Talking Climate Tech 016 redux
Chatham House startups, Trump Watch, Big Worm, Ukraine, Fog Water and Pylon of the Month
🌐 Chatham House Startups | 💣 Greenpeace | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 💧 Fog Water
Issued to subscribers 21st March 2025.
Had my first trip up to Chatham House for the annual Climate and Energy Summit this week - a fascinating selection of debates and panel discussions. Some of the topic scope:
▶️ Accelerating the Energy Transition
🔒 Critical Materials [CHRule]
▶️ Just Transition - Africa
▶️ Removals v Reduction - Investment Pathways
🔒 Unlocking Private Finance [CHRule]
🔒 Energy Security [CHRule]
▶️ TeX Factor - Future Innovation
Invited as a supporter and contributor to the TeX Factor Future Innovation pitch session. A great format with x4 innovative companies jousting for top status and audience impact votes. Their propositions were grilled and qualified by an expert panel including Fiona Harvey [Environment Editor, The Guardian], Marisa Drew [CSO, Standard Charter Bank], and Peter Hirsch [2150 VC].
All moderated by a friend of Konfab, the indomitable Richard Delevan of Wicked Problems Podcast. It wasn't under the Chatham House Rule, so you can see the whole session here:
Richard Delevan
In this week's Startup News we take a quick snapshot of what the TeX session line-up is all about.
💸 Startup News
🇬🇧 Eden Geothermal - Raised approx £20m in grant funding and capital to deliver deep geothermal project for heat in Cornwall, UK. ♨️
🇺🇸 ISeeChange - Early stage raising approx. $1m to date and currently in further raise for development and scale. Their AI based peer-peer local weather and climate data enables infrastructure providers adapt to climate change.
🇦🇺 Neara - Closed a $31m Series C round October 2024 for it's predictive modelling digital twin grid infrastructure technology.
🇬🇧 Levidian - Cambridge University spin-out at the nexus of carbon capture, hydrogen and graphene with their modular containerised process solution. Baker Hughes are onboard as an investor for an initial $15m.
Peace Bomb 💣
The Greenpeace ruling in the US, has found them guilty and on the hook for $660m - finding them responsible for defamation and the actions of protesters opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017
More here. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General:
This devastating verdict sets an array of deeply damaging precedents on the rights to freedom of speech, association and peaceful protest and puts the very future of Greenpeace at risk.
Of course, Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer’s billionaire founder, is a major donor to DJT. More on the sham here.
Big Worm 🪱
Liked Dune, you'll love this sand worm. Atlas Energy Solutions [Texas 🇺🇸] has built a $400 million conveyor belt that stretches for 42 miles across state lines...transporting millions of tons of sand for fracking.
Good - less trucks on the roads. Bad - wildlife and habitats. And of course more dilling and fracking. More here.
Trump Watch 💥
More madness, self interest and 'deal making' this week - same as every week!
He wants Ukraine to give him a 6GW Nuclear Power plant now, which did provide 20% of the country's power pre-war. I think it would be quite handy for their sovereignty, if they got that back under Ukrainian control and kept it for the re-build. It's the biggest in Europe, but doesn't work now as Russia blew-up the Kakhovka Dam which provides cooling water. More here. Zelensky:
“We can’t just give this station to someone. And if we want it to start working again, and become safe, Ukrainians must take it over, not only because it is our station and our land. We need to be able to restore the station and make it safe for the entire world. We can’t just give it away,"
Obviously Putin has pretty much ignored all his 'deal-making skills' and ceasfire calls so far. More here.
Under the table while you aren't looking, he is also leveraging all of his conflicts of interest to try and get a Trump family deal for a steak in Binance - the world’s largest crypto exchange. Their CEO, who recently spent four months in prison [terror groups laundering money on the platform] is lobbying the White House for a presidential pardon. 🤔
🏡 Konfab News
Guest Article 📝
We have our next guest author article live on the site. If you didn't catch it via direct email earlier in the week, here it is again;
Christopher Pilgrim
Christopher Pilgrim - Materials and Manufacturing, Innovate UK Business Connect
Christopher Pilgrim takes us through what's been happening in the hard to decarbonise Foundation Industries via current Innovate UK programmes, and what the future looks like. through the new cross-industry body to leverage AI and accelerate its deployment.
There is a joining call on Wednesday, April 2nd, register your interest here.
Recap on some of those Industrial sector innovators from the Innovate UK programmes at the Materials & Manufacturing Showcase 2025 event;
Kane Watkinson
Ukraine 🇺🇦
Having spent significant parts of the day at Chatham House talking about energy security and defence, it's a timely reminder of our friends in Ukraine and what incredible courage they have shown, the horrors they have been subjected to, and what challenges they overcome daily.
Some of the insights on repairing and maintaining the electricity grid, rebuilding as fast as it gets hit by missiles, and sourcing components such as transformers and spare parts, are truly remarkable. That they have any power at all is testimony to the Ukrainian people's resilience and skill. I'm not sure any other countries including the UK, could deliver in the same circumstances.
I have had the pleasure of spending some time talking with a couple of Ukrainian companies over the last couple of years - the calm personas are again remarkable when you consider what's happening on the front line and externally in geopolitics.
Andrii Bondar & Team at R.Flo - a startup developing LDES flow battery. They are looking to place a containerised pilot project in the UK for a 125 kW iron flow battery, 1.5 MWh of capacity (12 hours of storage). Please message me for more details if you can help with a suitable Commercial & Industrial client site.
Tetiana Krechyk and the whole team at Honeycomb Software originating from Ukraine, with offices in UK and the USA. They deliver a whole host of custom software solutions with AI and ML across applications such as smart cities, agriculture, and energy. We hope to have more insights from them soon with a guest article...stay tuned.
Finally, not direct connections of mine, but the company keeping the lights on in Ukraine - fascinating to hear from them at Chatham House, DTek 👏 🫡
😃 Good Stuff
Fog Water 💧
Look out the window, might be a bit murky...what a disappointing day. Well, not to some people. Fog is a new water source in places such as Morroco, Ghana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chile, California and South Africa.
A single net system in Morroco is harvesting 35,000 litres per day! Read more here.
People Power 🤝
There is always hope, this one courtesy of SunriseStat and this research;
On the one hand, it seems wider society is willing to commit to 1%, and we keep hearing about some of the ultra-wealthy willing to pay more tax and help rebalance society and inequality. And then we have those hell-bent on stratospheric wealth, harvesting wealth and self-interest, the anti-climate sentiment - see the current situation in 🇺🇸.
More data here on US wealth inequality, only up to April 2024 - expect that to look a lot worse by the end of the current Presidency.
Legal Battles 💼
Just as Greenpeace is taking one for the team in the USA, this farmer in Peru has had enough and is slugging back 🥊
He is taking on German energy giant RWE in a landmark case, holding them responsible for their share of emissions which has contributed to Andean glacial melt and their requirement to build flood defences. We need more heroes like this in every country. 👏
Pylon of the Month ⚡
I promised you last week something a bit different - something 'inspirational and radical' - one of the designs from Royal Institute of British Architects that didn't make the cut...
What could be more natural than a pylon that replicates a corn plant - just look at those juicy cobs! Surely no NIMBYism on this one?
It didn't make the shortlisted 6. More on those next week!
Thanks as always, let's keep pushing forward with all things climate tech and the real-world solutions that meet our climate challenges.
Remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍
Stay warm, cool and safe wherever you are 🙏
Kane
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