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

charlotte

detroit

columbus

austin

kansas-city

dallas

atlanta

washington-dc

nw-arkansas

boulder

chicago

indianapolis

nashville

richmond

houston

san-francisco

seattle

colorado-springs

boston

des-moines

salt-lake-city

philadelphia

denver

phoenix

new-orleans

miami

twin-cities

huntsville

raleigh

san-antonio

portland

san-diego

tampa-bay

cleveland

pittsburgh

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

📣 ICYMI: Sensor tech developer SirenOpt raised $6.6 million to start selling its product commercially. You've got Katie's exclusive in your inbox.

❓ Tuesday trivia: Who is broadly credited with inventing the semitruck? Bonus high-five if you know when and where the vehicle debuted. 

Last week's answer: Amy Adams and Glenn Close played J.D. Vance's mom and grandmother, respectively, in the movie version of "Hillbilly Elegy."

Electric trailer startup Range Energy wants to slash diesel use from the trailer freight market.

Why it matters: The young company's trailers, which automatically add torque when needed, can make Class 8 trucks more efficient, safer and easier to drive.

Zoom in: Range Energy has built four of its trailers at its facility in Mountain View, Calif., and plans to build another couple dozen there.

As it scales, the company is looking for a factory somewhere in the U.S. like Texas, Arkansas, Indiana or Nevada, near both the existing trailer supply chain and fleet customers, says Range CEO and founder Ali Javidan.

To fund the scale-up, "we're likely going out to raise our next round early next year," says Javidan.

Catch up quick: The company was founded in 2021 by Javidan, an early engineer at Tesla who led the prototyping for the Model S. He was also an early engineer at Zoox, the autonomous vehicle firm that Amazon acquired.

Follow the money: In February, the company announced $23.5 million in financing led by Trousdale Ventures and including participation from UP.Partners, R7, and Yamaha Motor Ventures.

What's next: Range Energy is scaling up its manufacturing to meet its first wave of customer demand, starting with the refrigeration industry. The company has a partnership with cold chain giant Thermo King.

Javidan says he has "deep scars" from the Tesla days as the company struggled to grow manufacturing and famously hit "production hell." But he says he's learned a lot from those scars that can be used for Range.

The company didn't disclose the price of its electric trailers, but Javidan said "it's more reasonable than the sticker shock you get between a diesel truck and an electric truck."

Range Energy looks to scale electrified trailers

Range Energy's electrified trailer, the RB1, outside of the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Range Energy's electrified trailer outside of the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Katie Fehrenbacher/Axios

Today, the trailers that class 8 trucks pull don't have propulsion systems.

Javidan's idea, which he says he began thinking about while at Tesla, was to put an electric drive system and batteries on a trailer, connected by a smart kingpin, and manage it with software and sensors.

Why it matters: The electrified trailer can be pulled by either a diesel or battery-powered truck and makes driving more efficient and safer.

He says the tech is enabled by the maturing markets for batteries, electric drive systems and automotive software.

The vibe: Earlier this month, I went for a ride around the streets of Mountain View in a Freightliner Cascadia Sleeper that was pulling Range's RB-01, a 38-foot refrigerated electric trailer.

Range's vehicle operations lead, Jeff Scorsur, showed me how the propulsion system automatically kicks in when the driver accelerates or slows down and can act similar to an electric assist bike helping the driver with a boost when it's needed.

"If the trailer was turned off, the accelerator would be floored right now," said Scorsur as we sped up into traffic. That dynamic software-controlled system can reduce diesel use by between 30 to 60% off the baseline.

Javidan and Scorsur say the truck drivers who have tested out the tech love the battery assist. "The biggest complaint is they had to give them back."

Pulling an electrified trailer

Jeff TK drives a diesel-powered Freightliner that's pulling one of Range Energy's electrified trailers in Mountain View, Calif.

Jeff Scorsur, vehicle operations lead for Range Energy, drives a diesel-powered Freightliner that's pulling one of Range Energy's electrified trailers in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Katie Fehrenbacher/Axios

Renewable Land, a real estate investor that buys land to lease to solar, wind and battery projects, is nearing the close of a $25 million fund, managing partner Alex Stone tells Axios.

