Talking Climate Tech 017 redux

⚡Grid Startups | 🌭 EV v Sausage | 🌬️ Flux-Capacity | 🏠 Turbine-house

Issued to subscribers 28th March 2025.

I've attended some very interesting conferences the last couple of weeks, which have had a common thread of grid challenges, feeding directly into energy security and sovereign energy strategy.

Chatham House Climate & Energy Summit had significant scope around grids - be it sourcing global components such as transformers, the epic challenge of repairing and keeping the Ukrainian grid active, or digital twins for optimisation and operational efficiencies via Neara in the TeX Factor innovation panel. ⚡

This week at the Solent Coastal Powerhouse Summit with Maritime UK, much of the panel discussion was around managing the transition to clean maritime shore power, drop-in fuels and long-term fuel solutions. That challenge, decision-making and forward planning on shore-power versus fuel strategy for ship owner-operators is complicated by local grid capacity, congestion and connections. UK forecast dates for port shore power grid connections - 2032 to 2037! 🔌

Let's take a look at some startups that are innovating in grid equipment and technology solutions that look poised to significantly drive change in our aged yet critical global infrastructure. 🔽

💸 Startup News

🇬🇧 Ionate - Raised approx $17m Series A for their hardware-software enabled hybrid intelligent transformers. It's a market dominated by the big players - ABB, Schneider, GE, Siemens, and Mitsubishi. 🔩

🇵🇹 Enline - Approx $5m raised to date through to their Series A in January 2024. Modular application of AI and Digital Twin software tools for design, power generation and operations. 🧠

🇺🇸 TS Conductor - Approx $60m raised mid 2024, and recent comittment of $134m to build a second production facility. Reconductoring HVDC powerlines with new construction materials. 🔗

🔎 Deeper Dive

Autmotive 🚗

We haven't had much auto sector and EV news lately, so let's check back in - two very different perspectives, reflective of the current trajectory and potential outlook 🤔

Chinese EV maker BYD took a giant leap to world domination last year, 29% growth, topping $100 billion in sales last year for the first time, shifting 4.29 million units. 📈

And Tesla? Although the share price has stabilised in recent days, it couldn't hold up to BYD in 2024 - units delivered 1.79 million. That's quite a differential. Of course, the big E question remains. Elon Musk told Tesla employees “hang onto your stock,” at an all-hands rally the troops session. The writing is on the wall for Elon as Tesla CEO I think... 📉

Back in the EU, well, a different perspective. Volkswagen sold a record number of its in-house-produced sausages last year, up 2% to 8.5 million sausages in 2024.

VW also managed to ship approx 9 million total units from VW Group [VW, Audi, Porsche etc] by comparison, although with approx just 0.75 million EVs. 😬

Trump Watch 💥

Back onto trying to 'acquire' Greenland 🇬🇱 again this week. They were planning to send the scouting party, [second lady, Usha Vance] to a dog sled race and other cultural events. When they realised she wouldn't be as welcome as they might have hoped and was likely to see a public protest, they switched it to the US military base and sent JD as well. Obviously they were never invited.

Impacts of this US posturing, other than future attempts at annexation via actual boots on the ground - expect the loss of arctic scientific research, as you know, they prefer to delete and ignore all that science stuff. I think Trump has forgotten Greenland, and Canada, are both in NATO, in his haste to control melting Arctic trade routes and mineral resources.

On that note, the Trump administration released the intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment report that, unsurprisingly, omits science-related impacts - climate crisis, extreme weather, health, food security, or global geopolitics.  More here from Sierra Club.

We have read a lot about NOAA lately, among many other climate-related purges. A great save here on the FEMA tool from The Guardian, which was rebadged and hidden, but still got removed!!

You would think it wise to keep a Future Climate Risk tool, you know, for the protection of the general public, infrastructure, planning, etc. 🤯

Wind Capacity Flux 🌬️

Not all is quite as it might seem in wind capacity factors, according to the excellent analyst at Thunder Says Energy, Rob West if you want to follow on LinkedIn.

The capacity factors of wind projects average 26% globally, but range from 10% to 60%, varying between and within countries

🏡 Konfab News

Train-tastic 🛤️

I've not seen the desk much lately. After Data Centre World on the 12th in London, then Chatham House Climate & Energy Summit on the 19th, in London again, it was back to London yet again, on the 24th, for more Geothermal. And then the 26th and 27th at the Maritime UK Solent Coastal Powerhouse Summit - at least that was in Southampton and a local train!

More on my observations from DCW over here on LinkedIn, you will have seen some news from Chatham House in last week's Newsletter 016.

IDAIC 🧠

You can catch the introductory call to the new Innovate UK and industry stakeholder coalition for the advancement of AI for industrial decarbonisation, IDAIC, Wednesday 2nd April - I am looking forward to lending a supporting hand and learning more! Sign-up here.

😃 Good Stuff

Geothermal Comms 💬

Part of the challenge with any new energy solution is onboarding the public sentiment and gaining social license. The back and forth still goes on today with wind, solar and EVs. 🙄

Part of the problem with geothermal for the public is, well, what exactly is it anyway?

Baseload Capital have coalesced key stakeholders, associations, workshops and research to try to meet this head-on and leverage global geothermal scale-up.

...a simpler story that highlights its real-world applications, and a collaborative effort to elevate geothermal on the global stage...the geothermal community to establish a common narrative, align on definitions, and promote a simplified, cohesive message...

Great move, looks like a very positive step and could form the backbone of messaging that enables public traction, and ultimately projects. More on the Whitepaper here.

Broken Universe 🌌

The universe may stop expanding. That cool dark energy is weakening, based on 3 years of data from 15 million galaxies. The Big Bang may become a Big Crunch. Yes, in about 20 billion years, the universe could eventually collapse into itself.

Wind Turbine Tiny-Home ♻️

We all want a cool WFH office or new tiny-home don't we? Quite fancy one of these myself! Based on this old small 2MW nacelle design, of which there are approx 10,000 still in use globally. Plenty of room and lot's of bigger nacelles available in the future! More here.

Pylon of the Month ⚡

It's that time people, here is your tower of power this week - as promised something a bit different from the RIBA final 6 shortlist:

Let's get some suitable high-brow RIBA commentary on this curved wonder;

Plexus creates a poetic dialogue between structure and landscape. Its shape responds to changes in topography, striding across the horizon in sequence with a lightness and grace. Although seemingly filigree in nature, these pylons have been designed for resilience, adapting to different site conditions by expansion and contraction of the arced form. The pylons fluctuate in size and profile, visibly mapping the terrain.

Poetic dialogue between structure and landscape indeed! I had to look filigree up to be honest. Anyway, I have to say, it is pretty cool looking.

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 🙏

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