Belated Earth Day Reflections

It rained at our house on Earth Day this year. It was nice to see that the Earth remembers how to do that.

True, it makes no real difference to the long, severe drought that continues here and throughout California, but still - it brings back memories of more normal climate days.

I spent much of April traveling for the first time(s) in almost a year, meeting with amazing fellow entrepreneurs pouring their blood and sweat and time and fortunes and hearts and souls into startups that are moving the dial on our climate crisis. In Denver, NREL organized its outstanding Industry Growth Forum as an in-person event for the first time since 2019, and brought together startups, venture capitalists, strategic investors, and government experts in a rich stew of expertise in energy, agriculture, materials science, and more.

The Grid Forward conference in Seattle focused more tightly on the Energy Transition than NREL's event, and featured a "pitch contest" for similarly focused startups. Maybe my favorite event of the month, though, was the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA) conference in Baltimore, where you might not expect the most innovative crowd - but you'd be mistaken. This organization of demand response practitioners from utilities, vendors, and industry consultants has turned into a hotbed of startup activity.

The passion and progress of the hundred or more climate-focused entrepreneurs I met this month make me hopeful that we may yet see more beautiful rainy April mornings in coming years. Happy (belated) Earth Day.