Top all-time · #2846
Terraform Industries Blog
Company blog · terraformindustries.wordpress.comhardwareeconomicsscience
Terraform Industries Blog is the company blog at terraformindustries.wordpress.com, writing about hardware, economics and science. Since 2022, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 38 times, most often “Fuel from the sky: Cheap hydrocarbons from CO2 direct air capture and sunlight”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link the Terraform Industries blog for its posts on making fuel from solar power and captured air, covering cost and economics. Commenters point to it as a source for the economics of carbon-neutral fuel.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
gigascale atmospheric hydrocarbon synthesis
Most-linked posts?
- Fuel from the sky: Cheap hydrocarbons from CO2 direct air capture and sunlight6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2023-01-09
- Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-04-01
- Terraformer Mark One – cheap natural gas from sunlight and air3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-06-26
- To Conquer the Primary Energy Consumption Layer of Our Entire Civilization3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-04-07
- Direct Current Data Centers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-31
- Terraform Industries Master Plan2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-10-05
- Terraform: Cheapest Solar in North America at $0.016/KWh2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-10-28
- Permitting Reform or Death2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-11-14
- /2024/02/06/terraformer-environmental-calculus/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-03
- Terraform 2026 Update2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-10-22
What Hacker News says?
That's the strategy of startups like Terraform [0][1] which use green energy production to synthesize carbon fuels using direct air capture, which are on track to be cheaper than fossil fuels without subsidies within the next few years (e.g., definitely this decade). This will both displace more expensive fossil fuels from the market while letting us leverage existing carbon fuel infrastructure. The profit motive cr…
Comment linking /2024/02/06/terraformer-environmental-calculus/
on “Carbon capture more costly than switching to renewables, researchers find”Submitted Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas as a story · 385 points
HN discussionThe future is probably gonna be carbon neutral jetfuel synethesized with solar energy and air capture. https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/06/26/the-ter...
Comment linking /2023/06/26/the-terraformer-mark-one/
on “Boom announces successful flight of XB-1 demonstrator aircraft”Submitted The future of solar doesn't track the sun as a story · 155 points
HN discussionAs a "carbon industry" observer, this is pretty exciting news. I've had my eye on Terraform Industries for a while and love what they're doing; they're one of the few groups that actually seem to understand the implications of what it will take to shift to a carbon-neutral economy, and their core insight about the economics of atmospheric fuel synthesis is one of those "obvious when you hear it" ideas: solar electri…
Comment linking /2024/02/06/terraformer-environmental-calculus/
on “Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas”Submitted Terraform makes carbon neutral natural gas as a story · 6 points
HN discussion"Incredibly brave post from Peter about the insane regulatory friction our society must endure and which is directly responsible for the premature deaths of the startups attempting to build wealth for our future, as well as millions of people whose emancipation from (inter alia) air pollution is delayed for decades by the same regulations that were intended to drive improvement of the environment. Peter is brave bec…
Comment linking /2023/11/10/permitting-reform-or-death/
on “Over-regulation is doubling the cost”Submitted Terraform Industries Master Plan as a story · 5 points
HN discussionAgreed: this is the key question. One effort I follow in this direction is Terraform Industries[0] who are building exactly this type of system. Their approach is PV + DCC (Direct Carbon Capture) and then simple carbohydrate synthesis, with the goal of establishing standalone autonomous systems that can generate valuable resources on their own in remote areas with ample sunlight. They have a great blog where they go…
Comment linking /home/
on “Scientists Develop Artificial Leaf, Uses Sunlight to Produce Valuable Chemicals”Submitted Terraform Navigated the Idea Maze as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOne place to look for some math on the economic efficiencies is the blog of Terraform industries. Here's a start: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/terrafo...