Why it's the BFD: The firm says its approach slashes one of the biggest upfront costs for renewable energy projects.

How it works: Building a solar, wind or battery energy project takes years — and the land needed for the project sits vacant.

Instead of buying a plot outright, developers often keep costs low by optioning land for purchase at a later date.

Once it's time to put steel in the ground, developers invite an investor like Renewable Land to make the purchase and simply lease it to the project.

Between the lines: The approach typically boosts returns for project developers and helps maximize tax credits.

Driving the news: Renewable Land in a week raised $22 million toward a targeted $25 million investment fund.

The Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based firm expects to hit its target this month, with commitments coming from wealthy individuals and family offices.

Half the company's business comes from developers, Stone says. The other half involves buying tracts from farmers and other landowners who already leased their plots to projects.

What's next: The company plans to fully deploy the fund this year and soon after begin raising a larger Fund II that will include institutional LPs, Stone says.

"We've demonstrated an ability to put the money to work quickly," he says.

Buying the dirt

an illustration of a price tag made out of grass 

ZeroMar is raising $1.5 million for its first commercial delivery of battery-powered ships that can also buttress the electric grid.

Why it matters: The approach promises to turn ferries into floating power plants.

How it works: ZeroMar converts ships to run on battery power and enables them to join virtual power plant programs, which can draw energy from electric vehicles to put emissions-free energy onto the grid.

Such programs compensate vehicles' owners, providing new revenue streams for fleets that opt-in.

"You can't just swap a diesel engine out and put an electric motor in," CEO Graham Balch tells Axios. "You have to think holistically about the whole system, otherwise it won't work."

State of play: ZeroMar is electrifying San Francisco's Angel Island-Tiburon three-ship ferry fleet and adding a new dock with charging infrastructure.

The $19 million contract involves converting two of the private service's existing ships and configuring a new boat from New Zealand manufacturer EV Maritime.

The ferry project will be the company's first commercial delivery, which it anticipates in Q2 2025.

By the numbers: ZeroMar is raising the $1.5 million SAFE round as it seeks to fulfill $40 million in contracts through the next three years.

Exclusive: Ferries as floating power plants

Illustration of a boat steering wheel with a bolt.

🚨 Bipartisan permitting reform: Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso yesterday issued their long-awaited proposal to speed environmental reviews for energy and transmission projects, Axios Pro's Nick Sobczyk reports in Energy Policy.

The measure will be the baseline for any bipartisan permitting deal during the lame-duck session. It would make limited changes to certain industries and infrastructure, instead of the sweeping overhauls proposed in previous measures.

📈 GM beats on earnings, EVs up: General Motors beat estimates on second quarter revenue and earnings per share and also increased EV deliveries in the quarter by 40% to 21,930 year-over-year, reports CNBC.

GM confirmed that it expects to be profitable on a production, or contribution-margin basis, once it reaches output of 200,000 units by Q4.

At the same time, last week, GM CEO Mary Barra cast doubt on GM's goal of reaching EV production capacity of 1 million vehicles in North America by the end of 2025.

🥐 Secondhand goods: Croissant, a fintech platform that guarantees the purchase price of resale items, is launching a consumer app, CEO John Howard tells Axios Pro's Kimberly Chin.

Croissant figures out the resale price, will buy it at that price from the reseller, and sell it for hopefully the same amount to a customer on a secondhand marketplace.

Removing friction from the resale marketplace can spur more users to participate in the circular economy.

Temperature check

Illustration of the sand from a sand timer filling the temperature scale on a thermometer.

