Climate

Bill Gates-backed Arnergy to expand solar access in Nigeria with $18M as demand surges

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Demand for solar energy in power-starved Nigeria has soared in the last decade thanks to worsening grid reliability and rising fuel costs. That’s drawn investor interest to Arnergy, a cleantech startup meeting that need. The company just raised a $15 million Series B extension (on top of a $3 million B1 round last year), bringing […]

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Does Colossal Biosciences’ dire wolf creation justify its $10B+ valuation?

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On Monday, the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences announced its most ambitious results to date: the dire wolf. These are creatures that have been extinct for more than 12,000 years made famous by the HBO show Game of Thrones. These white, fluffy animals live on a 2,000-acre preserve in a location so secretive that journalists, including

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XL Batteries is using petrochemical infrastructure to store solar and wind power

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Plenty of materials — from sulfur and sodium to manganese and organic molecules — have tried to topple the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery. And, so far, they’ve all failed. Organic batteries, which are built from some of the most abundant chemicals here on Earth, including carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, has been perhaps the most frustrating failure.

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Former Tesla exec Drew Baglino’s new startup is rethinking the electrical transformer

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Former Tesla executive Drew Baglino has a new startup developing solid-state transformers for the electric grid, Axios reported. The new company, Heron Power, is raising between $30 million to $50 million for a Series A, according to the report, with Capricorn Investment Group pegged to lead the round. Baglino was a longtime employee at Tesla,

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Space solar startup Aetherflux raises $50M to launch first space demo in 2026

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Aetherflux, the space solar startup founded by Baiju Bhatt, the billionaire co-founder of Robinhood, has raised $50 million in a Series A round as it works to launch its first low Earth orbit demonstration in 2026.  The San Carlos, California-based startup, which came out of stealth last October, aims to eventually launch a constellation of

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Who are climate conscious consumers? Not who you’d expect, says Northwind Climate

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Sometimes, surprises are lurking in everyday data. Take a category of consumers that Doug Rubin’s startup, Northwind Climate, calls “climate doers.” They’re concerned about climate change and tend to prioritize climate friendly purchases, the sort of identifiers that might be stereotypically associated with things like buying organic foods or prioritizing local businesses.  “Turns out that

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Nuclear startup Terrestrial Energy goes public via SPAC, netting $280 million in merger

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Terrestrial Energy, a small nuclear startup, merged with an acquisition company on Wednesday.  The Canadian company is developing small modular reactors and expects to net $280 million from the deal. Before the SPAC merger, Terrestrial Energy had raised $94 million, according to PitchBook. The combined entity expects to list on Nasdaq under the symbol ISMR.

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Earth AI’s algorithms found critical minerals in places everyone else ignored

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Last summer, mining startup KoBold made a splash when it said it had discovered in Zambia one of the world’s largest copper deposits in more than a decade. Now, another startup, Earth AI, exclusively told TechCrunch about its own discovery: promising deposits of critical minerals in parts of Australia that other mining outfits had ignored

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Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems hits key reactor construction milestone

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Commonwealth Fusion Systems marked a major milestone Tuesday morning, announcing the installation of a key component of its Sparc demonstration reactor. The new part is a 24-foot wide, 75-ton stainless steel circle that forms the foundation of the tokamak, the doughnut-shaped heart of a fusion reactor that CFS hopes will be the first of its

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Revel opens first EV fast-charging hub in San Francisco

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Brooklyn-based electric vehicle charging infrastructure startup Revel on Monday launched its first fast-charging station in San Francisco, kicking off its plans to expand across the Bay Area over the next year.  “For years, Revel has operated the largest, fastest, and most reliable fast-charging network in New York City,” Frank Reig, co-founder and CEO of Revel,

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