DOE or do not

Hi,

Hope you had a nice week. No long intro today; I’m still convalescing from climate week, frankly. This week in climate and energy tech, nuclear fission continues its hot streak with several funding rounds and the DOE stays busy, perhaps because it sees a narrowing window of opportunity to deploy capital if Trump gets elected.

In today’s email:

• One story in a chart and a sentence

• Climate and energy headlines from the week

• Climate tech fundraising announcements

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THIS WEEK IN CLIMATE TECH & ENERGY

One story in a sentence (and a chart)

• The words “climate tech” may be waning in influence and relevance as per the chart below made by Andy Lubershane of Energy Impact Partners shows, suggesting it may be time for a collective rebrand and perhaps one that sees many of us branch into different ‘pillars’ of heightened specificity. Link.

15+ headlines

The good

• The DOE formalized more than $2.8 billion in funding to restart the 805 MW Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which was retired in 2022. Last year, Holtec, the new plant owner, and Wolverine signed a 20-year power purchase agreement tied to Palisades. U.S. companies are also ramping up efforts to source more uranium domestically amidst the resurgence in positive sentiment and demand for nuclear power, while the DOE’s Loan Programs Office considers whether to make a loan to help Constellation restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Link. Link. Link.

• The DOE also announced plans to invest $1.5 billion to help finance four transmission projects that will add almost 1,000 miles of more transmission lines. The capital will be provided via a revolving fund, through which the DOE is "authorized to borrow up to $2.5 billion through three financing tools: Capacity contracts with eligible projects where DOE would serve as an "anchor customer" to buy up to 50% of planned line rating for up to 40 years and to sell the contract to recover costs,” loans, and public-private partnerships. The power lines will be in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Northeast. Link. Link.

• The DOE's Loan Programs Office made a $1.05 billion conditional loan guarantee commitment to EVgo, an EV charging company, to build public fast chargers. Link.

• In the U.K., very much one of the birthplaces of widespread coal use, the last coal-fired power plant went offline. That said, coal use continues to grow globally, driven especially by demand across Asian countries including China, India, Indonesia, and more. Link. Link.

• Ford, the second top seller of EVs in the U.S. behind Tesla, unveiled a new program to provide free Level 2 home chargers and installation for new Ford EV buyers. Link.

• Ameresco, PG&E, and Republic Services opened a $110 million RNG facility in Pittsburg, CA, that transforms landfill waste into natural gas. Link.

• UL Solutions, a major player in testing, inspecting, and certifying new hardware products to standards it helps develop with input from other essential stakeholders, issued its first certification for a 400 kW EV Fast Charging in Europe. Link.

• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and several other organizations published a consensus study report on "A Research Agenda Toward Atmospheric Methane Removal." EQT Foundation also announced a new call for proposals for methane mitigation via its 'The Breakthrough Science' grants program, which awards €25K – €100K to scientists to accelerate their work. Link. Link.

The inbetweens

• The European Commission proposed delaying EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance by a year to avoid accelerating supply chain disruption. Link.

• The EU also approved increased tariffs on Chinese (and other) EVs, ranging up to 45%. Link.

• I'm typically a big-tent guy when it comes to climate and energy technologies, but I'm not so sure about this particular use of The DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) funds, which allocates #350 million for, checks notes, carbon capture and storage (CCS) on lignite coal power plants in North Dakota. I'm all for commercializing CCS, but perhaps focusing on gas plants would be better than coal plants. Link.

• Starbucks bought multiple research farms to accelerate the development of more climate-resilient coffee. Which is cool, but it also underscores the growing severity of climate commodity risk. Link. Link.

The bad

• There's an oil rush coming to the coast of Suriname, as TotalEnergies and APA Corp. announced plans to invest $10 billion to extract oil offshore, marking one of the most significant investments ever in the country. Link.

• The French insect-based ingredients company Ynsect seems to be in at least some financial distress, as it filed a "safeguard plan" following a failure to find more financing for expansion plans. The company has raised more than $170 million. Link. Link.

• The second largest coal plant in the U.S., operated by Duke Energy in Indiana, may also get a three-year life extension, which could see it operate through 2038 instead of 2035 on heightened demand. Link.

• Analysis of last year's devastating fires in Maui found they were started by a fallen power line. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds

🚁 Joby Aviation, based out of Santa Cruz, CA, raised $500 million in equity investment from Toyota to develop and build electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Toyota will also help with manufacturing (auto manufacturers know a thing or two about high automation and high throughput manufacturing). Link.

