BRB w/ Nathan P - Heat Pumps, Ricotta Zucchini Tart & Finding the Mother Tree
Decarbonizing homes, the perfect creamy Spring tart, and how trees communicate with their seedlings (#14).
Hi all,
Welcome back to BRB w/ Nathan P - a weekly newsletter featuring 💥1 Breakthrough, 🥘1 Recipe, and 📚1 Book on food & climate.
Before we get started, here are some highlights of food & climate in the news this week:
As Projects Decline, the Era of Building Big Dams Draws to a Close (Yale Environment 360). Dams now restrict the flow of 2/3 of the world’s river systems.
Biden’s new vehicle emissions rules could speed the EV revolution (Grist)
Carbon dioxide removal: the tech that is polarising climate science | Carbon capture and storage (CCS) (The Guardian). Saudi Arabia insisted on including carbon capture as a key climate technology in the latest IPCC report - essentially permitting further CO2 emissions.
💥 Breakthrough: Heat Pumps
Summer in NYC is unimaginable without AC. As developing countries get wealthier, the demand for AC will increase, too. By 2050, we could be needing another United States’ worth of electricity demand for AC alone.
Heat pumps are everywhere, from fridges to AC units and cars. Whether you are a consumer, an investor, or an entrepreneur, here’s what you need to know about heat pumps.
In the US, 40% of homes’ carbon emissions are linked to heating or cooling. Many homes still rely on fossil fuels, so efficient electric heat pumps are a key technology to electrify and decarbonize homes.
Heat pumps can be used both for cooling and heating, reversibly in the same unit. They rely on a neat thermodynamic trick: it takes less energy to move heat than to create heat.
Be prepared for some technical lingo — it won’t bite, just bear with me.
Heat pumps rely on a process called a vapor compression cycle. A heat pump contains a refrigerant gas inside, which is compressed and expanded as heat moves through. In one environment this refrigerant absorb heat, and in another it releases it.
Let’s take a look at how this in an AC unit below:
(1) Warm air from the house heats a liquid refrigerant, causing it to evaporate. (2) The refrigerant is condensed, becoming a hot liquid that (3) transfers heat to the outside air. (4) The refrigerant goes through a valve that reduces pressure and cools the liquid to renter the house.
This process is so effective it can achieve efficiency higher than 100%. In fact, putting 1 unit of energy into the system can move 2 to 5 units of energy, reaching 200% to 500% efficiency. This ratio is called the coefficient of performance (COP).
For heating, this process is simply reversed.
Heat pumps are ubiquitous in AC units, but penetration is more challenging for heating. Why? It has to do with the temperature differential. If on a hot summer day at 100°F I put my AC to 70°F inside, that’s a 30°F difference. But if on a cold winter day at 0°F I want to heat to 70°F, that’s a 70°F difference.
18 million US homes have heat pump systems, and states have placed plans and incentives to double that amount in the next 10 years. But customers are hesitant because of the higher upfront cost.
There is a huge opportunity for a “Tesla of heat pumps” to emerge — by creating a better customer experience, simplifying installation, and distributing with great execution.
🥘 Recipe: Ricotta Zucchini Tart
I made this recipe for my new roommates this past weekend and received rave reviews (or, they were extremely polite).
This tangy, creamy, and buttery tart is the perfect lunch or picnic companion. Go on, scroll down and make the recipe at the end of this post. I won’t stop you.
If you make it, please send pictures :)
📚 Book: Finding the Mother Tree
This week I’m reading Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.
Suzanne comes from a Canadian family of tree loggers. During her work in the industry, she marvels at the symbioses of the forests and denounces destructive practices like clear-cutting.
She learns that older trees can recognize and connect with their seedlings through mycelium below ground. These are the Mother Trees, who nurture and feed their young as we do with our own children.
It’s a beautiful read - and I promise you’ll look at cedars, pines, and oaks differently during your next hike in a forest.
My favorite quotes as teasers:
It’s our disconnectedness—and lost understanding about the amazing capacities of nature—that’s driving a lot of our despair, and plants in particular are objects of our abuse.
When Mother Trees—the majestic hubs at the center of forest communication, protection, and sentience—die, they pass their wisdom to their kin, generation after generation, sharing the knowledge of what helps and what harms, who is friend or foe, and how to adapt and survive in an ever-changing landscape.
Plants are attuned to one another's strengths and weaknesses, elegantly giving and taking to attain exquisite balance. There is grace in complexity, in actions cohering, in sum totals.
Maybe even more important was the fungi’s ability to reproduce rapidly. Their short life cycle would enable them to adapt to the rapidly changing environment—fire and wind and climate—much faster than the steadfast, long-lived trees could manage.
Thank you for reading - BRB next week ✌️
🥘 Recipe: Ricotta Zucchini Tart
Ingredients (4-6 servings)
1 sheet of puff pastry
4 medium zucchini
300g ricotta
50g parmigiano regiano
2 tbsp of pesto
3 cloves garlic, grated
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Thyme
Salt
Instructions (1h)
Preheat the oven to 400F. Roll the defrosted puff pastry to the dimensions of a large rectangular sheet pan, around 30cm x 40cm.
Wash the zucchini and cut into 3mm slices. Add to a bowl with generous olive oil, 1 tbsp of thyme, and a pinch of salt. Mix until the zucchini slices are well coated.
Poke holes with a fork all over the puff pastry so it doesn’t overinflate when baking. Bake for 10 minutes or until a light golden color and flakey.
While the puff pastry is baking, make the ricotta mix. Add the ricotta to a bowl, along with the zest of 1 lemon, the juices of half the lemon, 3 grated cloves of garlic, and 50g of grated parmigiano regiano.
Spread the ricotta mix evenly across the puff pastry. Add the 2 tbsp of pesto on top, and spread evenly as well.
Place the zucchini slices in rows, each slice resting on the previous one. Sprinkle with more thyme, salt, and grated parmigiano. Bake at 400F for 30-35 mins, or until the puff pastry is golden brown and the zucchini slightly dried and roasted. Enjoy with your besties :)
About Me
Hi there! My name is Nathan Paumier - I’m an avid reader, food enthusiast, and climate optimist. I started this newsletter after frequent questions on food tech, reading recommendations, and my secret recipes.
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