Climate

Battery manufacturer Powin files for bankruptcy months after landing $200M loan

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Battery manufacturer Powin filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. The Oregon-based company said it has more than $300 million in debt. The Chapter 11 filing will let the company continue operating while it restructures its debt. Powin manufactured grid-scale batteries using lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells from China. Powin had been searching for alternative domestic suppliers, but the […]

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Standard Nuclear emerges from the ashes of a failed startup

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Standard Nuclear emerged from stealth Wednesday with $42 million in funding to make advanced nuclear fuel. Except Standard Nuclear isn’t an entirely new company. Rather, it’s built on assets purchased at auction following the bankruptcy of the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) for $28 million. The new company’s CEO, Kurt Terrani, served as vice president

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Proxima Fusion joins the club of well-funded nuclear contenders with €130M Series A

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Commercial nuclear fusion power isn’t a reality yet. But venture capital is flowing into startups that promise that clean, safe, and virtually limitless energy is no longer just a distant dream. Most fusion companies that have raised over $100 million are based in the United States. Not Proxima Fusion, a German startup that has just

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Mitra Chem is raising $50M for its cheaper, domestic battery materials

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Battery material startup Mitra Chem has raised $15.6 million of a planned $50 million funding round, according to a regulatory filing seen by TechCrunch. Mitra Chem is developing materials to make lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries store more energy. Automakers have begun to turn to LFP in an attempt to trim costs from electric vehicle battery packs,

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Clean energy investment hits new highs and shows no sign of slowing

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The world is set to invest nearly twice as much in clean energy as fossil fuels this year, according to a new International Energy Agency report. While fossil fuel outlays are still significant — about $1.15 trillion this year — they’ll be dwarfed by clean energy, which is expected to receive $2.15 trillion in 2025.  But

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Breakneck data center growth challenges Microsoft’s sustainability goals

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Microsoft’s new sustainability report, released late last week, shows how a carbon-heavy economy can weigh on a company that wants to be carbon light. Since 2020, its carbon emissions are up 23.4%, mostly a result of breakneck data center buildout to support its growing cloud and AI operations. Buying enough clean electricity is actually the

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Trump administration to claw back $3.7B in clean energy and manufacturing awards

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The Department of Energy announced today that it would be clawing back $3.7 billion worth of awards made under the Biden administration for clean energy and manufacturing. Large corporations and growing startups were caught up in the decision. Energy secretary Chris Wrights said the moves were “due diligence” on the part of the Trump administration.

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Tesla alum’s Heron Power closes $38M Series A to transform key grid technology

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Heron Power, the electrical grid-focused startup founded by former Tesla executive Drew Baglino, announced Thursday it has raised $38 million in a Series A funding round. Heron Power is developing solid-state transformers, which promise to be more compact and responsive than the century-old analog models. Transformers are key parts of the electrical grid, stepping voltage

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Tesla pleads for Senate to spare its booming energy business

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Tesla is a business built, in part, on government regulations and incentives, from a Department of Energy loan guarantee in 2009 to the regulatory credits it sells to other automakers, which have driven a third of its $32 billion in profits since 2012.  Now, the company’s energy business — a rare bright spot amid faltering demand

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

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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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