Sierra Peterson

To all #climatetech #founders and #funders in NYC and beyond, please join us on June 5th for an evening of #breakthrough #decarbonization #innovation at the ReGen Accelerator #DemoDay! 🎉 Get ready to be inspired by our cohort of #earlystage startups: ​ ▶ aich2 is engineering a novel #hydrogen ecosystem, built around Solid Hydrogen carriers. ​​ ▶ carbogenics produces sustainable #carbon adsorbents from difficult-to-recycle organic waste, including coffee cups and wastewater screenings ​​ ▶ TeamStack.ai is driving better performance by harnessing #AI, data, & the collective intelligence of teams. ​ ▶ Tesleon LLC uses compelling characters and #storytelling to instill compassion for communities and our planet in the next generation. ​ ▶ Tolam Earth is a trusted #marketplace for high-quality, high-impact carbon offsets. Don't miss out! Secure your spot below. Big thank you to Brown Rudnick LLP for hosting this event, our partners at ClimateHaven for their hard work and dedication during the entire program, and to our incredible network of #mentors and #facilitators, each of whom have dedicated time to working with these incredible founders this spring, including Jason Ambrose, Marina Rakhlin, Lauren Zujkowski, Stuart DeCew, Matt Puccini Andy Rooks, Nina Raab, and Bill Stephney. And of course Shai Tamary, Lars Korby and Sarah Cleveland, without whom we would not be able run such a #program. #innovation #sustainability #climateaction #accelerator

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🌍💡 Embracing Interoperability: The Evolution of Carbon Markets 💡🌍 The landscape of carbon markets is rapidly evolving, with a significant shift towards fungibility and interoperability. What does this mean? We (at the SoHo Global Climate Fund) spoke with leading climate fund manager, Charles Bedford of Carbon Growth Partners, to shed light on this important trend in the carbon markets. It's about creating seamless connections between compliance and voluntary markets, allowing for the exchange and recognition of carbon credits across borders and sectors. This trend marks a pivotal moment in our collective efforts towards combating climate change. By enabling carbon credits to be fungible and interoperable, we're fostering a more efficient and scalable approach to carbon pricing and emissions reduction strategies. Companies and organizations now have greater flexibility to participate in markets that align with their goals. #CarbonMarkets #ClimateAction #Fungibility #Interoperability #Sustainability #Innovation #GlobalImpact

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Carbon removal just got a major boost. Puro.earth, the pioneer in durable carbon dioxide removal, has joined forces with Frontier, the billion-dollar carbon removal initiative. This partnership isn't just about offsetting emissions - it's about scaling technologies that actively pull CO2 from our atmosphere. As the climate crisis intensifies, collaborations like this could be the key to turning the tide. #CarbonRemoval #ClimateAction #Sustainability #CleanTech #NetZero

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Attention all dairy lovers (yep, I see you out there, cheese lovers 🧀 & milk chuggers 🥛): I bet you haven't considered the methane (which is 80x more potent than CO2) that those food choices are pumping into the atmosphere. Methane is responsible for about half of the lifecycle emissions of an average dairy product - all because those dairy cows burp...a lot! Given the adverse impact of methane on climate (with methane emissions causing about a third of the warming we are experiencing today), it is time for the financial sector to focus on encouraging the food and agriculture industry to do more to reduce methane emissions. In the words of my colleagues, there's stuff we can do about it: 1) New solutions are emerging that can have a big effect on livestock methane 2) Measurement is also getting better 3) There is policy support available in many places; and 4) The industry is starting to work together to tackle this issue, such as through the EDF-supported Dairy Methane Action Alliance. So check out our new primer on livestock methane for investors (https://lnkd.in/eA9uhfpC), by Joshua Torres and Andrew Howell, which breaks down the state of play with livestock methane and offers up some key engagement questions investors and other finance providers can raise with food and ag companies to get the conversation started. Also see our blog introducing this work (https://lnkd.in/e4cqw6x3).

