Good Morning
What weâre reading this week:
A Massive Win, and What it Means (McKibben)
The huge number of raises listed this week - 2024 has officially kicked off
The GreendicatorÂ
Top Deals of the Week
Instagrid, a Stuttgart-based startup using software to improve portable batteries, raised a $95M Series C at a $400M-500M valuation led by Teachersâ Venture Growth (TC)
Community solar and distributed renewables platform 38 Degrees North raised $120M in funding from S2G Ventures (PRN)
Vertical Aerospace, an electric aviation company, raised $50M in funding from founder and CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick (BW)
EV ecosystem startup Monta raised an $86.3M Series B led by Energize Capital and GreenPoint Partners (EU)
Sion Power, an AZ-based developer of next-gen batteries, raised a $75M Series A led by LG Energy Solution (BW)
Mycelium startup Infinite Roots raised a $58M Series B led by Dr. Hans Riegel Holding (TC)
Firetech startup AiDash raised a $50M Series C led by Lightrock (BW)
CheckSammy, a waste and sustainability operator, raised $45M in funding led by I Squared Capital (PRN)
Welligence Energy Analytics, an energy data and intelligence firm, raised $41M in growth funding led by Elephant (FN)
Albedo, a three-year-old startup based in Broomfield, Co., that provides very high-resolution satellite imagery from space for applications in sectors like energy, infrastructure, agriculture, urban development, insurance, supply chain, sustainability, and defense, raised a $35 million round led by Standard Investments (TC)
Captura, a startup using Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, raised a $21.5M Series A extension led by Future Planet Capital (VC)
The Mediterranean Food Lab, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that sells natural flavor enhancers specifically designed for meat alternatives, raised a $17 million Series A round led by GullspĂĽng Re:food, with PeakBridge, Arancia International, and FoodBridge also participating. Alt Meat has more here.
Ceezer, a carbon credits startup, raised an $11.2M Series A led by HV Capital (TC)
Element Zero, a two-year-old Perth startup that says it has developed a method to produce steel and other metals with zero carbon emissions, raised a $10 million seed round. Playground Global was the deal lead. ESG Today has more here.
XGS Energy, a Palo Alto startup that says it has developed a unique heat harvesting system that allows for more efficient and cost-effective extraction of geothermal energy, raised a $9.7 million round led by Constellation Technology Ventures. Pulse 2.0 has more here.
Plant-based whole cuts startup Chunk Foods raised a $7.5M seed extension round led by Cheyenne Ventures (TC)
Tynt Technologies, the developer of the âfirst-ever blackout dynamic ultra-energy-efficientâ window, raised a $7.1M seed II round led by KOMPAS (VC)
Alt Mobility, a three-year-old New Delhi startup whose platform helps businesses manage their commercial electric vehicle fleets, raised a $6 million round consisting of equity and debt. The deal was co-led by Shell Ventures, Eurazeo, EV2 Ventures, and Twynam. Entrackr has more here.
Reel, a Copenhagen startup that matches companies with renewable electricity to reduce emissions and electricity costs, raised a $5.4 million round led by Transition. Tech.eu has more here.
Concrete4Change, a two-year-old UK startup that captures and mineralizes carbon dioxide into concrete, raised a $3.2 million seed round led by Zacua Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.
HutanBio, a four-year-old British startup that develops biodegradable plastic alternatives using agricultural waste, raised a $2.8 million round. The deal lead was Clean Growth Fund. More here.
Metris, a London startup founded last year that uses AI to guide property owners through initial solar assessments from installation to ongoing energy management, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round. Octopus Ventures and Aenu VC invested in the deal. Business Green has more here.
Bioeutectics, a two-year-old startup based in Mendoza, Argentina, that produces green solvents for use in industries including food, pharmaceuticals, personal care, cosmetics, and agrotech, raised a $2.1 million round led by Atento Capital. LatamList has more here.
Eddy Grid, a startup that offers a decentralized network of batteries in order to store green energy, raised a $1.6 million round led by Graduate Entrepreneur. Silicon Canals has more here.
Green Theory
Is rooftop solar an anti-solution?
