One of the biggest challenges with technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is that they require mass adoption. Solar radiation management (SRM) has the opposite problem.
By Stardust Solutions’ estimate, dispersing three million tons of reflective particles into the stratosphere could cool the planet by 1.5 degrees celsius for the relatively small price of $30 billion; that’s less than the cost of a single hyperscale data center.
Despite mainstream concerns about such an endeavor, the company is building a proprietary particle injection system with the goal of being deployment-ready this decade. While Stardust says they won’t deploy without the explicit authorization of multiple governments, questions remain around the safety and ethics of SRM.
In this episode, Shayle sits down with Yanai Yedvab, CEO and co-founder of Stardust, to unpack how the technology works, its potential risks, and when to deploy it. They consider why Stardust is eschewing sulfur dioxide in favor of naturally occurring, biodegradable amorphous silica and calcite particles and dig into the company’s tracking and testing technology. They also discuss how the company considers the possibility that solar geoengineering will reduce the economic incentive to decarbonize heavy industries, and explore the sorts of regulations and guardrails necessary to make it work.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Catalyst and solar geoengineering
02:21 Explaining the technology behind Stardust’s shielding layer
03:33 Moving beyond sulfur as the preferred shielding particle
04:43 Unpacking Stardust’s naturally occurring particles
05:55 Comparing particle effectiveness & the core-shell alternative
11:37 Multi-location injection and the strategic “clinical trial” approach
15:37 Addressing potential environmental and climatic risks
24:00 Breaking down the cost of deployment
26:19 The global governance mandate
33:07 Navigating the moral hazard of solar geoengineering
Sponsors:
This episode of Catalyst is brought to you by ENGIE, the smarter energy supplier. ENGIE doesn’t just provide the power to run your business — they supply the energy to move it forward, with reliable, flexible solutions built for what’s next. Learn more at engieresources.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 170 utilities to coordinate 2.5 million devices and 3.4 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at EnergyHub.com.
Catalyst is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy fuel cells deliver affordable, ultra-reliable onsite power for hospitals, utilities, and data centers – at speed and at scale. Learn more by visiting BloomEnergy.com.
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