The Impact Innovator | Issue 301
In this week's The Impact Innovator edition:
The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved a $1.9 billion plan Wednesday to expedite the rollout of statewide electric vehicle (EV) charging networks and hydrogen refueling stations.??This investment will serve to bolster infrastructure for light-, medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) across the Golden State, with funding distributed over the next four years through the CEC’s?Clean Transportation Program .?At least 50 percent of the ZEV infrastructure will be directed toward low-income and disadvantaged communities — those often hit hardest by air pollution, the governor’s office stressed.?The total $1.9 billion is expected to result in 40,000 new chargers statewide, adding to the?almost 94,000 public and shared private chargers installed today,?according to the CEC.?
About $657.6 million will go toward light-duty EV charging equipment, $1.02 billion will support both battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell truck and bus infrastructure, and $130 million will bolster zero-emission port infrastructure, per the program. Also included in the total is $5 million for ZEV workforce development and $46 million for other emerging opportunities. Alongside the authorization of these funds Wednesday, the CEC also approved the findings of a state Legislature assessment that projected how much publicly available charging infrastructure the state requires to meet its long-term goals. By 2030, 7.1 million EVs will need 1 million chargers, while 155,000 electric trucks and buses will necessitate 114,500 chargers, according to the assessment. Five years later, some 15.2 million EVs will require 2.1 million chargers, and 377,000 electric trucks and buses will need 264,000 chargers.
The?Ute Mountain Ute Tribe ?is going to build the Sun Bear Solar Project, one of the US’s largest solar farms, in Colorado.?The up to 971 megawatt (MW)?solar farm ?will sit on around 4,000 acres of Ute Mountain Ute tribal land, nine miles south of the tribe’s capital, Towaoc, in southwestern Colorado. Sun Bear will be around eight miles long and one mile wide and will feature 2.2 million solar panels. It’s also expected to create up to 1,000 construction jobs, 10-50 full-time jobs, and revenue for the tribe.?Tribal officials are working with global renewable energy developer Canigou Group to plan the Sun Bear?solar farm, which will cost more than $1 billion.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is currently reviewing the project’s environmental assessment. Construction is expected to kick off later this year, and Sun Bear is scheduled to come online in 2026. The solar farm will connect to the?Western Area Power Administration ?power line, but who the electricity will be sold to has yet to be determined.
Embraer ?has announced its participation in the United Airlines Ventures (UAV) Sustainable Flight Fund SM, a dedicated investment platform focused on advancing Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) by backing innovative startups.?The fund, launched in February 2023, has expanded to include 22 corporate partners spanning various industries, pooling over $200 million in capital commitments alongside United Airlines. This collective investment aims to support startups dedicated to reducing carbon emissions within the aviation sector.
Increasing the availability of SAF is pivotal in achieving aviation sustainability, given its potential to slash greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel. This objective aligns with Embraer’s commitment to achieving carbon-neutral operations by 2040. Sustainability remains a cornerstone of Embraer’s business strategy. The company has conducted successful flight tests using 100% neat SAF and continues to explore avenues for minimizing its environmental footprint through strategic partnerships, innovation, and ongoing research and development into zero-emission alternative propulsion systems.
Sage Geosystems announced the first closing of $17 million in Series A funding led by Chesapeake Energy Corporation (“Chesapeake”) (NASDAQ: CHK) and joined by technology investor Arch Meredith, Helium-3 Ventures and with continued support from existing investors Virya, LLC, Nabors Industries, and Ignis Energy. The investment will fully fund the first-of-its-kind 3MW commercial Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) facility, which will be built in Texas.?The 3MW commercial facility (called EarthStore) will use Sage Geosystems’ innovative technology that harvests energy from pressurized water stored deep underground. And the facility will be able to store energy for short and long duration periods and can be paired with intermittent renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, to provide baseload, dispatchable power, and inertia to the electric grid.
Sage Geosystems is in the process of manufacturing equipment, with construction of the 3MW facility starting in Q2 2024 and a targeted commission date of Q4 2024. And the exact location of the facility will be announced soon. Last year, Sage Geosystems successfully demonstrated the EarthStore system in a full-scale commercial pilot project in Texas. And the pilot produced 200 kW for more than 18 hours (long-duration) and 1 MW for 30 minutes (load-following), generating electricity with Pelton turbines to run equipment on location. The system has a roundtrip efficiency (RTE) of 70-75 percent and water losses of less than 2 percent.
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Arnergy , a Nigerian clean tech startup that deals in distributed renewable energy products and solutions, has raised $3 million in new financing. The bridge round was financed by All On, a Shell-backed off-grid energy impact investment company.?The financing comes five years after Arnergy, a provider of solar power systems to homes and businesses, secured a $9 million Series A round in 2019. All On, along with other firms, including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, ElectriFI, and Norfund, participated as investors in the round.
