The Impact Innovator | Issue 260
In this week's The Impact Innovator edition:
Microsoft and?Helion Energy ?on Wednesday announced a historic agreement that could pave the way to the world’s first fusion power plant.?Helion plans to build the commercial facility in Washington state, where the companies are headquartered. The goal is to get the plant running by 2028.?Engineers for decades have chased the promise of fusion energy — a potentially limitless source of carbon-free power. There are demonstration fusion reactors running or under construction around the world. But none — including Helion’s reactors — have been able to produce more electricity than they require to operate, let alone generate enough power to send to the grid. Some in the clean energy industry are skeptical it will ever work. However, if Helion is successful — and serious hurdles remain — it could have massive benefits long term as clean energy’s “Holy Grail” is finally achieved.
Sweden-based VC fund?Pale Blue Dot ?bounced onto the scene in 2020 with?a €53 million fund ?to help climate-focused startups. This fund grew?again by €34 million in April 2021 , and after deploying investments into 28 climate-forward companies, the investor this week announced it has officially closed its second fund. This one is valued at €93 million (approximately $101 million at today’s valuation), with the same thesis in mind: to support climate tech-oriented startups.?Founded by general partners Joel Larsson, Heidi Lindvall and Hampus Jakobsson, Pale Blue Dot looks to make pre-seed and seed investments in European-based companies, although it is open to deals from the U.S., too. The firm prefers to lead rounds, writing checks between €500,000 and €2 million. Out of its 28 investments to date, the firm highlights some examples of what it is looking for in the form of?Phytoform , a British-U.S. biotech-agritech business, climate risk data analytics firm?Climate X ;?U.K.-based logistics company?Hived , Danish EV charging platform?Monta ?and French fintech firm?Green Got. ?
Cloverly, an advanced digital infrastructure that launched the first API for carbon credits, raised $19 million in its Series A funding round led by Grotech Ventures.?With the aim to scale climate action, Cloverly serves 200+ enterprises worldwide across sectors that leverage its platform to manage their?carbon credit ?operations. The Series A financing is for further development of the company’s infrastructure. Participating in the round were leading investors such as Mission One Capital, New Climate Ventures, and CreativeCo Capital. Existing investors include Tech Square Ventures, Circadian Ventures, Knoll Ventures, SaaS Ventures, and Panoramic Ventures. Both corporate buyers of carbon credits and project suppliers can use?Cloverly platform ?to scale their climate action and businesses.?Buyers can directly buy quality carbon removal credits through the platform or embed the Cloverly technology into their own products, services, or supply chains.
Parisian EV charging company?Driveco ?has raised €250 million in a new funding round. The investment is the largest to date in the EV charging point sector in France and marks the company’s second onboarding of capital.?The €250 million arrives via Dutch pension fund manager APG, while existing shareholders Mirova and Corsica Sole will retain their majority stake in the company’s capital. Starting out life in 2010 as a spinoff from solar energy developer Corsica Sole, Driveco operates the second largest French electric vehicles charging network open to the public, with over 8,000 charging points in operation or under construction.?According to the company, it tripled its revenue in 2022, reaching €25 million, and now armed with a fresh €250 million, the plan is to meet and exceed these numbers.
London-based infrastructure investor?Actis ?has launched a $500 million, Japan-focused renewables platform called Nozomi Energy, which will target 1.1 GW of onshore wind and solar power generation by 2027. Financing for Nozomi Energy will come from Actis’ fifth and latest energy infrastructure fund, which has $6 billion of investable capital, Actis said in a statement on Tuesday. The platform will have a dedicated team, which will be led by Jose Antonio Millan Ruano, the former President & CEO of Hinode Energy. Nozomi Energy will make its first investment by acquiring a 100% stake in Hergo Japan Energy from the renewable energy developer Infrastrutture S.p.A. Hergo Japan Energy’s portfolio includes solar and onshore wind projects totalling 230MW.