⚛️ Newcleo, now based out of London instead of Paris, raised ~$150 million in equity funding to develop SMRs that run on nuclear waste. Inarcassa, Walter Tosto, and Ingérop invested. Link. (U.K., Energy)

🪰 Entosystem, based out of Sherbrooke, Canada, raised $58 million in equity funding to build more production capacity for its black soldier fly larvae proteins. Link.

💻 Submer, based out of Barcelona, raised $55.5 million Series C for its immersion liquid cooling technology for data center servers. M&G led. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds

🔌 Qovoltis, based out of Paris, raised ~$49.5 million in in Series B funding to deploy its ‘smart’ EV charging stations that integrate “real time power demand adaptability, a mobile app to manage everything remotely and a unique consumption optimization system.” Andera Partners, Epopée Gestion, and Pâris Mouratoglou invested. Link.

🔋 Polarium Energy Solutions, based out of Stockholm, raised ~$49 million in equity funding to develop batteries for residential and industrial markets. Harald Mix, AMF, and Alecta invested. Link.

🌱 AgroSpheres, based out of Albemarle County, VA, raised $37 million in Series B funding for its AgriCell platform, a protective shell around pesticide solutions that shields active ingredients from environmental pressures. Zebra Impact Ventures led. Link.

⚛️ Acceleron Fusion, based out of Cambridge, MA, raised $15 million in equity funding to develop its fusion technology, which is tackling a “muon-catalyzed” approach. Link.

🔋 Anaphite, based out of Bristol, U.K., raised ~$13.7 million in Series A funding to develop dry-coating technology for battery electrodes. World Fund led. Link.

📊 Atlas Metrics, based out of Berlin, raised ~$13.6 million in Series A funding to build an online platform that helps companies track and report on ESG metrics. MMC Ventures led. Link.

🤖 Voliro, based out of Zürich, raised $12 million in Series A funding and debt to design flying robots for industrial inspections and maintenance (think wind turbines). Cherry Ventures led. Link.

Smaller funding rounds

📊 Briink, based out of Berlin, raised ~$4.3 million in seed funding to automate extracting ESG-related insights from documents and filling out compliance forms. EquityPitcher Ventures and 13books Capital co-led. Link.

🍫 Foreverland, based out of Bari, Italy, raised ~$3.8 million in seed funding to make a more sustainable, carob-based chocolate alternative. Grey Silo Ventures, Eatable Adventure, Maia Venture, and others invested. Link.

🗑️ Foodforecast, based out of Cologne, Germany, raised ~$3.3 million in equity funding to develop prediction software to reduce waste from retail supply chains. Scalehouse Capital and Future Food Fund II co-led. Link.

🔌 Paren, based out of San Francisco, raised $3 million in seed funding to harmonize data across EV charging, fleet management, and more. Base10 Partners led. Link,

🏭 NRJx, based out of Paris, raised ~$2.2 million in equity funding to help factories reduce their energy consumption in factories. BpiFrance led. Link.

📊 Partory, based out of Hradec Králové, Czechia, raised ~$1.4 million for its ESG compliance and procurement software for industry. Jet Ventures invested. Link.

💧 Pluvion (fka Grimm Water Solutions), based out of Freiburg, Germany, raised ~$1.1 million in pre-seed funding to build SaaS to monitor and optimize wastewater infrastructure. D11Z led. Link.

Other funding rounds

💵 TPG Rise Climate, based out of San Francisco and Fort Worth, will buy Techem, a digital energy platform based out of Germany, for $7.5 billion. Techem is one of the largest digital energy services platforms, active in 18 countries and covering more than 13 million homes. Its focus is helping buildings make energy efficiency upgrades. GIC is also joining as co-investor with a minority stake. This marks TPG Rise Climate's largest deal to date. Link.

🔋 Powin, based out of Portland, OR, raised up to $200 million in a revolving credit facility primarily from KKR to build battery projects. Link.

🔋 Sepion Technologies, based out of Alameda, CA, received $17.5 million in grant funding from CALSTART and the California Energy Commission to build a lithium-ion battery separator plant in Sacramento. Link.

New funds

💰 Morgan Stanley Investment Management, based out of New York, raised $750 million for its first climate-focused growth fund to invest in companies that help avoid gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Link.

💰 DCVC, based out of Palo Alto, raised $400 million for its third bio fund. The VC invests in climate-focused startups readily. Link.

Hasta la vista,

– Nick