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Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

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In 2023, the largest segments in the climate tech vertical were low-carbon mobility, industry, grid infrastructure, intermittent renewable energy sources (solar and wind). 50 VC deals for climate tech companies in 2023 exceeded $150 million, and of these, nine exceeded $500 million. Companies that need a lot of capital to execute on a big vision can succeed today. #climatetech #climateVC #climate

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As we scale climate tech solutions, we need to carefully consider the impact to local communities. Thanks Evan Halper for a great front page article in today's The Washington Post that highlights this issue with a proposed CO2 storage plan in Montana. Injecting and storing CO2 in porous geological formations sounds scary, particularly given the negative side effects of fracking. I think the concerned ranchers in Montana are completely justified. But, we need to solve the climate crisis, and CO2 removal is an important part of the solution. This issue will continue as more and more first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects break ground and expand. Early, frequent, and transparent community engagement is critical. #climatechange #climatesolutions #climateaction

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I congratulate Aepnus Technology, a deep-tech startup, for raising $8M to commercialize its National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research work to develop an electrochemical platform to improve circularity and reduce emissions in battery supply chain chemicals, enabling GHG emissions reduction by an expected 3 gigatons by 2050. I congratulate Rhonda Shrader, Executive Director of UC Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship & NSF I-Corps Bay Area. She is an inspiring instructor; I am so fortunate to be in her class during the Summer 24 #Icorps Cohort. I am an Industry Mentor (IM) to Professor Ratnesh Kumar and Professor Shawana Tabassum, PhD who are inventors of plasmonic metamaterial-based gas sensing technology, based on NSF-funded research. It offers an order-of-magnitude lower-cost alternative to techniques like gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR). The technology helps with environmental compliance for GHG emissions in agriculture and manufacturing, Condition Monitoring of gases produced during process control in manufacturing plants, and monitoring of gases in Transformers (HW used in utilities - not the ones for implementing attention 😀). If you're interested in turning your NSF-funded research into a real-world product or service, consider the #Icorps program. It provides intense customer discovery training, where you'll interview 100+ potential customers in just seven weeks. This might sound grueling, but it's an invaluable experience. Remember, in startups, the founder is often the first salesperson. Understanding your customers' needs early on is crucial for success.

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Shocking statistic: 92% of all persistently impoverished communities are served by co-ops. 🤯 With 110 on bill financing programs around the country (mostly run by co-ops), the barriers have never been lower to reduce bills. So why are these communities still suffering? Barriers: Accessibility. Education. Capital. Accessibility: Going through an energy audit, sourcing and hosting 3-5 contractors, and filling out loan applications with little support is HARD. Even tougher to go through this process with confidence.... Education: Expertise is hard to come by in co-op territories and delivering it is expensive! Capital: Many on-bill programs still have credit checks, lengthy bill payment criteria, and small loan funds. In other words, to be successful these programs MUST: 1) Reduce the time intensity 2) Educate homeowners -- get them excited to move forward with confidence! 3) Lighter capital requirements and raise bigger loan funds Is there something else that I've missed? A big thank you to Miguel Yañez-Barnuevo (he, his) for penning this paper and for all his effort helping co-ops get access to the capital they need to help their members! ______________ I'm Grant Gunnison Click my name + follow + 🔔 to learn how to get off gas and electrify P.S. If you'd like early access to our platform, repost this! #onbill #batteries #renewables #heatpumps

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Community solar is likely 'dead on arrival' in California. After a 2022 law opening California to community solar, regulators adopted a plan that only makes minor changes. It’s possible regulators are favoring utility-scale solar over rooftop and community to better navigate the impending challenges (such as excess solar supply) and build a more financially sustainable grid. #CommunitySolar #ClimateTech #CleanTech #CAISO #Solar

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Climate Capital Guidebook: The Biden-Harris Administration is releasing a new Climate Capital Guidebook to provide a simple, comprehensive map of capital programs across the federal government that are available to climate-related start-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses, and their investors. While larger, institutionally-backed climate companies may have the resources to identify and access federal funding opportunities, smaller enterprises may face greater challenges in navigating these federal programs. https://lnkd.in/eJ3QV4Fw #climatechange #climatetech

