Help, I'm sinking

Hi there,

The year’s end draws nigh, and while I won’t be pushing myself to do a recap of all that transpired under the sun in sustainability and energy circles in 2025 in these pages, I do maintain several other curated lists that I like to share around this time of year.

So, if short fiction and prose poetry happen to be your jam, or if you’re even curious about them in the slightest, here are select pieces I quite enjoyed this year that you can read online for free (you might run into some paywalls if you read a few). And if these are really your jam, well, trust that you can always ask for even more select recommendations.

ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• Lithium-ion battery pack prices kept falling this year, despite rising metal prices (some of which have gone truly ballistic), which, among everything else, is a godsend for the energy transition across power and transportation. Link.

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• Iran is carrying out cloud-seeding operations using planes, drones, and ground-based launchers in a bid to increase rainfall amid its worst water crisis in six decades. The effort comes weeks after the Islamic Republic announced it "no longer has a choice" but to move its capital city as Tehran sinks by nearly one foot per year. Link.

• Unfortunately, and similarly, as above, hundreds of massive sinkholes have been appearing seemingly overnight in drought-stricken agricultural regions in Turkey. While the symptom is acute, the cause is chronic; they’re the result of longstanding drought and aquifer depletion dynamics. Link.

• GE Vernova is nearly sold out of gas turbines through 2028 and has less than 10 gigawatts of equipment left to sell for 2029. The company plans to increase its gas turbine manufacturing capacity by 20 gigawatts once assembly line expansions are completed by mid-2026. Still, the overarching story is clear. Increased energy demand coupled with the domestic and even international policy environment = more gas. Link.

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's center-right coalition in the European Parliament teamed up with other conservative factions to pass legislation easing environmental rules. Going forward, 80% of businesses operating in the EU will no longer need to track and report on environmental metrics. More green larping! Link.

• The European Commission also proposed a two-pronged approach to improve Europe's energy infrastructure, including establishing eight new "energy highways" and creating the Trans-European Network for Energy (TEN-E) to speed up grid permitting. Despite a goal of 88 gigawatts (GW) of new cross-border transmission capacity by 2030, the EU is on pace to build just 41 GW at present. Link.

• The Federal Reserve slashed its key benchmark interest rate by 25 bps for the third time this year in a 9-3 vote. Lower borrowing costs provide some relief to renewable developers and investors, who are especially sensitive to financing costs, though not nearly enough to offset Trump's tariffs and tax credit phaseouts. Link.

• The EPA is planning to delay enforcement of Biden-era rules requiring passenger and commercial vehicles to significantly cut tailpipe emissions from the 2027 through 2032 model years. Link.

• TBM Co., a Japanese maker of carbon capture technology and recycled materials, has started preparatory work for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth Market to list in the "not-so-distant future," with an offering as early as 2027, "not off the table." Link.

• Exxon Mobil plans to cut planned spending on low-carbon projects by a third, refocusing on fossil fuels and expecting to increase earnings and cash flow by $5 billion by 2030. No surprises there. Link.

• South Korean battery maker SK On ended its partnership with Ford to build joint battery factories in the U.S. Link.

• The U.S. is the only major power market that saw the carbon intensity of its generation increase through the first 10 months of 2025, largely thanks to an increase in coal-fired energy production. Link.

• So that was mostly not so great news, here are some more exciting updates: Inlyte Energy, based out of Derby, U.K., successfully completed a factory acceptance test of its first field-ready iron-sodium battery energy storage system, achieving 80% total round-trip efficiency. Its system will be installed at Southern Company's Energy Storage Test Site in Alabama in early 2026, with commercial deliveries planned for 2027. Link.

• Japan is repositioning fusion energy from a distant research objective to an industrial priority under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Tokyo-based Helical Fusion signed the first power purchase agreement in Japan for fusion with regional supermarket chain Aoki Super Co. to power some of its 50 stores. Link.

• Brimstone announced plans to co-produce steel, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and other critical minerals in addition to its previously announced products, portland cement and supplementary cementitious materials via its Rock Refinery® process, which elementally separates calcium-bearing silicate rocks into constituent elements. Amazon signed a commercial agreement in August to reserve annual volumes from Brimstone's forthcoming plant near Reno, Nevada. Link.

• Rivian outlined an ambitious self-driving effort at its inaugural "Autonomy & AI Day" event in Palo Alto, including new hardware with lidar and custom silicon, and a potential entry into the self-driving ride-hail market. The company's micromobility division. Link.

• Watercycle Technologies opened Europe's first commercial direct lithium extraction plant, scaling its DLEC™ technology to produce hundreds of kilograms of lithium carbonate. Link.

• Windfall Bio, based out of San Mateo, CA, opened its commercial-scale demonstration facility in Houston, showcasing its modular bioreactor platform that uses naturally occurring microbes (methanotrophs) to convert waste methane from oil & gas flares, coal bed methane, landfill gas, and biogas into organic fertilizer. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

• Fervo Energy, based out of Houston, raised $462 million in Series E funding to scale its next-generation geothermal energy development led by B Capital. AllianceBernstein, Atacama Ventures, Carbon Equity, Climate First, Google, Mitsui & Co., and previous investors also participated. The company has now raised a total of ~$1.5 billion in equity and debt. Link.

