Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thomas: Tripling renewables and nuclear cannot meet 2050 global energy demand
“If we could wave a magic wand and triple our output of all of our renewables, And include nuclear in there. Triple all of that. That doesn't get us to 52,000 terawatts. You still need fossil fuel. You still need oil. You still need coal. And in fact, we're goi…”
Opinion
Thomas: California's Charging Infrastructure Cannot Support Its Existing EVs
“California buys a lot of EV vehicles. The local infrastructure doesn't support the cars that are there. It's really hard to charge your car easily.”
Insight
Thomas: EVs Powered by Coal Plants Are Effectively Coal-Fired Cars
“If you are charging your car with energy produced from a coal plant, you've actually got a coal fired car there, right? If you're charging your car from the solar units on top of your house, and you're charging it your own garage, well, then you've got a truly…”
Assertion Contradicted
North Star Clean Energy must double production to meet Michigan energy demand
“Over the next 10 years, they think they're going to need to double their energy production in order to keep up with the growing energy demand of the state of Michigan.”
Assertion Contradicted
Thomas: US landfills are 30% to 40% wood by volume
“US landfills are about 30 to 40% wood by volume.”
Assertion Partly supported
Thomas: Most wooden pallets are discarded as single-use items
“Wood pallets, theoretically, are, Multi-use items. Like you can, you should be able to use a pallet two, three, four times, but the reality is most of the time they're treated as single use items and they end up in the landfills. I mean, literally tens of thou…”
Insight
Thomas: Validated waste and carbon tracking provides core enterprise value
“The other missing piece is Not just actually divert waste, but be able to track it and report it. So you can give a validated report to your client at the end of the project and say, you know, this is how many tens of tons of wood we diverted and how many tons…”
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2050
Thomas: Global energy demand will reach 52,000 terawatts by 2050
“Globally, right now, today, globally, we produce about 27,000 terawatts of energy. By the year, twenty-fifty, in order to meet the growing energy demand, we're gonna need to get to 52,000 terawatts of energy.”
Disclosure
Thomas: Woodchuck throttled multi-year growth plans due to enterprise client pacing
“You think you can move really fast, but when your clients are really large enterprises at some point, your speeds have to come to the same speed. And so startups need to keep that in mind. So as we look at our growth trajectory over the next couple of years, w…”
Insight
Thomas: Small builders lack appetite for meticulous tracking and reporting
“We have also found that those smaller guys or regional guys, they don't have the same appetite for the really meticulous tracking, reporting, and validation of what you're doing. And that's a big part of Woodchuck's differentiation our ability to track all of …”
Assertion Supported
Thomas: North Star Clean Energy lacks biomass feedstock for three Michigan plants
“They have three energy facilities in the state of Michigan that have the potential to burn biomass to produce renewable energy, but they don't have enough biomass right now. So they're forced to use fossil fuels to generate all the electricity that the state o…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Woodchuck diverted 99% of wood waste at an Amazon distribution center
“At the end of the project, we had diverted 99% of their wood, so it was a huge success.”
Insight
Thomas: Manufacturing factories generate massive wood waste from shipping pallets
“Everything that comes to your factory and everything that leaves your factory comes on wooden pallets. So even if you're in the auto industry and everything your construction is made out of metal and plastic you're still generating a massive amount of wood was…”
Disclosure
Northstar Clean Energy was Woodchuck's initial investor and biggest biomass customer
“When we first launched Woodchuck, our initial investor was Northstar Clean Energy, the company that I mentioned. So we launched with an investment directly from Northstar Clean Energy and they immediately became our biggest client, buying all of the biomass th…”
