Meltdown proof

KEEPING COOL WITH

Ola,

Three weeks plus in Europe is almost drawing to a close for me. Which means it’s time to get back in the saddle in terms of covering everything under the sun in climate tech and energy. Here’s the curated rundown of what happened this week before we plunge in more in August.

In today’s email:

• One story in a chart and a sentence

• Climate tech 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)

• Electricity demand growth in China offers a good representation of challenges inherent to decarbonization across sectors, namely that the total pie is usually a moving target. Link.

13 headlines

The good

• Chinese nuclear operators demonstrated new “anti-meltdown” capabilities at the Shidaowan nuclear power plant. More specifically, these include novel self-cooling technologies that augment reactor safety. Link.

• The EPA unveiled another $4.3 billion in funding for 25 different climate projects. Link.

• GM reported quarterly EV sales that were 40% higher than this time last year, rising to 21,930 units. Ford also sold more EVs but still lost $1.1 billion for its fiscal quarter. Link. Link.

• EnBW, a German utility, announced it intends to invest ~$1.1 billion in Germany's planned national hydrogen transport network. Link.

• Ashgrove, a Tasmanian dairy producer, is testing consumer demand for lower-methane dairy, which it is now marketing on store shelves after using feed additives to reduce methane emissions from a fifth of its herd so far. Link.

• Amidst a significant transformer shortage, Cleveland-Cliffs noted it will build a new electrical distribution transformer production plant in Weirton, West Virginia. Link.

The inbetweens

• One key takeaway from IEA’s mid-year electricity report? Average electricity prices (per MWh) are more than twice as high in Europe as in the U.S. (~$70 vs. ~$30). Link.

• There's a new permitting reform bill, courtesy of Joe Manchin and John Barrasso, on the political docket in the U.S., though it's not all that likely to pass. Link. Link.

The bad

• The world keeps shattering global heat records. Both Sunday and then Monday and then Tuesday were likely the hottest days on Earth in 100,000 years. The broken records continue despite El Niño receding. Link. Link.

• “Every six hours, the world consumes enough to build a coal replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza.” Read more in this thoughtful article from Javier Blas on coal’s continued dominance in energy generation globally. Link.

• A wind turbine in America’s newest offshore wind farm disintegrated last week, spreading debris and population along the Northeastern Coast. Given offshore wind farms are already heckled with equal parts disinformation and real environmental permitting challenges, this isn’t a good look. The manufacturer, GE Vernova, also saw its revenues decline last quarter. Link. Link.

• SunPower is quietly scaling its operations back significantly, while Moxium Power is also supposedly close to shuttering, having furloughed most employees last week. Link. Link (paywall).

• Companies generating carbon credits in the Amazon have reportedly illegally generated credits by claiming publicly-owned land as their own. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds

🌾 Micropep, based out of Toulouse, France, raised $29 million in Series B funding to use tiny proteins to make better pesticides. Zebra Impact Ventures and BPI Green Tech Investment led. More here. (France, Food & Agriculture)

🚜 Monarch Tractor, based out of Livermore, CA, raised $133 million in Series C funding for its electric, autonomous tractors. Astanor and HH-CTBC Partnership co-led. More here. (U.S., Food & Agriculture)

Medium-sized funding rounds

🔋 Addionics, based out of London and Tel Aviv, raised $39 million in Series B funding to scale production of its 3D current collectors for EV batteries. GM Ventures and Deep Insight led. More here. (U.K. / Israel, Energy / Transportation)

⬇️ 44.01, based out of London, raised $37 million in Series A funding for its carbon removal and mineralization technologies. Equinor Ventures led. More here. (U.K., Carbon Removal)

🌽 InnerPlant, based out of Davis, CA, raised $30 million in Series B funding to create genetically engineered crops that emit signals to farmers when stressed. Incidentally, a growing body of research suggests plants already do this to one another sans modification. Coutts Agro led. More here. (U.S., Food & Agriculture)

📉 First Street, based out of New York, raised $21 million in Series A-1 funding to help customers navigate their climate risk exposure. Innovation Endeavors led. More here. (U.S., Adaptation)

🥚 Onego Bio, based out of Espoo, Finland, raised ~$15.3 million in equity funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator Program for its precision fermentation technologies. The companies go-to-market is focused on making fermented egg protein. More here. (Finland, Food & Agriculture)

⬇️ Cowboy Clean Fuels, based out of Greenwood Village, CO, raised ~$13 million in Series B funding for its carbon removal process that involves injecting sugar beet waste into coal seams. Machan Investments led. More here. (U.S., Carbon Removal)

🛰️ Star Catcher Industries, based out of Jacksonville, FL, raised $12.5 million in seed funding to develop a space-based grid that captures solar energy for transmissions to satellites and other space infrastructure. Initialized Capital and B Capital co-led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

⚡ Splight, based out of San Francisco, raised $12 million in seed funding for its software that helps clean energy developers get grid connections and manage energy. noa led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

⚡ Paces, based out of Brooklyn, NY, raised $11 million in Series A funding for its GIS and data platform for renewable energy project development. Navitas Capital led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

🌊 CarbonBlue, based out of Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $10 million in seed funding for its ocean-based carbon dioxide removal business. Ibex Investors and Fresh Fund co-led. More here. (Israel, Carbon Removal)

Smaller funding rounds

♻️ Matereal, based out of Vaulx-en-Velin, France, raised $4.5 million in seed funding for its polyurethane plastic alternative, which is made from bio-based and renewable feedstocks. Collaborative Fund led. More here. (U.S., Materials)

🔨 Pajarito Powder, based out of Albuquerque, NM, raised $4.5 million in equity funding from Ecovyst to make catalysts for electrolyzers and fuel cells. More here. (U.S., Industry)

📊 Terrantic, based out of Seattle, raised $3.5 million in seed funding to help farmers, food packers, and food processors optimize operations based on existing data. Supply Change Capital led. More here. (U.S., Food & Agriculture)

🧑‍🌾 Farmblox, based out of Boston, raised $2.5 million in seed funding for its farming automation and agricultural monitoring technologies. Hyperplane led. More here. (U.S., Food & Agriculture)

🌞 Solstice, based out of Cambridge, MA, raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from Google.org for its community solar development business and to redesign the scoring systems that determine which households qualify for community renewables projects. More here. (U.S., Energy)

Other financing rounds

⚡ Masdar, a Emirati state-owned renewables developer based out of Abu Dhabi, raised $1 billion in debt financing via a green loan to expand its portfolio to 100 GW. More here. (UAE, Energy)

🔋 Aypa Power, based out of Austin, TX raised $650 million in a credit facility for its utility-scale energy storage development business. More here. (Canada, Energy)

New funds

💰 NGP, based out of Dallas, raised $500 million for its NGP Sustainable Real Assets fund to invest in low-carbon energy project developers. More here. (U.S., Funds)

💰 Lead Ventures, based out of Budapest, Hungary, raised ~$110 million for an early-stage fund to invest in Central and Eastern European startups focused on energy, mobility, and more. More here. (Hungary, Funds)

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Talk Thursday,

– Nick