Between bashing door-to-door solar salespeople, and accusing solar companies of fraudulently inflating the value of solar assets, the point of Alana Semuelsâ latest TIME article is clear: solar is built on lies. If you are just now tuning into solar via this recent piece, you'd be excused for thinking rooftop solar is pure evil.
Comparing rooftop solar loans to the mortgages of the Great Recession, the article then begs several questions. Is rooftop solar about to fall apart? Could it cause a recession? And is it ruining the climate fight?
While rightly pointing out the rapid financialization of residential solar installations, Semuels remains silent on the clear societal benefits of solar leases and loans.
Let's unpack the articleâs claims and see if the attention-grabbing headline is worth so much hand wringing.
Wall Street Monsters
One of the major turning points in the residential solar industry, according to Semuels, was the embrace of Wall Street funding. As Semuels writes,
Since at least 2016, big solar companies have used Wall Street money to fund their growth. This financialization raised the consumer cost of the panels and led companies to aggressively pursue sales to make the cost of borrowing Wall Street money worth it.
First off, for all complaints about finance, could anyone find a US industry where national players largely don't pursue money from Wall Street?
To the next point, on the cost impacts, the cost of a US residential solar installation has, in fact, fallen since 2016. For any financialization-driven consumer price hikes, these cents-per-watt charges were no match for the improving value proposition of rooftop solar. Semuels continues,
National solar companies essentially became finance companies that happened to sell solar, engaging in calculations that may have been overly optimistic about how much money the solar leases and loans actually bring in.
Plainly, national public corporations are finance companies that happen to sell what they happen to sellâsolar or otherwise. For a ubiquitous but largely invisible example, examine how airlines earn profit off of rewards points, while losing money on flying.
In terms of over-optimism about financial returns, it seems straightforward that largely new financial products would take a long time to be valued properly. Whether the widescale fraud claims are accurate, the auditors will decide. Most new-fangled forecasts will look overly optimistic or pessimistic with the bias of hindsight.
The Mortgage Mirage
Semuels is correct that national solar companies sell securities based on solar loans and leases. At the same time, comparing these solar-backed securities to those backed by mortgages in the 2000s is deceptive on a few levels.
Primarily, the total size of the solar-backed securities market is roughly $4 billion, while we measure the mortgage-backed securities in the trillions of dollars. US residential real estate represents over 10% of global wealth, and US residential solar loans are a mere 0.003%. With far fewer homes impacted by the worst-case outcomes, and limited potential for negative spillover to other spending, solar-ABS looks grossly out of proportion to the massive scale of the Great Recession.
Lie Bubble?
Individual examples of disgraceful sales tactics tug at our hearts, but high-turnover solar sales teams donât retain reps accused of fraud for long. Most homeowners get several quotes for solar, making overcharging difficult with serious buyers.
By relying on anecdotes and largely decontextualized data points, Semuelsâ series of anti-solar articles have yet to provide compelling evidence of the scale of the damage from manipulative salespeople. As more folks become educated about solar and alternatives to loans or leases, the space for fraud, however big, will shrink.
Deployable
Semuelsâ paints rooftop solar as downright negative for society: relieving governments and big companies of responsibility for climate action, and placing it on âtens of thousands of Americans who canât afford ⌠solar.â
For those of us in climate tech, we know rooftop solar, and solar at large, isnât the only answer to driving a just energy transition. As one of many solutions, rooftop solar could never excuse any powerful institutions from taking action.
Still, we should be figuring out how to better deploy clean, distributed energy, rather than leveraging broader financialization symptoms to create a solar-only critique. After all, rooftop solar is the number two energy solution for decarbonizing by 2050, according to Project Drawdown.
Despite hitting on solar themes reflected in the broader economy, Semuelsâ narrow and almost comically uncharitable presentation of the sector creates unusual standards for solar that would apply to no other business, let alone an industry that offers one of few deployable climate solutions before 2030. The residential solar industry has always adapted to new policy and financial environments, as well as new top logos, and will continue to put clean GW on the grid for decades to come.
The Closer
âPlaytime," day 44 of "75 Days of Art" / Coastal wolf pups play tirelessly for hours on end, an essential time for learning the physical and social skills that will assist their survival as they grow older. This pair, only months old, tussled over an eagle feather they had discovered along a riverbank in the intertidal zone of British Columbia's vast, rugged coastline.â (Source)