Climate

Xprize Carbon awarded to a dirt simple carbon removal technology

Sometimes the simpler idea is the winner. That’s certainly the case with the winner of the Xprize Carbon Removal competition, which was announced on Wednesday. Mati Carbon walked away with the $50 million grand prize for its enhanced rock weathering program that locks carbon in soils for thousands of years. The Musk Foundation underwrote the

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Carbon removal startup Holocene bought by oil and gas giant Occidental

Occidental has bought Holocene, marking the second direct air capture startup the fossil fuel company has bought in two years. The deal was executed through Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of the oil and gas company, for an undisclosed amount. HeatMap first reported the news. Holocene had been racing to advance its amino acid-based

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Google bets on geothermal to power data centers in Taiwan

Google will add 10 megawatts of geothermal power in Taiwan to its renewable portfolio, the company announced Tuesday, marking the search giant’s first geothermal investment in Asia. Swedish company Baseload Capital is developing the project through a local subsidiary, which has been mapping the island for geothermal resources since 2019. It’s not the first geothermal

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

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?

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

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

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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