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🌍 Call for Action: Help Transform Textile Manufacturing with Innovative Electrification Solutions 🌱  The Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) is excited to announce that applications are now open for our Fall 2024 Climate Solutions Portfolio grants! This is your chance to lead the charge in tackling one of the industry’s toughest challenges: decarbonizing the supply chain through electrification.  What We’re Looking For   We’re seeking pioneering projects and ideas that address the barriers to electrification for textile and apparel suppliers. These include:   ✅ Deployment of heat pumps or thermal energy storage solutions.   ✅ Process and machinery innovations for electrification compatibility.   ✅ Solutions to reduce thermal energy needs, making electrification more viable.  Why It Matters   Suppliers face steep challenges in adopting electrification technologies, from high costs to the need for green energy access. By nominating or submitting a solution, you’ll help us:   - De-risk innovation by providing funding for suppliers to pilot cutting-edge technologies.   - Build scalable case studies that the entire industry can learn from and replicate.   - Pave the way for widespread electrification, reducing CO2 emissions and future-proofing supply chains.  Submit or Nominate a Solution Today!   📅 Applications are open from November 19, 2024 to January 17, 2025.   📋 How to Participate:   - Suppliers: Submit your electrification project proposal.   - Innovators and Industry Stakeholders: Nominate technologies or solutions that deserve attention and funding.  Together, we can drive innovation, overcome barriers, and scale solutions that will shape the future of sustainable manufacturing.  👉 Learn more and apply here: [https://lnkd.in/gBNsCicS)  Let’s make electrification a reality and transform the textile industry for good!  #ClimateSolutions #Electrification #Sustainability #Innovation #Decarbonization #TextileIndustry

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Decarbonization is not just about installing solar and wind; it also requires reducing emissions across entire supply chains in many sectors globally, and importantly, finding new ways to turn waste streams into usable products at low carbon intensity. Nothing could be more important than doing so in rapidly emerging and fast growing sectors such as battery manufacturing. As we build manufacturing in new markets, such as North America and Europe, to shore up supply chains among other reasons, we need to ensure we execute projects with high environmental integrity. This is where Aepnus Technology comes in! Aepnus takes sodium sulfate from the battery supply chain, as well as waste streams from mining and materials manufacturing, and converts these wastes to usable products like sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide using a high efficiency, low energy intensity process in a proprietary electrochemical process. Clean Energy Ventures is proud to have led Aepnus' Series Seed financing with Lowercarbon Capital, Voyager Ventures, MUUS Climate Partners, Impact Science Ventures and Gravity Climate Fund. And, we are delighted that venture partner, Mallika Gummalla, will serve as our board director bringing decades of commercial and technical electrochemical experience to the Aepnus team. We are delighted to welcome the Aepnus team to the Clean Energy Ventures' family! #climatecrisis #batterysupplychain @sodiumsulfate #venturecapital #aepnustechnology #cleanenergyventures https://lnkd.in/eC6MFDhF

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🌏 Recent data suggests that VC dollars in climate is starting to rebound (Q1 Clean Energy report by PitchBook, Sightline Climate (CTVC) shared that Seed to Series B grew from 2H23 to 1H24, and IRA dollars will likely start translating to actual deployments - Rhodium Group and MIT CEEPR. Other factors at play, as Rob Day shares: 🚀 Exits are a significant hurdle. The "clean energy VC exit activity” chart shows exits falling off a cliff in 1Q24 (PitchBook). IPOs have been hard to come by for startups across ALL sectors, and especially in the sustainability sector with lower chances of the IPO "checkmarks" being ✅ (big + growing revenues, predicable profitability..) 🔷 Business models - Many venture backed startups in clean energy are considered hard-tech, and they are not #projectdeployers, but often technology developers. They are generally not putting steel in the ground, and the buyers for certain industrial innovations tends to be limited. Few focus on deployment, or developer-style business models..and successful exits in climate lean disproportionately to downstream business model innovations, not hard-tech (ie. industrial wastewater, or composting). 🔷 Of course, the election. On the plus side, big infra investors are motivated to put their 2025 capital to work. Hopefully translating to increased acquisitions. #Hardtech #VC #ClimateInvesting #Investing #Startups #IPO

