Sector Insights

Food Safety: From Problems to Opportunities

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Anyone growing, selling or eating food in the US could not have missed what seems like a growing number of recent pathogen outbreaks. There have been two outbreaks of E. coli in romaine lettuce. A cyclosporiasis outbreak was linked back to a McDonald’s restaurant. A badly timed salmonella outbreak affected Thanksgiving turkey products while another salmonella outbreak in ground beef led to the largest food recall in US history as over 12 million pounds were recalled before Christmas. However, despite... Read More »

China and Cleantech in 2019: The Innovation Ecosystem and Paths to Market Entrance

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
Our recent Next-Gen Energy & Cross-Border Innovation Summit in Nanjing looked at cleantech investment trends, market dynamics and commercialization opportunities in China. This was our ninth event in China and a focal point of our efforts to guide and connect western innovation companies to Chinese partners and customers. Here, you’ll find insights into power, energy and mobility, as well as pointers on market entrance from the summit. China's cleantech lay of the land China’s market potential is perhaps the biggest... Read More »

The Role of Green Hydrogen in Global Decarbonization

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
There are over 60 million tons of hydrogen produced annually, worth almost $100 billion dollars. Today, 80% of the hydrogen we produce is for three main industries: refineries, ammonia production or metal processing. Hydrogen also has the potential to be used as fuel for power and transportation. It generates zero emissions at point of use and can be produced from low-carbon electricity or from carbon-abated fossil fuels. The annual demand for hydrogen could increase tenfold by 2050 – from 8 EJ... Read More »

Data Abundance – Opportunities in Planet Management

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Author’s note: In January 2019, I will be moderating a panel on the topic of space-based data utilization at the Cleantech Forum San Francisco. In this blog, we look at market dynamics in this segment and highlight some of the innovators who will be joining us in January to discuss these topics in more detail. I hope you will be joining us too! Modern satellites and sensors are capturing huge amounts of data – around 2.5 billion gigabytes per day.... Read More »

Fixing Food Waste with Packaging Innovation

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Only two-thirds of food grown makes it to the consumer, at which point up to half of what’s left goes to waste. Innovation in food packaging is an effective way to tackle food waste, as extending shelf life of a product reduces waste throughout the supply chain. We spoke to two innovative companies to understand more about the market: Apeel Sciences and Food Freshness Technology. We discovered that there are three significant drivers for innovation in packaging. The first is reducing... Read More »

Portfolio Management of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Assets – From underperformance to maximum value

Rob Andrews
Posted on by Rob Andrews
Like all stakeholders in large-scale industries, the actors within the solar market are susceptible to operation and maintenance costs that result from system underperformance, downtime or asset degradation. When a solar asset operates suboptimally, it can have repercussions from both cost and energy yield standpoints. Across many of the industries we cover, we see more innovators trying to capture the true potential of assets through new enabling technologies that address asset underperformance. One of these players within our network is... Read More »

Blockchain in Energy & Mobility: A report from the scale-up frontlines

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Last month, we held our second executive summit on blockchain in New York. Like last year, leading corporate executives gathered to meet some of the most promising innovators in the space. But the state of play has changed radically over the year, and so has the mood. Last November was full of hype, in the middle of the peak ICO wave. 2018 had a crisp “rubber hits the road” flavor. This was echoed in the rich content planned for the... Read More »

Battery Technology Show Recap: Emerging Battery Technology

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
Contributions from: Pirmin Ulmann, co-founder and CEO at b-science.net Last month, I was fortunate enough moderate a session at the Battery Technology Show in London. Here are takeaways from that session as well as some additional insight from our own research. Delegates from across the battery industrial supply chain participated in discussions around the technologies and business model innovations that could disrupt their markets in the next few years. Speakers included topic experts like Billy Wu, a senior lecturer at... Read More »

What’s New at the Big 3? A Look at the Innovation of Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva, and Syngenta-ChemChina

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
We have been speaking to innovation teams from the Big 3 players in plant science, Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva (DowDupont's agricultural business), and Syngenta-ChemChina, to gain insight into their approaches to engaging innovation, how this is changing with the mergers, and where else in the ecosystem they scan for agtech inspiration. Bayer-Monsanto Bayer Growth Ventures will incorporate approaches from both organizations' previous efforts to expand into new areas. Bayer previously focused on collaborations and partnerships, exemplified best by Joyn Bioworks, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks. Monsanto has a traditional... Read More »

Building The Pipeline: Corporate Engagement with Industrial Water Innovation

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Earth may be the blue planet, but both growing population and climate change are creating freshwater scarcity in many geographies. Industrial activities come second only to agriculture in the use of water resources, responsible for 16% of global freshwater withdrawals. Industrial wastewater volumes are predicted to double by 2025, and there is increasingly strict regulation regarding treatment and reuse. This should create incentives for technologies and services, but changes to create or capture this value have been slow. The expertise... Read More »