Keeping homes and offices at the right temperature requires a lot of energy. Buildings generate about one-third of US carbon pollution, most of which comes from heating and cooling.
Fundamental base energy, co-founded by Jocelyn Lai, believes it has found at least a partial solution. The startup seeks to free up climate control by installing geothermal heat pumps. Today, it’s focused on large commercial buildings, but the basic technology could drive almost any HVAC system.
Lai appeared on TechCrunch’s Found to discuss her company and its hopes to lower the cost of a proven technology to address the climate crisis.
Bedrock’s early adopters included companies such as real estate companies with net zero goals, Lai said. In the Northeast, the company is working with Con Ed to help reduce energy demand. The company drills up to 2,000 feet below the Earth’s surface to tap into temperatures that consistently hover around 75 to 85 degrees F. In the future, it could expand to serve residential customers as well.
Lai decided to help launch Bedrock in 2020 because she believed there was an increased need for sustainability startups geared toward de-carbonization.
“Geothermal heating and cooling has been around for a long time,” he said. “The fact that this technology is about scaling something that’s so cool and so efficient and so beneficial to society, and there’s really no risk to whether it works or not — it’s just how we build technology that makes it more accessible to more buildings, more affordable, more available for many building owners.”
Raising money was easy for Bedrock, in part because there remains a steady interest in climate technology, Lai said. Last October, TechCrunch reported that the company had raised an $8.5 million round.
In the podcast, Lai also recalled the highs and lows of being a first-time founder, learning about the importance of hiring the best talent, investing in good software, and building a strong engineering team. Its first hires were from the oil and gas industry, who were able to bring underground energy modeling expertise to the company. There have been key additions to the team, and their move into climate technology shows how talent from existing industries can help drive decarbonization in the US and around the world.
