Keeping your home or office at the right temperature requires a lot of energy. Approximately one-third of the carbon pollution in the United States comes from buildings, mostly from heating and cooling.
Bedrock Energy, co-founded by Jocelyn Lai, believes it has found at least a partial solution. The startup aims to decarbonize climate control by installing geothermal heating pumps. Although currently focused on large commercial buildings, the core technology could potentially power almost any HVAC system.
Lai appeared on TechCrunch's Found to talk about her company and its hope to reduce the cost of proven technologies that address the climate crisis.
Bedrock's early users included real estate companies with net-zero goals, Lai said. In the Northeast, the company is working with his Con Ed to reduce electricity demand. The company drills up to 2,000 feet below the surface to take advantage of temperatures that consistently hover around 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. In the future, we may expand to serve residential customers as well.
Lai decided to help launch Bedrock in 2020, believing there was a growing need for decarbonization-oriented sustainability startups.
“Geothermal heating and cooling has been around for a very long time,” she said. “This technology is an extension of something that's very cool, very efficient, and very beneficial to society, and there's no real risk to whether it works or not, and the important thing is to say, 'We can make it better. It’s just a matter of how do we build the technology to make it effective?’” It will be accessible in more buildings, more affordable, and available to more building owners. ”
Rai said funding was easy for Bedrock in part because interest in climate technology remains strong. Last October, TechCrunch reported that the company had raised $8.5 million in a seed round.
In the podcast, Lai also recalled the ups and downs he learned as a first-time founder about the importance of hiring the best talent, investing in great software, and building a strong engineering team. Her first employer was from the oil and gas industry, allowing her to bring expertise in underground energy modeling to the company. They are important additions to our team, and their transition into climate technology demonstrates how existing industry talent can help advance decarbonization in the United States and around the world.