• Triple Impact Capital, a Chadds Ford, Pa., early-stage investor targeting environmental, social and health startups, raised $17.5m for its Fund I, per an SEC filing. Go deeper

• Cowboy Clean Fuels, a Greenwood Village, Colo., carbon removal startup injecting sugar beet waste into Wyoming coal seams, raised a ~$13m Series B led by Machan Investments, joined by $7.8m in matching funds from the Wyoming Energy Authority. Go deeper

• Israeli carbon-removal developer CarbonBlue raised $10m led by Ibex Investors and FreshFund, joined by Engie New Ventures, Zim Ventures, and insiders Jibe Ventures, MoreVC and Secret Chord Ventures. Go deeper

• Prometheus Materials, a Boulder, Colo., sustainable concrete maker, raised $6.3m toward a targeted $7m, per an SEC filing. Go deeper

• Farmblox, a farming automation startup based in Boston, has raised a $2.5m seed round led by Hyperplane and including Slow Ventures, MHS Capital, and Service Provider Capital. Go deeper

• Artin Energy, a Tampa, Fla., solar developer, raised $2.3m, per an SEC filing. Go deeper

• Solstice, a Cambridge, Mass., community solar developer, received undisclosed funding from Google.org to develop a more inclusive EnergyScore metric aimed at qualifying more households for renewables projects. Go deeper

• Italian energy giant Eni is in talks with KKR to sell a minority stake in biofuels unit Enilive, which Eni values at €11.5b-12.5b including debt, per Reuters. Go deeper

• Masdar, the ​​UAE state-owned renewables developer, raised $1b to expand its portfolio to 100 GW, per PV Tech. Go deeper

• Aypa Power, an Austin, Texas, utility-scale energy storage developer backed by Blackstone, closed a $650m corporate credit facility led by Apterra Infrastructure Capital, Banco Santander, ING Capital, Nomura Securities,Société Générale, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Go deeper

• Energy trading firm Skylar Energy raised $209.2m for its Capital Energy Fund, per an SEC filing. Go deeper

• Porsche AG slashed its sales and profit forecast due to an aluminum alloy shortage that's also affected BMW and Mercedes, per Reuters. Go deeper

• Zeitview, the LA energy- and infrastructure-inspection software developer, acquired Clearsight, grid-inspection subsidiary of utility Constellation Energy. Go deeper

• Bosch, the German engineering giant, has agreed to acquire the residential HVAC business of Johnson Controls and Hitachi for $8 billion. Go deeper

• Germany utility EnBW plans to invest €1b in the country's planned hydrogen transport network, expected to start commercial operation in 2032. Go deeper

• United Airlines and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plan to equip one of the airline's Boeing 737s to measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as the plane transports passengers around the U.S. Go deeper

• Kodiak Robotics, a Mountain View, Calif., autonomous-driving developer, agreed to supply self-driving truck tech to Austin, Texas, fracking services provider Atlas Energy Solutions, Joann Muller reports in What's Next. Go deeper

• A United Nations task force plans to oppose the corporate use of carbon credits to offset companies' greenhouse gas emissions, per FT. Go deeper

• Tesla plans to integrate humanoid robots into its factories within the next year, Elon Musk said yesterday. Go deeper

• Stellantis is recalling 19,516 of its Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivans because their battery packs can catch fire when parked. Go deeper

Hot deals

• Pia Aaltonen-Forsell has joined Swedish battery company Northvolt as CFO. Aaltonen-Forsell was previously CFO of Outokumpu. Go deeper

• Matthias Arleth joined Northvolt as its president, cells. Arleth was previously SVP & GM Automotive EMEA at TE Connectivity. Go deeper

• Mark Handy joined Seattle comms firm C+C as EVP, utility solutions. Handy was previously head of section, clean energy program, at DNV. Go deeper

• Timothy King joined Toronto cable manufacturer Nexans as VP of BU North America. King was previously country president for Southwire Canada. Go deeper

It's personnel

🌲 Katie is working from a cabin in the forest of Soda Springs, Calif., for the next couple of days.

👍 Alan crushed the hell out of his toe — but an x-ray yesterday showed it isn't broken. That's the last time he tries to move an old bucket of dried cement while wearing flip-flops. (Editor's note: 🧠)

Thank you to George Moriarty and Chris Speckhard for today's edits.

And thank you for reading Climate Deals! Please share with your friends, family and climate-curious X-ray technicians.

July 23, 2024

1 big thing: Range Energy looks to scale electrified trailers