All Access

Climate Deals

Standard

Climate Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Climate Deals Alerts

Alert

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Evolving forms of energy and decarbonizing the grid are two prime areas for investment opportunities, Dr. Eric Toone of Breakthrough Energy Ventures told Megan. The virtual interview was part of the Axios Pro Insight Series held by the Climate Deals news team. 

Why he matters: Toone serves as executive managing director and technology lead for Breakthrough, the investment firm started by Bill Gates to focus on net-zero carbon emissions. 

What he's seeing: Toone says there's too much focus on making cheap electricity and not enough on other forms of energy. 

"We're going to have to look for other forms of baseload and dispatchable electricity. We very strongly believe that nuclear is going to have to be a part of that. I don't know about fission. We haven't done anything in fission mostly due to cost concerns. But we have multiple investments in fusion, for instance."

Yes, but: Some areas in the energy space are just not ripe for the kind of investment Breakthrough is focused on. Example: HVAC.

"I mean, we're still using the same vapor compression cycle that Carrier developed at the end of the last century. And we still haven't found a better approach to doing cooling. So buildings has been a tough space for us," Toone said. 

He added that Breakthrough does have deals in this space, just not very many of them.  

In addition: Another investment opportunity the firm is eyeing is storage.

"I think storage of renewable energy is now reaching the point where there are opportunities to roll that out, to deploy it and have a real impact on how we think about wind and solar and to move those to new sectors that they haven't been appropriate for in the past." 

Axios Pro Event: Breakthrough's clean energy push

Dr. Eric Toone shares the firm's strategy on clean energy.

Megan Hernbroth with guest Dr. Eric Toone

Axios' Megan Hernbroth and Breakthrough Ventures' Dr. Eric Toone. Image credit: Axios Insight virtual event/Allie Carl 

Climate tech

Evolving forms of energy and decarbonizing the grid are two prime areas for investment opportunities, Dr. Eric Toone of Breakthrough Energy Ventures told Megan. <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="The virtual interview" data-vars-click-url="https://youtu.be/KF_y4xLrMLE" data-vars-content-id="8a58d1c5-642e-4989-8117-125acb2fd0ab" data-vars-headline="Axios Pro Event: Breakthrough&#x27;s clean energy push" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://youtu.be/KF_y4xLrMLE" target="_blank">The virtual interview</a> was part of the Axios Pro Insight Series held by the Climate Deals news team. Why he matters: Toone serves as executive managing director and technology lead for Breakthrough, the investment firm started by Bill Gates to focus on net-zero carbon emissions.

Axios Pro Event: Breakthrough's clean energy push

What to read next