• Boom Supersonic, based out of Denver, raised $300 million in Series B funding led by Darsana Capital Partners to commercialize its new ‘Superpower’ stationary gas turbine. The company announced its first customer, data center startup Crusoe, will buy 29 of the 42-megawatt turbines for $1.25 billion to generate 1.21 gigawatts for its data centers, with first deliveries expected in 2027. Link.

• Highland Electric Fleets, based out of Beverly, CA, raised a $150 million equity round from Aiga Capital Partners to deploy more of its electric bus and truck fleets in cities across the U.S. Link.

• Blue Current, based out of Hayward, CA, raised $81 million in a Series D extension round led by Amazon for its silicon solid-state silicon elastic composite batteries. Link.

• Elvy, based out of Stockholm, secured €500 million (~$585 million) in debt from Scayl and a banking partner to scale its subscription-based home energy packages, including solar panels, heat pumps, and battery energy storage systems. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• Haven Energy, based out of Los Angeles, raised a $40 million round led by Giant Ventures for its residential and small commercial battery storage systems, which it also plans to aggregate into virtual power plants. Link.

• SuperCircle, based out of New York, raised a $24+ million Series A round led by Foundry Group for its textile recycling platform that helps retailers manage and reuse discarded apparel. Link.

• Allonnia, based out of Boston, raised a $20+ million Series A extension round co-led by Viking Global Investors, Bison Ventures, General Atlantic, BHP Ventures, and Pivotal Capital Partners for its biotechnologies that remove contaminants and improve mineral recovery in mining operations. Link.

• Overview Energy, based out of Ashburn, Virginia, emerged from stealth with $20 million in seed funding led by Lowercarbon Capital, Prime Movers Lab, and Engine Ventures, announcing plans to make satellites that transmit energy via lasers directly onto existing utility-scale solar projects. Link.

• Quilt, based out of Redwood City, CA, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by Energy Impact Partners and Galvanize to expand sales of its customizable home heat pumps. The company has seen 394% growth in homeowner leads and expanded to 16 U.S. states and 5 Canadian provinces recently. Link.

• South 8 Technologies, based out of San Diego, raised $11 million in a follow-on equity round co-led by W. L. Gore & Associates and Lockheed Martin Ventures for its liquefied gas electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries. Link.

Smaller funding rounds:

• Spoor, based out of Oslo, raised €8 million (~$9.4 million) in Series A funding led by SET Ventures for its AI-powered computer vision to track and identify birds around wind farms (and to manage other potential biodiversity risks posed by infra deployment). Link.

• Orbital Marine Power, based out of Kirkwall, U.K., raised €8 million (~$9.4 million) led by PXN Ventures for its floating tidal turbines that generate electricity from tidal currents. Link.

• Melt&Marble, based out of Gothenburg, Sweden, raised €7.3 million (~$8.5 million) in Series A funding led by Industrifonden for its precision-fermented fats to improve taste, texture, and sustainability in food and cosmetics. Link.

• All G, based out of Waterloo, Australia, formed a joint venture with France's Armor Protéines and raised A$10 million (~$6.6 million) to accelerate the commercialization of its precision-fermented bovine and human lactoferrin. Link.

• ReSoil, based out of Paris, raised €4 million (~$4.7 million) from Banque des Territoires, InvESS Île-de-France Amorçage, and Generali Impact Investment to scale regenerative agriculture projects across France and expand its digital carbon-management platform. Link.

• A&B Smart Materials, based out of Oxford, U.K., raised $2 million in pre-seed funding for its biodegradable, superabsorbent polymers for cosmetic and agricultural applications. Link.

• Anaphite, based out of Bristol, U.K., raised €1.5 million (~$1.8 million) co-led by Elbow Beach and World Fund for its dry electrode coating technology for electric vehicle batteries. Link.

• FION Energy, based out of Berlin, secured €1.4 million (~$1.6 million) in pre-seed funding from HTGF, Norrsken Evolve, and angel investors for its AI-powered industrial battery storage platform. Link.

• Kodiaq Technologies, a University of Cambridge spinout, raised £850,000 (~$1.1 million) from angel investors for its metal-free, organic-electrolyte energy storage technology designed to boost flow-battery performance. Link.

Funds:

• FoodLabs, based out of Berlin, closed its third fund with €105 million (~$123 million) to invest in early-stage European foodtech startups across agriculture, food security, and health. Link.

• U2V, based out of Potsdam, Germany, announced the first closing of its €60 million (~$70 million) Fund I to invest in up to 25 pre-seed and “seed deeptech” startups from leading European universities, with a focus on AI computing, tech for industry, and cleantech. Link.

• makesense, a Paris-based nonprofit, closed the first €15 million (~$17.5 million) of its makesense seed II pre-seed fund to invest €200k–€500k in early-stage circular-economy and socially inclusive startups across Europe. Link.

Ciao,

— Nick