Founded in 2013 by?Femi Adeyemo ?and Kunle Odebunmi, Arnergy was launched as a provider of sustainable energy services intended to deliver clean and reliable energy for businesses or homes. The company’s energy systems are tailored to tackle intermittent and grid unreliability issues, enabling residential customers and businesses across hospitality, education, finance, agriculture, and healthcare to access and install affordable and reliable distributed energy systems. Before its Series A financing, Arnergy had installed over 2MW of electricity for more than 2,000 clients. Alongside the $4 million debt financing obtained over the past few years from both local lenders, such as Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, and foreign ones, the company’s investments have led to the deployment of over 7MW of solar PV systems and the installation of over 20MW of lithium battery energy storage solutions (BESS).
Electra, a green iron company, has raised $85 million to produce Low-Temperature Iron (LTI) from commercial and low-grade ores using zero-carbon intermittent electricity. Electra’s process emits zero carbon dioxide emissions and carries zero green premium, meaning it will cost the same or less than existing production methods powered by fossil fuels.?Electra's Oxygen-Decoupled Electrolysis (ODE) process overcomes two interconnected challenges for the steel industry:
The sustainable bond market returned to growth in 2023, staging a recovery after a decade of strong increases in the amount of capital raised came to a halt in 2022.?According to figures from?Environmental Finance Data , green, social, sustainability, and sustainability-linked (GSSS) bond issuance in 2023 grew 6% to more than $980 billion?from $925 billion in 2022.?Although 2023’s figure is still short of the record $1.08 trillion issuance in 2021, the market in the last two years has proved resilient in the face of the challenges wrought by geopolitical conflict, inflation and rising interest rates.?Many of these themes will be unpacked in contributions to?Environmental Finance 's Sustainable Bonds Insight 2024 ?– the 10th-anniversary edition of the annual report.
The report suggests market participants are finding opportunities for innovation and improvement in almost every corner of the sustainable bond market. Transition, biodiversity, and Islamic finance are among the headline-grabbing themes analysed. The free-to-download report features infographics and data on the main trends in the GSSS markets in 2023 and includes brand new chapters and infographics dedicated to these new directions for the market.
Electric vehicle (EV) range anxiety could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a breakthrough in battery technology, which could give EVs a range of more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers).?Today's EVs have a maximum range of?300 miles (480 km) on average . Even the longest-range electric car, the?Lucid Air , runs out of charge after about 500 miles (800 km).?But in a new study, researchers used tiny silicon particles and a gel-based electrolyte to tap into the high-charge capacity of silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries. The scientists published their findings on Jan. 17 in the journal?Advanced Science .?To make this silicon-gel electrolyte system work, the scientists irradiated a gel-based polymer with an electron beam to form covalent bonds between the micrometer-scale silicon particles and the electrolyte.?
By linking the anode and the electrolyte it allows the elastic nature of the gel to absorb and dissipate the stress of the silicon expansion. The gel electrolyte can also mitigate some of the cracking that occurs when silicon expands, thus improving the structural stability of the silicon electrode; theoretically, this should lead to longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries. The overall result was a lithium battery with "an approximate 40% improvement in energy density" and an ion conductivity similar to batteries using a liquid electrolyte. In simple terms, that means a Lithium-ion battery that can hold more positively charged ions — ?essentially having a greater energy capacity — while preserving efficient energy transfer.?In real-world use, it could mean a longer battery life for consumer devices, while EV batteries could have a range exceeding 620 miles on a single charge. Compared with nanometer-scale silicon particles, the researchers also said a micrometer-scale silicon particle system could be more cost-effective and fit into today's production methods almost immediately.
For most dog owners, their four-legged friends are more than a trusty companion. They are practically members of the family.?Unfortunately, dogs just don't live as long as humans, living on average from 10 to 13 years.?But what if there was a way to extend a dog's lifespan by years with just a daily pill??A first-of-its-kind anti-aging?drug ?for dogs that targets the metabolic fitness process has now entered?clinical trials , and the scientists behind the chewable pill say it could lay the groundwork for similar medical treatments designed for humans.?
The STAY study, as it has been named, is being conducted by Loyal, a San Francisco-based veterinary company that developed the drug. It has partnered with more than 50 independent vet clinics across the country to distribute it. More than 1,000 dogs over the age of 10 will participate in the study over the course of four years. The plan is to gain conditional FDA approval by early 2025 and to make the drug accessible to dog owners, and the company?is actively inviting owners ?with dogs over the age of 10 and at least 14 pounds to participate. The medication, which is called LOY-002, was specifically designed for?"older dogs of all but the smallest breeds," ?the company says on its website. The first dog?to participate in the trial ?is an 11-year old whippet named Boo.?
Sceppa is quick to note some skepticism around the drug. There are a lot of factors that can influence the aging process, including genetics, diet and physical activity. It might not be as simple as popping a pill. It's also important to consider both the emotional and psychological well-being of both the dogs and the?dog owners ?through this process, along with potential side effects. To its credit, Loyal is quick to note on its website that some animals participating in the clinical trial may experience side effects.