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Heather Zichal said she was departing American Clean Power, after less than two years as its CEO, a move that took industry insiders by surprise, Alan reports.

Why it matters: Zichal and ACP's influence weigh heavy across the industry, as the lobbying group has aspired to be the voice for the clean energy and the climate tech sector. Her departure could have ripples. 

Driving the news: Zichal is joining JPMorgan Chase as its global head of sustainability.

"It’s perhaps the only job that could entice me away from ACP," Zichal wrote in a blog post yesterday. 

The intrigue: Clean energy executives and lobbyists tell Alan that the move caught them off-guard.

Trade group execs in D.C. tend to stay in their roles for a long time: Abigail Ross Hopper has led the Solar Energy Industries Association since 2017. Mike Sommers has been president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute since 2018 — succeeding a predecessor who'd held the role for 10 years.

Catch up fast: Zichal joined ACP after serving as White House energy adviser during the Obama administration. 

She went on to lead ACP through bruising political fights, cobbling a coalition together from a wildly diverse set of energy sectors.

Meanwhile: Zichal leaves on a high note with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — even if ACP's role in advocating for the climate bill was simply as part of a broader coalition. 

👀 What we're watching: Who is tapped to take over as ACP's next CEO, how soon ACP manages to recruit that person — and whether the new CEO manages to keep members in line. 

1 big thing: Zichal's exit

A photo of Heather Zichal speaking at a conference.

Heather Zichal speaks at a conference in 2017.  Photo: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

Moxion Power, a Bay Area builder of portable batteries for film sets, construction sites, and events, said it raised a $100 million Series B round and signed a deal with Sunbelt Rentals, Alan writes.

Why it's the BFD: Replacing noisy diesel generators may seem one of the most obvious applications for batteries. But making the technology at once portable, affordable and with sufficient energy density has been a challenge. 

Details: Tamarack Global led the round. The firm was one of Moxion's earliest investors.

The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund joined as new investors, along with Enterprise Holdings, Marubeni Ventures and Suffolk Technologies.

Energy Impact Partners, another of Moxion's early investors, also participated.

What's happening: Moxion has set out to "create the first fully electric alternative to the generator," co-founder and CEO Paul Huelskamp tells Alan.

"Our beachhead markets: Construction, film production, and events and entertainment," he says.

The company has also inked a multiyear purchase agreement with Sunbelt Rentals, the South Carolina company that leases construction equipment.

Context: Diesel generators are large sources of pollution, emitting not only greenhouse gases but also particulate emissions that can harm health. 

What's next: Moxion is opening two manufacturing centers near its headquarters in California. It's also opening a retail location in Hollywood and plans more retail locations. 

The company scored a hiring coup in February when it tapped Josh Ensign to oversee manufacturing as COO. Ensign had previously supervised manufacturing for Tesla and Proterra. 

2. The BFD: Portable batteries head to Hollywood

Illustration of a battery in sunglasses on a red carpet surrounded by camera flashes

Alan sat down for a one-on-one virtual interview with Jigar Shah, director of the Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy, to discuss capital formation in climate technology following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. 

In addition to the climate bill, Tuesday's Axios Pro event discussed a variety of topics, ranging from the mechanics of Shah's department to the future of nuclear power.

Context: Shah manages the LPO's more than $40 billion tranche for loans to climate technology and energy companies in the U.S.

What he's saying: When asked for his thoughts on a viral tweet from notable VC David Sacks, Shah did not mince words on what he thinks venture capital gets wrong about investing in climate tech.

"I think [David Sacks] fundamentally misunderstands what we do ... What we're saying is, when you deploy technologies at scale, oftentimes you have equity and debt. The equity they can raise and bring to the table, whether they spark their company, whether they raise a VC round out of the ground or near ground. But then when they go to a commercial bank for debt, the commercial bank is saying, come back to me when it's project number 10. 

"And so we're filling a gap that no commercial bank wants to fill. So I think that most people who are in the venture capital space don't actually understand how infrastructure finance works."

Also of note: Shah advocated for more development in nuclear power, another gray area within climate tech that sees vocal detractors and supporters.

"There's a lot of 'we're pro-nuclear, we're anti-nuclear.' But the question becomes, where is the 47-page plan that says, here's exactly how you restart the nuclear industry? It doesn't really exist," he says.

3. Shah calls out climate tech VCs

A side-by-side screen of Alan Neuhauser and Jigar Shah.

🙅🏻‍♀️ Permitting legislation collapses: Politics, policy divides and a ticking clock thwarted legislation to speed permitting for energy projects ranging from fossil fuel pipelines to power transmission to renewables, our Generate colleague Ben Geman writes.