Comment linking /2024/04/01/terraform-makes-carbon-neutral-natural-gas/
on “MIT engineers make converting CO2 into useful products more practical”Submitted Terraformer Mark One – cheap natural gas from sunlight and air as a story · 5 points
HN discussionOr as their competitor puts it, we're going to need a lot of solar panels. https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/were-go...
Comment linking /2022/07/24/were-going-to-need-a-lot-of-solar-panels/
on “Prometheus: Fuel from the Air”Submitted Terraform: Cheapest Solar in North America at $0.016/KWh as a story · 4 points
HN discussionRandom links: • Overview with lots of plugs to deep-tech: https://foresight.org • Casey Handmer is doing cool things with Terraform: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com • Third Law building atomically precise catalysts: https://thirdlawtx.com • HOC doing whatever this is: https://higherorderco.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Tired of all the AI, what other cool tech is out there?”Submitted _How Terraform built the cheapest solar in North America as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/terrafo... The section titled ”Tree. You’ve invented a tree.” may be of interest to you. Also the late David mackay has a great chapter in his book about this
Comment linking /2022/07/24/terraform-industries-whitepaper/
on “Carbon capture and storage is a fantasy”Submitted Terraform 2026 Update as a story · 2 points
HN discussionMore detail: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/terrafo...
Comment linking /2024/04/01/terraform-makes-carbon-neutral-natural-gas/
on “Terraform Industries converts electricity and air into synthetic natural gas”Submitted Terraform 2026 Update as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI very much hope Casey Handmer's Terraform Industries succeeds. It's the best case plan I'm aware of for dealing with CO2. Put carbon capture, electrolyser and sabatier style reactor directly next to solar panels, produce Methane, pipe it directly into normal natural gas pipelines, use it to produce fuel and everything we currently use oil for, so everything that uses this methane is carbon neutral. https://terrafor…
Comment linking /
on “Taking CO2 out of the air would be an expensive way to fight climate change”Submitted To Conquer the Primary Energy Consumption Layer of Our Entire Civilization as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis article is keyword stuffed nonsense. Take the first sentence. > As recently discussed on The Carbon Copy with Brian Janous, utilities are seeing major forecasted demand growth for the first time in decades, and almost entirely from data centers. Utilities aren't seeing major forecasted demand growth for the first time in decades. It isn't entirely from DCs. The author appears to have a startup, pitching a Power…
Comment linking /2023/06/26/the-terraformer-mark-one/
on “How to feed all the power-hungry AI data centers”Submitted To Conquer the Primary Energy Consumption Layer of Our Entire Civilization as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttps://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/direct-... Solar dc data centers are marginally cheaper. However right now the incentives are on buliding data centers (including power sources) the fastest. Despite this i would bet that you could build solar and batteries as fast as (or even faster) as building gas power plants, but the current governmend really likes to see fossils and setting the planet on fir…
Comment linking /2026/01/30/direct-current-data-centers/
on “Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Country”Submitted To Conquer the Primary Energy Consumption Layer of Our Entire Civilization as a story · 2 points
HN discussionCheck out terraform industries if you find this interesting. They just released an interesting white paper detailing a lot of good progress: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/terrafo... I think it’s interesting because they’re focusing on the cheapest and easily manufactured technologies instead of efficiency.
Comment linking /2023/01/09/terraform-industries-whitepaper-2-0/
on “Gasoline Is Made of Carbon Sucked from the Air (2018)”Submitted Terraform Industries Master Plan as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAlso https://terraformindustries.com/ Discussion of economics: https://terraformindustries.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/terrafo... Seems like the natural gas angle may be better due to higher efficiencies of existing equipment (power plants) that burns natural gas. Maybe the same can be done with gasoline? And of course you can't reasonably run a plane on natural gas AFAIK.
Comment linking /2023/01/09/terraform-industries-whitepaper-2-0/
on “Gasoline Is Made of Carbon Sucked from the Air (2018)”Submitted Fuel from the sky: Cheap hydrocarbons from CO2 direct air capture and sunlight as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
