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BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

BFD Expert Voices

❓ Tuesday trivia: Who is credited with inventing the stellarator concept for fusion energy?

Last week's answer: Alexander Winton introduced the semitruck in Cleveland in 1898. We're still waiting on Newark, N.J.'s Museum of Science and Trucking.

Advances in super computing, 3D printing and high temperature superconducting magnets are paving the way for today's fusion startups.

Why it matters: Dozens of private fusion companies are racing to hit milestones and be the first to commercialize this breakthrough carbon-free energy.

Driving the news: Fusion startup Type One Energy has raised another $53.5 million as part of its seed round to help it meet technical milestones and hire staff.

The round was co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, New Zealand-based GD1 and Centaurus Capital.

Zoom in: Type One has been using the latest computing, manufacturing and magnetic tech to refine a research stellarator machine built in Germany 25 years ago, called the W 7-X.

The company has been using one of the world's fastest supercomputers, the Summit machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to design its prototype.

The computing power allows a physics-based analysis of how to design the magnetic structure that holds the fusion plasma.

Type One is using MIT's high-temperature superconducting magnets, which were developed by spin-out Commonwealth Fusion.

Catch up quick: Type One is building a fusion reactor using a stellarator design that CEO Christofer Mowry described as "a tokamak with a twist." Tokamaks are the most commonly used design for fusion work.

Like tokamaks, stellarators confine a fusion reaction by creating a magnetic cage, but stellarators require only magnets and are supposed to be more stable and operate at a steady state.

The company raised $29 million as part of its seed round last year and moved its headquarters to Knoxville, Tenn., from Madison, Wis.

It's building its first prototype at one of the Tennessee Valley Authority's shuttered coal plants outside of Knoxville.

The big picture: Fusion has emerged as a hot investment space this year. More than $900 million has been invested in fusion tech in the past year, with a total of $7.1 billion since 1992.

VCs have recently backed Xcimer Energy's laser-driven fusion, Realta Fusion's magnetic mirror design, and the biggest and most well-funded firm Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

While fusion has the potential to be a game-changer in generating electricity, it's long been viewed as just out of reach.

Go deeper with our state of play for fusion startups.

Fusion's enabling tech

Illustration of a road leading to a glowing atom on the horizon

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC has launched a private equity group targeting nascent climate technologies that are scaling. 

Why it matters: One of the world's largest private investors is zeroing in on a funding gap that's challenged green companies expanding from the lab to first projects and beyond.

The big picture: GIC's Sustainability Solutions Group plans to "plug a financing gap" that's hamstrung climate technologies just reaching maturity, the firm said in an annual report first spotted by New Private Markets.

"These investments would not meet the return hurdle of venture capital, and at the same time, lack the track record to attract infrastructure finance."

Zoom in: Wolfgang Schwerdtle, GIC's head of Latin American direct investments, is co-leading the effort. 

GIC, which has $744 billion AUM, hasn't disclosed how much money it's allocating to the strategy. The sovereign wealth fund referred to its press release in response to questions this morning.

👀 What we're watching: Generalists have slowed or redirected what were once ambitious climate investments. We'll see whether GIC stays the course.

GIC steps into the missing middle 

Illustration of the earth on a large pile of money

Carbon removal developer Graphyte raised a $30 million Series A to bury bricks of captured emissions underground.

Why it matters: The company says its technology is cheap, easy to track, and able to quickly deploy.

How it works: Graphyte takes timber, farming residue and other material that would otherwise release carbon via burning or decomposition.

The company dries the stuff to prevent degradation, compresses it into blocks wrapped in protective barriers, and then stores it underground with sensors.

Between the lines: The startup says the approach allows it to more easily track how much carbon it's removing from the atmosphere, a challenge that's chilled investors to other approaches such as spreading carbon-absorbing basalt on soil or olivine on beaches.

Driving the news: Prelude Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital led the all-equity round, which closed July 29 after a roughly four-month raise.

Existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Overture Climate VC participated. 

What we're watching: Graphyte's first site, in Arkansas, has already neared a removal cost of $100 per ton — a milestone price target set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

"It's getting toward a really breakthrough cost," Prelude Ventures managing director Matt Eggers says

Reality check: The approach doesn't fall within one of the types of carbon removal eligible for federal tax credits.

What's next: The company plans to build four removal facilities in 2025 and 2026. It's targeting 5 million tons of annual CO2 removal by 2030.

Going underground

👀 NuScale under the microscope: The SMR developer is under some kind of investigation by the SEC, per a report yesterday from alleged short-seller Hunterbrook.

"We have confirmed with Division of Enforcement staff that the investigation from which you seek records is still active and ongoing," the SEC told Hunterbrook, responding to public-records requests that Hunterbrook had submitted.

NuScale, in a statement yesterday, said that the "Securities and Exchange Commission has not communicated to NuScale that it is the target of a current or prospective investigation, and the Company is unaware of any reason for such an investigation."

