Climate

Rocket Lab backer Outset raises $25M to fund New Zealand’s deep tech moonshots

New Zealand’s deep tech ambitions just got a $25 million boost.  Outset Ventures, the Auckland-based venture firm and incubator that spun out unicorns like Rocket Lab and LanzaTech, has closed its second fund at an oversubscribed $41.5 million NZD.  The fund’s mission is to back startups working on hard science and engineering breakthroughs – technologies […]

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Gridcare thinks more than 100 MW of data center capacity is hiding in the grid

Hyperscalers and data center developers are in a pickle: They all want to add computing power tomorrow, but utilities frequently play hard to get, citing years-long waits for grid connections. “All the AI data centers are struggling to get connected,” Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of Gridcare, told TechCrunch. “They’re so desperate. They are looking

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California prepares to sue feds after Senate revokes the state’s EV rule

California is preparing to sue the federal government in recover its right to set vehicle emissions standards, Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general, told TechCrunch in a statement. Senate Republicans voted on Thursday 51 to 44 to overturn a waiver that allowed California to set stricter air pollution standards for vehicles. The state has received

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Alt Carbon scores $12M seed to scale carbon removal in India

From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. The climate-tech startup, which locks away carbon for thousands of years through enhanced rock weathering on farmlands, attracted investment

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Trump administration may sell deep-sea mining leases at startup’s urging

The U.S. Department of the Interior said Tuesday it’s beginning the process of selling deep sea mining leases after a request from startup Impossible Metals. The agency said the process would “evaluate a potential mineral lease sale in the waters offshore American Samoa.” The administrative procedure requires a publication in the federal register and the

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The Nuclear Company raises $51M to develop massive reactor sites

The Nuclear Company is taking an old approach to building new nuclear reactors. Rather than gin up a new design or try to mass manufacture smaller reactors, it wants to develop a series of reactors using existing designs. The two-year-old startup announced a Series A last month that included investments from CIV, Goldcrest Capital, MCJ

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House GOP wants to cut parts of the Inflation Reduction Act while sparing others

Republican leadership in the Ways and Means committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released Monday night a draft of a reconciliation bill that seeks to undo much of the Inflation Reduction Act. The landmark 2022 law implemented a range of incentives that spurred the production of clean energy, electric vehicles, carbon capture, and battery

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GM’s new ‘manganese rich’ battery promises cheaper EVs in 2028

General Motors revealed Tuesday a new battery chemistry called lithium-manganese-rich (LMR), which it says should slash costs while delivering driving range that’s just shy of the most advanced batteries on the market.  “With LMR, we can deliver over 400-mile range in our in our trucks while significantly reducing our battery costs,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice

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InventWood is about to mass produce wood that’s stronger than steel

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it actually comes from a lab in Maryland. In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, had devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline grabbing discovery that wouldn’t make it

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