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Ep 38  |  Sebastian Heitmann

Sebastian Heitmann: “Gigacorns”

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Sebastian Heitmann The Great Simplification

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.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:36 – Sebastian’s info

05:18Joern-Carlos Kuntze, Yair Reem

06:30Gigacorn

07:35The world emits 50 gigatons of carbon/year

09:28Fusion reactors

12:25Greenwashing

12:38 Professor Pomponi

12:59EPIC methodologie

15:28We have overconsumed over the last few decades

15:48Science has told us about the climate crisis for a very long time

17:10Energy shortages in Germany, businesses closing because they can’t afford prices

19:52Why baked goods are different in Germany than anywhere else in the world

20:34Energy Caps in the UK

21:02Subsidy system currently in place for energy in Germany

22:07Storage are fuller than expected, and imports are better than expected

22:28 Russian gas imports currently at 0

22:55Energy Blind

23:35US investing to become energy independent (85%)

24:04UK energy security policies

24:48 Baseload properties

24:58German renewable energy policies in the 1990s

25:11German reunification

26:08 US sanction on Germany for Nord Stream 2

27:30 We need energy at every part of our economies

28:58Germany firing up coal again

29:17 Carbon and wealth are highly correlated

29:36Green growth

30:31 Migration crisis after 2015 war in Syria

31:26Uniper nationalization

32:24Norway energy policy

33:13Pros and cons of nationalized companies

33:3980% Depletion of fracking wells

34:01 Inflation Reduction Act

34:28 Europe will never be able to produce its own hydrogen

35:35We are a growing population, and in overshoot

36:17Educated 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

41:50Geothermal

42:010.1% of planetary energy would supply humanity for 2 million years

42:33Potential for new generations of nuclear and uranium

43:41 Our current system’s only goal is growth

44:15 Jevons paradox

44:30Kardashev Scale

47:13 Geothermal vs deep geothermal

47:30Crystalline hard rock geothermal

48:13A lot of uranium and gold lives in sea water – but its impractical to extract

49:04Houston, US the center of development on geothermal

51:15Geothermal is most accessible near tectonic plate boundaries

52:02 Iceland has an abundance of energy

58:01Supercritical water

1:02:50US government R&D plan to reduce costs of geothermal

1:06:22You could retrofit coal power plants with geothermal

1:09:38 Contactless drilling technologies

1:11:57Ineratec

1:13:18Circular hydrocarbons

1:14:37Green hydrogen vs gray hydrogen

1:20:55Challenges to geothermal

1:25:52Nate’s short videos

1:29:02 Less prevalence of climate denial now

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