On the Limits of Technology

One of the things I love about the climate tech space is how physical it is. It requires manufacturing solar panels, contractors swinging hammers, and tangible building in the real world.

We’re at the dawn of a new industrial revolution to decarbonize the global economy that could represent as big a shift as the last industrial revolution. But for this to be true, it will require us to get good at something we’re not good at: building things.

The technologies to tackle climate change will be available far faster than our ability to implement them. Fewer than one in five solar and wind projects actually gets connected to the electricity grid. We’re lacking hundreds of thousands of workers needed to power the energy transition.

The aperture of what’s possible will be circumscribed by the permitting process of local agencies, by the time it takes to train new workers, by the on-the-ground realities that challenge the Silicon Valley theology of infinite growth at infinite speed.