Talking Climate Tech 005 redux
Christmas Startup Gifts, Grids, Climate Adventure, Lawyers and Christmas Pylon!
Issued to subscribers 20th December 2024.
The last Friday before the big day, let's crack on! 🎄❄️
💸 Startup News
🔎 Deeper Dive
🏡 Konfab News
😃 Other Stuff
In the tradition of Christmas, a surprise mixed sackful of startups to watch this week, with nods to some of our konfab contributors 🎁
💸 Startups to Watch
🇨🇭 Hive Power - software for smart grids, raised €3.5m in seed funding from investors including Axpo, Creadd Ventures and Swiss Technology Fund.
🎁 One for Jack Lewis, our first guest article contributor, and AI, LLM and Data Analytics specialist.
🇪🇸 Stellantis and CATL - joint venture to build a large-scale LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery plant in Spain, with an investment of up to $4.1bn.
🎁 One for Amrit Chandan, guest of Episode 1 and founder of a EV battery startup for second life applications way back in 2015.
🇫🇮 AISTI - Series A funding round to €29m to accelerate the production of its innovative acoustic tiles - ignocellulosic wood fibres are processeed into highly porous, lightweight tiles.
🎁 One for me! Only because it's the first startup news I've seen in acoustics for a long time, and I used to work in acoustics, so quite interesting! 🔊
🔎 Deeper Dive
Some musing to keep you in the know, while you are laid out in a food coma.
Big grid investment in the UK, to the tune of £35bn from National Grid over the next 5 years, plus a further £31bn from SE and £11bn. Big numbers indeed. We need a more agile grid, more capacity and efficiency. ⚡
UK currently has capacity of around 65GW, but we have 400GW of backlogged connection projects. We also spend about £1bn per year on curtailment. We need more storage capacity. 🪫
Talking of wind farms - want to see a cool visualisation of GB renewables energy generation? Check this out from Robin Hawkes hobby project. 🌬️
In the battle to reduce emissions and slow down climate breakdown, Earth needs a good lawyer to take on the big guns. It always comes down to the money and the legal teams. Want to catch-up on some greenwashing over the holidays? 🎨
Dive into Client Earth greenwashing files featuring stars of the show Aramco, Chevron, Drax, Equinor, ExxonMobil, INEOS, RWE, Shell and Total. Quite the read. ⚫
🏡 Konfab News
Episode 1 - 'Talking Climate Tech'
It's now live on the site in all its glory 😆
Come one be kind, it's the first one!
Quite the challenge to be honest - planning and getting to know the person beforehand is the fun part. Learning the software, editing, subtitles, post-production, music etc. is not too bad. The hardest part is the session itself and then when you look back at the original recording!
Anyway, the next one will be easier. A very big thanks to Amrit who was great to chat with and has been a strong supporter of konfab, and for me personally, since the outset of this project. 🙏
Kane Watkinson
New Guest Post
Very excited to have Michael Sura onboard as a regular guest collaborator with konfab. More articles from Michael in 2025. He kicks off here with EV v ICE and why we need to rapidly put our foot down on the transition. 🚗⚡
If you don't follow Michael on LinkedIn, then you certainly should now - a leading voice across Transport and Energy with data-driven insights and always with a real-world comparison infographic to hand!
Michael Sura
😃 Other Stuff
Feeling brave?
New Year, new resolutions - got the adventure bug?
Ocean Warrior is open to applications! Hope onboard and take to the high seas as part of the scientific team capturing vital oceanographic and meteorological climate data. Training is given, it's open to anybody, even if you've never been on a boat! Here you go, casting off June 2025! More on Jim McNeil the explorer on LinkedIn.
For taking on the big guns earlier ⬆️ it's great to see Laura Clarke OBE named in the Time100 Climate List for Client Earths sterling work. More on that here.
Back
Pylon of the Month
Where would be without it? If only we could decorate them like trees 🎄💭
I had to find a seasonal pylon...here we are in West Yorkshire, England, in February 2017, with some snow!
Quite the pylon traffic jam by the looks of it - you can read more on how these two lines of pylons turn through 90 degrees here.
That's it for this week!
Happy Christmas, I hope you have a fantastic break with your loved ones. Thanks for your ongoing support and readership. 🙏
Kane 🌱
PS - next year is going to be a good one 😉 I can feel it.
Give a gift, tell your friends and colleagues, it would mean a lot if you could share the konfab so we can continue to build our audience 😄
Kane Watkinson