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Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on navigating FOAK in climate tech at the Greentown Labs Summit in Boston (which had >600 people!!). Here’s a quick rundown of what was shared by Katherine St. James of Spring Lane Capital, Paris Smalls, PhD of Eden GeoPower, and Hannah Friedman of Planeteer Capital: 🌱 What is the definition of FOAK? We discussed how the term can be controversial - it's almost too general because it doesn't identify what kind of "First" FOAK refers to - first team project? First geography? First of a technology in a sector? First time for the integration of a system? It's also too specific because it has the word "first" in it, which can be anathema to later stage / project finance investors. 💰 Partnerships for Funding FOAK Projects We discussed how important it is to build a blended capital stack & use off-balance sheet capital for a project so you're not using the most expensive equity dollars to fund an infrastructure project with low-ish IRR. We also talked through being creative about using corporate partners to provide in-kind services or ink some agreement (at least an LOI) to attract this funding. 🏛 Role of Government We talked about how government capital is seen by investors & how it can be catalytic for FOAK. Government capital can provide validation that a startup has passed a rigorous diligence process by a third party - and incentives like grants or credits can help improve returns for the first project- but it's important to be doing this in conjunction with getting customer validation and to be able to present line of sight to competitive economics without concessionary capital. 👥 Advice for FOAK startups The panelists offered some very specific pieces of advice for startups going through FOAK: how to get creative with things like revenue sharing agreements or convertible notes, getting smart with project development early on (like with DeveloperU), being careful about using FOAK too liberally with certain investor groups, getting the right commercialization / FOAK talent in and around you early Huge thanks to the panelists and the team at Greentown Labs (Jill Kirkpatrick, Julia Travaglini, Aisling Carlson, etc you rocked it!!) for hosting this discussion on bridging the FOAK gap. Also immensely enjoyed the rest of the agenda. Check out the full recap & videos here: https://lnkd.in/d9ApYe9Y #ClimateTech #FOAK #ClimateFinance #ProjectDevelopment #GreenTech #CleanEnergy

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Google’s 24x7 Clean Energy Tariff sets the standard for data centers, utilities, and investors. Google secured a groundbreaking new clean energy tariff from the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Existing procurement structures for renewable energy, including geothermal, face several limitations. The new Clean Energy Tariff allows the Nevada utility to sign a PPA with a Fervo geothermal facility, which they otherwise could not sign due to its relative cost. This agreement underscores the role of innovative tariffs and regulatory frameworks in facilitating corporate clean energy transitions. Investors and industry stakeholders who recognize the potential of these innovations will be well-positioned to capitalize on the shift toward a carbon-free future. #Geothermal #Google #Fervo #CleanEnergy #ClimateTech #CleanTech #Utility #DataCenters

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In the latest Carbon Brief newsletter, the team highlights a recent study from #NatureClimateChange that reminds us of the six components of feasibility that could inhibit the world’s ability to limit #warming to #1.5C, according to the IPCC's special report on 1.5C. They are: 1) #Geophysical: What global emission pathways could be consistent with conditions of a 1.5°C warmer world? What are the physical potentials for adaptation? 2) #Environmental-#ecological: What are the #ecosystemservices and resources, including #geological storage capacity and related rate of needed #landusechange, available to promote transformations, and to what extent are they compatible with enhanced #resilience? 3) #Technological: What #technologies are available to support transformation? 4) #Economic: What economic conditions could support transformation? 5) #Socio-#cultural: What conditions could support transformations in #behaviour and lifestyles? To what extent are the transformations socially acceptable and consistent with #equity? 6) #Institutional: What institutional conditions are in place to support transformations, including multi-level #governance, institutional capacity, and #political support? In the analysis, it is noted that "The future warming pathways used by the IPCC suggest that holding warming to 1.5C is unlikely, but still possible, when considering the technological feasibility and project-level economic costs of reaching net-zero emissions. However, the new study, published in Nature Climate Change, warns that adding in political and institutional constraints on mitigation make limiting warming to 1.5C even more challenging. As #GigacornHunters, remember that investing in technology is job 1, but we must also ensure appropriate advocacy is part of the toolkit if we are to help secure a 1.5C or lower decarbonized future. #climatechange #decarbonization #policy #IPCC #government #legislation #regulation #markets #investment

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