Ep 38 | Sebastian Heitmann
Sebastian Heitmann: “Gigacorns”
On this episode, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Sebastian Heitmann discusses his work in tech innovation towards more sustainable futures. Technology will inherently be a part of any human future – the question is what will this technology be? Sebastian’s work focuses on finding what is termed ‘Gigacorns’ – scalable inventions for low(er) carbon futures. If successful, this could result in large scale reductions in the CO2 emissions for global society.
About Sebastian Heitmann
Sebastian Heitmann is a partner at Extantia Capital, a platform to invest in breakthrough technology solutions that address climate crisis mitigation and adaptation. The €300M platform includes Extantia Flagship, backing scalable deep decarbonisation companies, Extantia Allstars, partnering with mission-aligned climate tech venture capital fund managers, and Extantia Ignite, a sustainability hub advancing knowledge and competence in climate innovation and ESG practices.
Sebastian is an entrepreneur and has worked in a range of different industries, from sports to community building to software. He received his education from the Harvard Business School and now lives in Berlin, Germany.
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
Download transcript00:36 – Sebastian’s info
05:18 – Joern-Carlos Kuntze, Yair Reem
06:30 – Gigacorn
07:35 – The world emits 50 gigatons of carbon/year
09:28 – Fusion reactors
12:25 – Greenwashing
12:38 – Professor Pomponi
12:59 – EPIC methodologie
15:28 – We have overconsumed over the last few decades
15:48 – Science has told us about the climate crisis for a very long time
17:10 – Energy shortages in Germany, businesses closing because they can’t afford prices
19:52 – Why baked goods are different in Germany than anywhere else in the world
20:34 – Energy Caps in the UK
21:02 – Subsidy system currently in place for energy in Germany
22:07 – Storage are fuller than expected, and imports are better than expected
22:28 – Russian gas imports currently at 0
22:55 – Energy Blind
23:35 – US investing to become energy independent (85%)
24:04 – UK energy security policies
24:48 – Baseload properties
24:58 – German renewable energy policies in the 1990s
25:11 – German reunification
26:08 – US sanction on Germany for Nord Stream 2
27:30 – We need energy at every part of our economies
28:58 – Germany firing up coal again
29:17 – Carbon and wealth are highly correlated
29:36 – Green growth
30:31 – Migration crisis after 2015 war in Syria
31:26 – Uniper nationalization
32:24 – Norway energy policy
33:13 – Pros and cons of nationalized companies
33:39 – 80% Depletion of fracking wells
34:01 – Inflation Reduction Act
34:28 – Europe will never be able to produce its own hydrogen
35:35 – We are a growing population, and in overshoot
36:17 – Educated women have fewer children than non-educated
36:29 – Educate Girls Globally
37:03 – Intergenerational effect of educating women
37:45 – Americans consume disproportionately more
39:15 – We’ve invested 3 trillion into the build out of wind and solar, and have 5% of our energy from them
40:14 – Wind and solar are acting as additions currently, rather than transitions
40:45 – Hydroelectric has been largely built but is at the end of its capacity
41:50 – Geothermal
42:01 – 0.1% of planetary energy would supply humanity for 2 million years
42:33 – Potential for new generations of nuclear and uranium
43:41 – Our current system’s only goal is growth
44:15 – Jevons paradox
44:30 – Kardashev Scale
47:13 – Geothermal vs deep geothermal
47:30 – Crystalline hard rock geothermal
48:13 – A lot of uranium and gold lives in sea water – but its impractical to extract
49:04 – Houston, US the center of development on geothermal
51:15 – Geothermal is most accessible near tectonic plate boundaries
52:02 – Iceland has an abundance of energy
58:01 – Supercritical water
1:02:50 – US government R&D plan to reduce costs of geothermal
1:06:22 – You could retrofit coal power plants with geothermal
1:09:38 – Contactless drilling technologies
1:11:57 – Ineratec
1:13:18 – Circular hydrocarbons
1:14:37 – Green hydrogen vs gray hydrogen
1:20:55 – Challenges to geothermal
1:25:52 – Nate’s short videos
1:29:02 – Less prevalence of climate denial now