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The European Union’s Parliament has voted to increase regulations on methane emissions in the energy industry, especially targeting fossil fuels.?The overwhelming 499-73 vote, with 55 abstentions, is the first EU-wide legislation aimed at cutting methane emissions, which are more potent than carbon emissions and account for about a third of the world’s total emissions. The law covers direct methane emissions from the oil, gas, and coal sectors, as well as from biomethane once it is injected into the gas network.?As part of the vote, the EU Parliament is seeking the EU Commission to propose a binding 2030 reduction target for EU methane emissions for all relevant sectors by the end of 2025. It also encourages members to set national methane reduction targets.
One of Japan’s leading beverage makers is planning an unorthodox way to cut its carbon emissions by utilizing a device that’s ubiquitous across the nation: the vending machine.?The soft drinks arm of Tokyo-based Asahi Group Holdings said it plans to start tests next month with the new machine, which contains a material that “absorbs carbon dioxide” as it sucks in air to cool or warm the drinks inside. Described by the company as a potential “forest in the city,” the machines, which are being patented, will contain a white powder-like material made from a variety of calcium compounds. Once it has absorbed a certain amount of CO2, the powder will then be used for industrial purposes such as making fertilizer and algal sea beds. The experiment, which will begin with about 30 units installed in the Kanto and Kansai regions, is part of an effort by the firm to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Each machine is expected to absorb approximately 60 kilograms of carbon dioxide — or 20% of the carbon emissions it produces — each year, according to company spokesperson Yoshiie Horii.
Honeywell International Inc?(HON.O) ?announced on Wednesday a new technology to produce lower-carbon aviation fuel from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide captured from industry, which can help cut greenhouse gas emissions from aviation, one of the hardest sectors to electrify and decarbonize.?Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is typically made using biomass-based feedstocks such as soybean oil and used cooking oil. Honeywell's new technology would combine green hydrogen - produced in electrolyzers from renewable energy and water - and carbon dioxide siphoned off industrial smokestacks to create lower-carbon methanol, which is then turned into fuels including SAF. Honeywell said its process can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 88% compared with traditional petroleum-based jet fuel. President Joe Biden's administration has targeted 3 billion gallons (11.4 billion liters) of SAF production per year in the U.S. by 2030 as part of its efforts to fight climate change.
Swiss scientists have discovered new cold-adapted microorganisms that can degrade different types of plastic at temperatures lower than currently required. The discovery is the first step towards developing a more cost-effective, industrial-scale method that could rid the planet of plastic pollution.?The potential for using cold-adapted microorganisms to biodegrade plastics has rarely been studied. Thankfully, a team of Swiss scientists knew exactly where to look for such microorganisms. Heading to the alpine and Arctic regions of Greenland, Svalbard, and Switzerland, they sampled 19 strains of bacteria and 15 fungi found on discarded or intentionally buried plastic.?The scientists let the microorganism samples grow in the lab as single-strain cultures, in the dark and at a temperature of 59 °F (15 °C). They were then identified. The scientists found that the bacterial strains belonged to the phyla?Actinobacteria ?and Proteobacteria and the fungi to the phyla Ascomycota and Mucoromycota.
A TedTalk that previews a new?artificial intelligence-powered wearable ?called Humane has just been released. Developed by former employees of Apple, the new piece of technology is widely being advertised as something that could make smartphones, like the iPhone, more or less redundant.?The former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno developed Humane with a "future that is even more intelligent and even more personal," according to the?company's website. ?Humane aims to displace cell phone screens with a voice-activated assistant that projects everything from calls to texts onto the user's hands. The projector promises to solve several issues with modern technology, including the need to constantly check cellphones, the physical limitations of touchscreens, and limited accessibility.?
With Humane, users can experience a more seamless technology integration into their life by swapping out cell phones with wearable gadgets. This instrument could open up new potential for language translation and individualized help in addition to simplifying communication. Humane, it appears, is a standalone device, so you wouldn't need a smartphone or another service to pair with it.?“It interacts with the world the way you interact with the world, hearing what you hear, seeing what you see, while being privacy first, and safe, and completely fading into the background of your life,” Chaudhri explains. All well and good, but how does it work in real life? "In terms of the call, as soon as [Chaudhri] raised his hand, the device displayed the appropriate incoming call interface, no menu to navigate through,” designer?Michael Mofina, told Inverse. ?Whatever your views on Humane, this technology can fundamentally alter how we interact with technology if it functions as intended and is as reliable and convenient as smartphones have become today.