With the recent negative impact of climate change; and the disaster it has caused to the world like the latest Texas winter storm, the world has been shifting into renewable energy as an alternative. Accordingly, Turntide Technologies backed by Robert Downey Jr. and Bill Gates is making the greatest innovation in the electric motors industry.

The company will be tackling climate change through electric motors —  disrupting the technology the world has been using since the 19th century.

 “Turntide’s technology and approach to restoring our planet will directly reduce energy consumption,” said Steve Levin, the co-founder (along with Downey Jr.) of FootPrint Coalition. 

Turntide said in a statement that buildings operation is the reason behind 40% of CO2 emissions globally. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) added 1/3 of the energy manufacturers use in commercial buildings is wasted.

Hence, smart building technology disrupts the mainstream process of building. This is achieved by eliminating the waste through adjustment of lighting, air conditioning, ventilation, heating, and other involved operations. In return, investors have put a total of $100 million into Turntide in the last six months.

Turntide took 11 Years to Develop the Technology

Ryan Morris, chief executive and chairman of Turntide developed the company at the Illinois Institute of Technology. At that time, the company aimed to contribute to the climate change cause through innovative technologies which reduce gas emissions. 

Consequently, the commercializing company developed a software-controlled motor also known as a switch reluctance motor which uses a limited pulse of energy in contrast to the constant flow of electricity. 

“In a conventional motor you are continuously driving current into the motor whatever speed you want to run it at,” Morris said. “We’re pulsing in precise amounts of current just at the times when you need the torque… It’s software-defined hardware.” 

However, the innovative technology didn’t appear of a sudden. Morris said the company had spent over 11 years in the development of technology. This was because computing power has not existed yet in the early days of development.

 “Our mission is to replace all of the motors in the world,” Morris said.

Morris added the technology applies to 95% of the available electric motors-powered systems. However, the company has shifted to smart buildings to reduce energy consumption costs and slow climate change.

Impact of Replacing All Motors

 “The carbon impact of what we’re doing is pretty massive. The average energy reduction [in buildings] has been a 64% reduction. If we can replace all the motors in buildings in the U.S. that’s the carbon equivalent of adding over 300 million tons of carbon sequestration per year.” He told TechCrunch in an interview in 2020.

Meanwhile, Footprint Coalition – a company owned by Downey Jr. and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures both joined Amazon Climate Fund and BMW’s iVentures fund in the fundraising. 

As of this writing, Turntide Technologies has raised roughly $180 million in financing including today’s disclosure of an $80 million investment round, which closed last October.

 “Two years from now we will definitely be in electric vehicles. Our technology has huge advantages for the electric vehicle industry. There are no rare earth minerals. Every EV uses rare earth minerals to get better performance of their electric motors. They’re expensive, destructive to mine and China controls 95% of the global supply chain for them. We do not use any exotic materials, rare earth minerals, or magnets… We’re replacing that with very advanced software and computation. It’s the first time Moore’s law applies to the motor.” Morris added.