Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Largest great ape to ever live went extinct because of climate change (ABC)
The hidden climate cost of everything around us (MIT)
2023 climate tech investment trends (listen from Latitude)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![Mush Foods Targets 'Hybrid Meat' With Mycelium Protein That Blends With Beef Mush Foods Targets 'Hybrid Meat' With Mycelium Protein That Blends With Beef](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0198a082-748b-4240-9ab7-713888f72a21_1024x768.jpeg)
Community-scale battery storage developer NineDot Energy raised $225M in equity from Manulife Investment Management and Carlyle (BW)
Water management and testing system 120Water raised a $43M growth investment led by Edison Partners (BW)
Vortexa, a real-time global analytics platform for energy and freight markets, raised a $34M Series C led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital (BW)
Cactos, a Helsinki-based battery energy storage systems startup, raised $29M in funding led by OP Finland Infrastructure LP and the Finnish Climate Fund (EU)
Recurrent, a four-year-old Seattle startup that provides EV battery analytics to shoppers and car dealerships, raised a $16 million Series A round led by ArcTern Ventures (GW)
SQIM, an Inarzo, Italy-based startup making mycelium-based leather alternatives, raised an $11.7M round led by CDP Venture Capital and ECBF VC (FN)
Renewable energy storage startup RedoxBlox raised an $8.9M Series A led by Khosla Ventures (BW)
Plastic recycling technology startup Resynergi raised a $6.4M Series B led by Transitions First and Lummus Technology (FN)
Mush Foods, a startup using mushroom mycelium to boost nutrition and sustainability in meat dishes, raised $6.2M in a seed round led by Viola Ventures (PRN)
tibo energy, a two-year-old Dutch startup whose software enables commercial and industrial customers to manage their electrical grids, raised a $3.3 million seed round led by SET Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
Rincell Corporation, an advanced chemistry battery cell manufacturer, raised a $1.2M seed round led by NextGen Battery Chem Ventures (PRN)
Green Theory
US solar’s slouch away from China
Back in March of 2023, we discussed the shakeup of two decade-plus trends in solar: supply chain concentration, and falling hardware prices were both reversing.
Since then, solar prices—while still not rising faster than electricity rates or broader inflation—continued ticking up moderately. At the same time, storage, inverter, and solar panel brands are getting more diverse, according to data on solar quotes for homeowners. Solar energy supply chains are reshaping.
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The US is ramping up domestic clean energy manufacturing, with announcements rolling in every month since we discussed the history of domestic capacity loss. For now, it’s mostly investments and announcements, and won’t be enough to go without imports, anytime soon.
With the federal ruling in favor of Auxin Solar, issued in August, loopholes to tariffs on imports from China will be harder to exploit, opening up more competitive space for new entrants and factories building clean technology elsewhere.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F942698bc-461a-4b20-a5f0-b74d489cf74e_1426x1014.png)
The Inflation Reduction Act may have brought on a boost to domestic manufacturing investment, but a fairly low portion of the dollars are coming from the US. Only about a third of the funding for domestic projects comes from domestic firms, with roughly an equal portion funded by firms headquartered in South Korea, and the remaining third split in half between Japan and the rest of the field.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06d05a2e-3cc9-4db3-be52-b8caa837e87d_1920x1004.png)
Lower interest rates could bring residential solar some growth this year, but other forms of US solar are set to grow year-over-year in 2024. With new incentives and rebates kicking in, as well as improved economics for home batteries, relative to solar alone, it’s not only the share of brands that are getting more diverse among residential energy products, but also the mix of product categories themselves.
Harmonizing the growing list of brands and devices with the largest machines we’ve ever built (humanity’s grid interconnections) is no small feat. To keep these deepening niches in sync, and accelerate the energy transition, climate tech innovators will need to draw on awareness of adjacent verticals, and adapt to the shifting supply landscape.
The Closer
“My first close-up shots of the new eruption on Reykjanes Peninsula which began [last month] (December 18th, 2023). I captured those shots from a safe distance from the town of Vogar, where I sent the drone around 9 kilometers across…” (Source)