X, the moonshot factory

“I’m motivated to leave my children and future generations with a planet that does not depend on energy derived from fossil fuels. That’s what will allow them to improve their quality of life.” Roger Mellado is a grid planner with Chile’s Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional (CEN). Tapestry, X’s moonshot for the electric grid, is partnering with Roger and his team as they develop first-of-its-kind technology that will help Chile reach its ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Before planners can make critical energy infrastructure decisions like decommissioning a coal plant, they must ensure the grid can operate safely and reliably with renewable energy sources instead. “We must examine the performance and behavior of each available resource across the country, incorporate it into a model, and propose transmission infrastructure in advance,” explains CEN grid planner. “We need Tapestry’s help to speed up that process.” In partnership with CEN, Tapestry’s grid planning tool has made it possible for planners like Roger to run simulations 86 percent faster than their current system, and run 30 scenarios simultaneously instead of one at a time. This week, their work was recognized by Fast Company among other groundbreaking sustainability initiatives tackling some of humanity’s biggest challenges. Learn more about Roger and how Tapestry has helped transform his work.

Tapestry was recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards for their partnership with Chile’s Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional (CEN)! Chile has some of the most ambitious clean energy goals in the world, aiming to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050. Tapestry, X’s moonshot for the electric grid, is working with CEN to help make that intention a reality. Read more about our work with CEN:  https://lnkd.in/d4MQUk_b #FCWorldChangingIdeas

Taara’s collaboration in Ghana with Kiva and Teledata ICT was a finalist in this year’s Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards! The Taara team is working with Kiva and Teledata to help small business owners in Ghana transform their storefronts into Wi-Fi hotspots and expand connectivity to homes. Taara, X’s moonshot for connectivity, is a new way to deliver fast, affordable internet to communities using beams of light. We’re honored to be recognized in the Developing World Technology category.  https://lnkd.in/dN9iGav5 #FCWorldChangingIdeas

“The demands of society have shifted, but the grid’s infrastructure remains the same as its inception. To us, this is a beautiful moonshot opportunity.” Last month, Tapestry’s Page Crahan sat down with BloombergNEF to share more about X’s moonshot for the electric grid and how her team is developing AI-powered technology to help accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy. Their conversation explored how Tapestry is building tools for the grid of the future, and the challenges and opportunities the team faces as they partner with experts around the world. Watch their conversation or read about it in Page’s recent post: https://lnkd.in/g_jvnDQJ

“X this week officially unveiled Project Bellwether, its latest bid to apply technology to some of our biggest problems. Here that means using AI tools to identify natural disasters like wildfire and flooding as quickly as possible. If implemented correctly, this could be a gamechanger for first responders.” TechCrunch on the launch of Project Bellwether, X’s moonshot for understanding and anticipating changes on our planet. Bellwether aims to be a prediction engine for the earth and everything on it. The team is using AI and geospatial data to help communities and organizations understand risk and prepare for natural disasters. In partnership with the Army National Guard, the team is building geospatial image-matching tools to help first responders identify critical infrastructure so they can deliver help to people faster in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Brian Heater reports: https://lnkd.in/djFRm5_7

The theme for this year’s Earth Day is “Planet vs. Plastics,” an important reminder of the growing environmental crisis around plastic waste and its potential toll on societies and ecosystems around the world. My team at X, the moonshot factory is focused on developing technology to radically reduce global waste, starting with plastics. As someone who’s spent their entire career working on sustainable materials, I’ve experienced the problem firsthand from all facets—but I’ve also learned about potential solutions for addressing it, no matter how closely tied you are to the climate industry. In honor of Earth Day, I’ve reflected on my journey into the plastics space and how others can get involved. #circulareconomy #planetvsplastics #recycling #googlesustainability #xthemoonshotfactory #earthday2024

Today marks Earth Day 2024. The theme, “planets vs. plastics,” resonates closely: I spent the earliest days of my career as a commercial fisherman and saw firsthand how plastic pollution destroys our oceans and beaches. As someone who’s been living and breathing the plastics challenge for nearly two decades, today is not different from any other for me. In honor of Earth Day, I’ve reflected on my journey and the work I’m currently doing at X, the moonshot factory to help tackle this global problem:

After a natural disaster strikes, every second matters. As extreme weather events like fires and floods grow more common, X Project Bellwether has been exploring how AI and geospatial data can be used to help communities understand risk and prepare for natural disasters. In partnership with the Army National Guard and Civil Air Patrol, Bellwether has developed a geospatial image-matching tool to help first responders identify critical infrastructure following extreme weather or natural disasters so they can deliver help more quickly. Bellwether uses machine learning to analyze aerial imagery of disaster scenes within seconds, identify impacted infrastructure, and create labeled maps in order to inform the National Guard’s response. Learn more about the partnership: https://lnkd.in/gzXzhFKW

 🌍 "Hello, world!"  Introducing Bellwether, X’s moonshot for understanding and anticipating changes across our planet. As extreme weather events like fires and floods grow more common, Bellwether is developing a prediction engine for Earth and everything on it. For the last few years, the team has been exploring how AI and geospatial data can be used to help communities understand risk and prepare for natural disasters. In partnership with the National Guard and Civil Air Patrol, Bellwether has developed a geospatial image-matching tool to help first responders identify critical infrastructure following extreme weather or natural disasters so they can deliver help more quickly. Bellwether is also developing a wildfire prediction tool to calculate fire risk for landscapes and structures up to five years into the future. The tool estimates the likelihood of wildfire at any location by analyzing petabytes of historical data about the environment in combination with thousands of risk drivers like tree species and wind qualities. It’s still early days for Bellwether, and these tools are currently only available to select partners. Long term, the team aims to help governments, businesses, and homeowners everywhere better understand and reduce climate risks. Learn more about Bellwether’s technology and mission: https://lnkd.in/gzRWW7Jk

“There’s an element of fun in all this, when you become engaged in problems that you feel are important.” Science magazine The Brilliant profiled Raj B Apte, who helped create several moonshots during his time at X, including devising a long-duration clean energy storage solution in molten salt—a project that eventually grew into an independent company, Malta Inc Raj reflected on the path that brought him to X and the thinking that led him to invent word-changing technologies along the way, such as the digital X-ray and the thumbprint scanner used in most mobile phones. He described why the most effective teams at X are made up of people who are “absolutely in love with the problem,” and how he was intrigued by the challenge of building the underlying technology for Malta because it was “completely implausible, but doesn’t actually violate the laws of physics.” Read the full article to learn why Raj finds existential joy in going after hard things, what he views as the biggest impediment to creating radical change, and his latest pursuit: revolutionizing electronics in a post-Moore’s Law world. https://lnkd.in/gDu5qG3y