to understand where the waves are going to be coming in, what the wind direction is. Lots of challenges, lots of opportunities at the same time.

Zac: Well, maybe we can talk a little bit about what we're seeing among founders and investors.

David: Yeah, I mean, I've probably been to the last ten or so South Bys you know, for people watching this, I do think South by Southwest is what's happening two years from now, three years from now. It's a very future innovative, forward-facing conference. And my hope is a lot of the climate stuff we're seeing, wave energy technology, you know, hey, this is this new material for solar panels. It's lighter. This is the better inverter that has AI in it that's helping you know, with the solar panels, all of that is being talked about right now, built right now. It's probably not yet ready for funding right now, but it's a great time to be like, oh, I need to keep an eye on that.

Zac: One I want to talk about in particular is geothermal. Here I'm hearing a lot this this South by Southwest, about new technologies that would allow us to dig deeper, to potentially pull power in sites you wouldn't think. And this would be you know, clean, renewable power. I mean, have you been hearing anything about that as well?

David: Yeah. I mean, it's definitely the year for it, right? I think one of the ways you can judge popularity of events is, is there a house about it? Right? Here in Austin you know, we have Rainy Street and a lot of the bars and restaurants get rented out for these houses. And the same with our downtown district for those of folks watching at home in Austin, get rented for these big events, which is great for them.

And for the first year ever there was a geothermal house. And I was on another panel earlier in South by Southwest, and they talked about a startup called Thunderstone, and Thunderstone's creating underground lightning to simulate fracking, to get access to those hot rocks, as you put it. Right.

Zac: Underground lightning.

David: Yeah, I know.

Zac: That's the title of my new album. And thinking back a few years, I think, you know, the hydrogen economy was something that people were very, very excited about. So, you know, when I think about geothermal, I think it has the similar story arc.

David: What do I worry about in that particular is hydrogen is constantly stuck in a hype cycle. I worry about geothermal falling into that of like it's the new bright shiny object. It's super interesting. I hope it's like, no, this makes sense. We're going to build one. We're going to try it. We're going to go for it, right? Texas is going to be a fantastic place for geothermal.

Zac: Well, I think you're right that Texas is a good place to try some of these experiments because it's been a great place for wind and solar.

David: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the beauty of Houston and Austin and I think Dallas is coming around to it as well, is funding and funds that think about climate, funds that actually put dollars into climate, and don’t just talk about it. I've judged a couple of competitions at the University of Texas here in Austin, not just on startups, but on climate startups and a 22-year-old with the next big idea for a climate startup as an undergraduate is just blows me away.

And so to me, that's also very exhilarating and makes me very happy and proud for the next generation. That a climate entrepreneur could be the next trillion-dollar business 20 years from now. Who's at one of those schools right now. Right? Or not even at a university, right, just has the great idea and is going to go solve it.

I would add, and you and I have been talking a lot about hardware. Right. And there's so much other room in material science. There's a lot of super interesting material science companies out there that are solving climate and thinking about climate. And then the other category is software. If you're building the next generation of climate software, I think Austin's a fantastic place with a lot of talent and a lot of people behind that, too.

Zac: Well, thank you so much, David, for your time.

David: Of course. Thank you for having me.

Zac: All right. Cheers.