🍌 Food waste machines: About 1,400 Walmart and Sam's Club stores are now using a system called Zero Depack that could double the amount of food waste each location is able to recycle, reports Axios NW Arkansas.

Local Arkansas company Denali has developed a machine that mechanically separates the organic material from packaging, reducing manpower needs and increasing the amount of food that can simply be put in a bin.

Denali trucks the material to a central location, separates it, and turns it into organic compost, animal-feed ingredients or, in some cases, biofuels.

⛈️ Weather sensing raise: Raad Labs, a startup using blockchain technology for decentralized weather monitoring for distributed energy resources like far-flung solar panels, raised a $2.25 million SAFE round. 

CoinFund led the Miami startup's raise, joined by Tribe, EV3, and Protagonist. Raad Labs was incubated at Montauk Climate. 

Temperature check

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

• Unspun, an Oakland 3D weaving technology developer, raised a $32m Series B led by DCVC, joined by Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon and SOSV. Go deeper

• Simple Energy, an Indian electric scooter company, raised $20m in a Series A round. Go deeper

• AeroShield Materials, an MIT energy-efficiency spinout, raised $5m from MassMutual Ventures and insiders Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and MassVentures. Go deeper

• Marcely, a German solar provider for multiunit buildings, raised €4m led by Virida Capital and Venture Stars, joined by insiders Enjoy Ventures and Climate Founders. Go deeper

• Amperecloud, a German energy asset management provider, added €3.3m to its Series A, bringing the round's total to €9m. Renewables developer Encevo led, joined by Point9 and Vireo Electrification Fund. Go deeper

• Millow, a Swedish alt-meat developer received a €2.4m grant from the European Innovation Council Accelerator and up to €15m in equity funding from the EIC Fund. Go deeper

• OpusFlow, a Dutch B2B software developer for low-carbon energy installers, received a €1.7m investment from Peak. Go deeper

• OnSight Technology, an SF-based solar monitoring company, raised an undisclosed amount from Convective Capital. Go deeper

• Infrastructure investor I Squared Capital agreed to acquire Priority Power Management, an energy management provider in The Woodlands, Texas. Go deeper

• I Squared also agreed to acquire a controlling interest in UK energy distribution operator Aurora Utilities. Go deeper

• Swiss SAF developer Metafuels received a $4.9m grant from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy to build a pilot fuels plant. Go deeper

• Fluence Energy, the Arlington, Va., energy storage provider, and Excelsior Energy Capital, an Excelsior, Minn., renewables investor, agreed to install 2.2 GWh of U.S. battery storage projects starting in 2025. Go deeper

• BMW plans to open five battery assembly plants in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Hungary and China. Go deeper

• Tesla is recalling 1.8m+ U.S. vehicles due to a software glitch that could fail to detect an unlatched hood. Go deeper

• Vancouver mining company Graphite One announced a non-binding anode-materials supply agreement with electric automaker Lucid. Go deeper

• Air New Zealand is dropping its 2030 emissions reduction target, citing delays of fuel-efficient aircraft and costly green fuels, per Reuters. Go deeper

• The Science-Based Targets Initiative, an effort to set standards for emissions reductions, indicated that it will continue to oppose the use of carbon offsets to hit climate goals. Go deeper

• Mitsubishi Motors is in talks to join Nissan and Honda's EV and AI partnership. Go deeper

• A Germany regulator said Volkswagen and Rivian can move ahead with their planned JV. Go deeper

• China and Russia submitted challenges to the International Seabed Authority concerning U.S. claims to the seabed in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Bering Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Go deeper

• Rolls Royce's 470 MW SMR design completed the second stage of a UK regulator assessment. Go deeper

• Vertical Aerospace, a UK eVTOL developer, completed a tethered flight (and landing) of its VX4 prototype aircraft. Go deeper

Hot deals

• Greg Renwick was named CEO and president of Sonoro Energy, succeeding Richard Wadsworth. Go deeper

• Joe Klecha joined The Nuclear Company, a Charlotte, N.C., nuclear power developer, as chief nuclear officer. Klecha previously oversaw construction of Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4. Go deeper

• Steve Beresford, currently an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia, was appointed to the board of Power Nickel. Go deeper

It's personnel

Energy company AES showed off its solar panel-installing, AI-enabled, robot called Maximo. 

Why it matters: The latest computing tech can help solar developers build farms more quickly and efficiently. 

Zoom in: AES says Maximo has already installed 10 MW worth of solar panels, and it'll be used on a large project in Kern County, Calif., that will sell power to Amazon.

Photo of the day: A solar installing robot

AES' maximo robot that installs solar panels 

A Maximo robot built by AES installs solar panels. Image: Courtesy of AES 

😶‍🌫️ Katie is fully fogged-in in her neighborhood, and it's nice and cozy.

🏊 Alan wants to know when competitive swimmers finally decided that goggles go under the swim cap instead of over. (His college teammate: "Straps on the outside are very old-fashioned.")

Thank you to Michael Flaherty and Chris Speckhard for today's edits.

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

July 30, 2024

1 big thing: Fusion's enabling tech