Currently building Rivan, a synthetic fuel company, to provide the UK with a reliable source of decarbonised energy. I wrote this manifesto on exactly how I intend on doing it. TLDR — the plan is:

• Most things will be electrified that don’t either have an energy-density requirement (e.g. long-haul aviation) or a molecular requirement (e.g. chemicals, plastics, paints). These industries emit roughly 12 Gt CO₂ per year and have very little alternatives, as you can't easily add a battery/renewables.
• To capture gigatonnes of carbon from those industries you need to create a valuable end-product from the captured carbon (e.g. synthetic hydrocarbons), because carbon credits don’t scale in the limit nor benefit from learning rates that drive prices down over time.
• Producing those hydrocarbons cheaper than drilling them from the ground is a thermodynamic challenge — which means an energy-cost challenge. To do so you must
  (1) use the cheapest energy on earth (solar), and
  (2) vertically integrate all manufacturing to use more of that energy and capture the learning-rate of solar.
• Once generated, you can back-distribute those fuels (starting with synthetic natural gas) into the gas grid all over Europe as a drop-in replacement for traditional heavy machinery and processes.
• Each day you can drive down the marginal cost of production until, at some point, it’s more profitable to mine the sky than drill the ground; the net excess of atmospheric CO₂ is halted and the world can survive.

Previously built two software companies to exit and used the proceeds to fund the first steps of Rivan. Interested in learning new things, off-grid living, building company cultures, the Innovator’s Dilemma, and behavioural science. Email me at harvey@rivan.com.