Remember last week when we predicted the infrastructure bill would pass with $300B in tax credits for clean energy? Looks like the US will get that and more, with a total $555B of the package earmarked for climate initiatives. The bill shrank from $3.5T to $1.75T, but climate initiatives only shrank from $600M to $555M. First, though, it has to pass. (Atlantic reports).
Also, new reporting shows climate tech startups raised a record-shattering $12.9B in Q3 (Pitchbook reports).
Top Deals of the Week
Yotta Energy has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by WIND Ventures (SB)
The story: This five-year-old, Austin, Tex.-based company is scaling its innovative modular (i.e. - device-level) solar storage product.
Why we’re excited about it: Because solar and wind power provide massive but inconsistent sources of energy, storage remains a grand challenge preventing national grids from going fully electric. Yotta’s flagship product claims to make solar more affordable for commercial use by conveniently packing the batteries right there underneath the solar panels!
The story: The four-year-old, Nairobi, Kenya-based startup is converting diesel and gasoline vehicles to electric ones, as well as developing new electric vehicles.
Why we’re excited about it: For one, decreasing transportation's dependence on oil without needing entirely new vehicle fleets should accelerate the applicability and deployment of renewables. On top of that, the focus on Sub-Saharan African countries, where most vehicles must be imported, makes vehicle conversion especially key.
ProLogium Technology, a Taiwanese battery maker, raised $326M of funding from dGav Capital, Primavera, and SBCVC, valuing the company at ~$2-3B (RT)
Fat tire e-bike startup Rad Power Bikes raised a $154M Series D led by Fidelity (TC)
Persefoni, a climate accounting startup, raised a $101M Series B led by Prelude and TPG (TC)
Daring Foods, a 3.5-year-old, L.A.-based maker of plant-based chicken products, raised $65 million in Series C funding. Founders Fund led the round (TC)
Future Farm, a two-year-old, Brazil-based alt-meat startup, raised $58 million in Series C funding led by BTG. (TC)
Loam Bio, a two-year-old, Sydney, Australia-based carbon removal startup, has raised A$40 million in Series A funding led by Time Ventures. (SD)
Sofar Ocean Technologies, a nearly three-year-old, San Francisco-based maker of instruments for ocean data collection, has raised $39 million in Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and Foundry Group. (A)
Turtletree, a 1.5-year-old, Singapore-based biotech startup that's using cell-based technology in milk production, has raised $30 million led by VERSO Capital in what it says is just its first tranche of Series A funding. (PRN)
Digital token payment system for EV chargers Xeal raised a $11M Series A led by Arctern Ventures and Moderne Ventures (TC)
Plan A, a year-old, Berlin-based carbon accounting B2B SaaS platform, has raised a $10 million Series A led by HV Capital (UB)
Sway, a year-old, Berkeley-based startup that’s making an alternative to plastic packaging from seaweed, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Valor Sirens Ventures (F)
Greenwork, a nine-month-old, San Francisco-based software company that connects workforce training programs to employers in clean energy, transportation, and the trades, has raised $2.4 million in pre-seed funding (VC)
One Actionable Item
Understand your local recycling
Easy one this week - Google “<Your town’s name> recycling rules”. Only a month or two ago did I learn paper towels are compostable in San Francisco, not recyclable!
Mirror mirror, on the side, who's the drag upon our glide?
In Saving Us, Katharine Hayhoe explains that some roads in Texas are so flat and straight, one can drive the whole way by looking in the rear-view mirror. She extends an analogy to explain that the narrow road of strategies that have gotten society to where we are will no longer service us in the age of accelerating climate impact (upcoming curves in the road).
Once we look up from the metaphorical rearview mirror, to fix our gaze on the future, you may notice some other mirrors poking out of the side of your vehicle. The aerodynamic drag of side mirrors accounts for about 6% of a car’s drag coefficient, and roughly 10% of the energy used by a passenger vehicle goes to fighting its drag. If we multiply these values through the US’ total GHG emissions coming from light, medium, and heavy vehicles, you’ll find that about 1% of our annual emissions are going to move these mirrors around the country.
Tesla has been trying to replace side mirrors with cameras since 2013, and upstart Aptera is banking on new policies to make their mirrorless vehicle street legal before launch. Aptera’s coupe boasts the drag coefficient of a 1-foot cube hurtling down the highway, equivalent to just the mirrors on a Ford F-150. That’s part of the reason they claim top ranges of 1000 miles on a single charge, and a daily production of 40 miles of travel from its rooftop solar panels alone.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, we know Jevons is turning in his grave. Would this boost to overall vehicle efficiency be a boon or bane to our emissions? What policy choices could ensure this technological advancement reduces our national carbon footprint?
“Delhi, India contains approximately 16 million residents. The neighborhoods of Santosh Park and Uttam Nagar, both pictured here, are home to some of the city’s poorest people and contain its most built-up and densely populated land. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between the wealth of a residential area and its total number of trees and the amount of green space. This overview is a particularly striking example of that trend.” (Daily Overview)