Democratic leaders stripped the proposal from a funding bill after it became clear the permitting measure lacked votes — even though it seems the entire energy industry is clamoring for such an overhaul.

"We don’t have an energy transition without permitting reform," one energy industry advocate — with clients in both renewables and fossil fuels — told Alan this week.

🥊 "NASA bonks an asteroid": We just love that headline from our friends at What's Next. 

NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid Monday in an effort to change the object's orbit around a larger space rock.   The mission: See if we can defend Earth by deflecting asteroids and comets off course.

4. 🌡️ Temperature check

Illustration of an earth emoji combined with a sick face emoji.

• Sitetracker, a Palo Alto-based developer of deployment-operations management software for infrastructure, has closed $96m in equity and debt financing. Energize Ventures led the equity funding, totaling $66m. BridgeBank provided a $30m revolving credit facility. https://axios.link/3y1UDap 

• Kate Farms, a Santa Barbara, California-based maker of plant-based nutritional formula, raised $75m in Series C funding. Novo Holdings led, and was joined by Goldman Sachs, Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Main Street Advisors. https://axios.link/3foCJbi

• Prolific Machines, an SF-based cell-production tech startup, raised $42m in seed and Series A funding from backers like Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mayfield. https://axios.link/3rdFkYw

• EverestLabs, a Fremont, California-based AI for recovering recyclables, raised $16.1m in Series A funding. Translink Capital led, and was joined by NEC Orchestrating Future Fund, BGV, Sierra Ventures, Morado Ventures and Xplorer Capital. https://axios.link/3UMpSjl

• Kopperfield, a residential EV charging startup, raised $5m in seed funding co-led by General Catalyst and Lachy Groom. https://axios.link/3xZcbDY

• Siam Cement Group, a Bangkok-based construction materials supplier, has invested in Rondo Energy, the Bay Area startup developing a heat battery for industry. Siam Cement and Rondo also signed a letter of intent to develop and expand deployment of Rondo’s heat battery tech.  https://axios.link/3LNWZzt

• FPT Industrial has agreed to make a minority investment in Blue Energy Commercial Vehicles Private, a zero-emissions truck technology company based in Pune, India. https://axios.link/3BOj9wV 

• Gogoro, a Taiwan-based battery-swapping technology developer, has signed a NT$10.7b (~$345m) five-year credit facility, with a two-year extension option, with 10 syndicated banks. https://axios.link/3ULKoAF 

• Jupiter Power, the Austin-based utility-scale energy storage developer, has executed an agreement with Energy Vault Holdings, an L.A.-area storage developer, to secure 2.4 GWh of supply chain equipment and services. https://axios.link/3rgVW1i 

• Energy Dome, the Milan-based energy storage technology developer, has signed an MOU with Ørsted, the Danish renewable energy developer, to study the feasibility of deploying a 20 MW/200 MWh energy storage site using Energy Dome’s CO2 battery tech. https://axios.link/3xXMOlW 

• Mainspring Energy, the Silicon Valley linear generator developer, has entered into an agreement with Yolo County, California, to pilot a Mainspring linear generator fueled 100% by landfill biogas at the Yolo County Central Landfill. https://axios.link/3SG8Ly4 

• Eviation Aircraft, a Washington-based manufacturer of all-electric aircraft, completed the first flight of its electric Alice aircraft. The plane lifted off at 7:10 a.m. from Grant County International Airport and flew for 8 minutes at an altitude of 3,500 feet. https://axios.link/3raHTup 

5. Hot deals

• Schneider Electric has promoted Joshua Dickinson to senior vice president and CFO, North America. https://axios.link/3dTzkAT 

• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has hired Robb Parr as a partner in the firm’s technology transactions department in the Boston office. Parr was previously a partner at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe. https://axios.link/3LN2ePS 

• Niron Magnetics, a Minneapolis-based developer of rare earth–free permanent magnets, has named David Northall as vice president of global operations, Carlijn Mulder as vice president of magnet technology, and Peter Ladwig as vice president of nanoparticle technology. https://axios.link/3BTgu4R 

• Spartech, a Missouri-based manufacturer of engineered thermoplastics and packaging, has named Daniel Gallo as COO. Gallo was previously vice president of operations for Robert Bosch. https://axios.link/3Sm6Izq 

6. It's personnel

💀 One of Megan's neighbors set up the infamous 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot, to the outright terror of her dogs.

🔧 Alan met with contractors yesterday to talk HVAC upgrades — the new house currently relies on oil heat. Stay tuned for updates.

Thanks to Michael Flaherty and Phoebe Neidl for today's edits.

And thank you for reading Climate Deals! Please share with your friends, family and debt investors.

September 28, 2022

1 big thing: Zichal's exit