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Hello,

I’m back in New York, enjoying some brisk weather and several friends’ birthday celebrations plus plenty on the work & conference docket. If any of you are heading to HackSummit this week, be sure to drop me a line. Here’s what happened last week:

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CLIMATIZE

Thanksgiving may already be come and gone, but there's always more to give thanks for. In this final month of the year, one of the stories I've been thankful for this year is learning more about how Climatize’s platform helps fund clean energy projects across the country.

To learn more about how, catch up on content and coverage from us here and here. And, through the end of the year, by using the code COOL50, if you sign up to Climatize's investment platform for the first time, you can redeem $50 in investment credit once you complete your profile.

ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• A New York Times opinion piece analyzing Waymo's data covering nearly 100 million driverless miles through June 2025 found the self-driving cars were involved in 91% fewer serious-injury-or-worse crashes and 80% fewer injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers on the same roads, with a 96% lower rate of injury-causing crashes at intersections. Link.

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• The U.S. crossed 40 gigawatts of total installed battery storage capacity in Q3 2025, surpassing the Energy Storage Association's 2017 goal of 35 gigawatts by 2025. Storage was the second-largest annual capacity addition, after solar. Storage requests also outnumber gas power requests in U.S. grid connection queues by a factor of 6.5 to 1. Link.

• A combined 11.7 GW of utility-scale solar, battery storage, and wind power capacity came online in the U.S. between July and September, setting a Q3 deployment record. Link.

• The DOE awarded a combined $800 million to two small modular reactor projects: $400 million to the Tennessee Valley Authority for the first BWRX-300 SMR and $400 million to Holtec International to expand Michigan's Palisades nuclear plant with a 300 MW reactor. Link.

• TerraPower expects the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue a construction permit by February for its 345 MW next-generation nuclear reactor in Wyoming after it completed safety reviews six months ahead of schedule. Construction is slated to begin in Q2 2026. Link.

• The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory also unveiled MARVEL, a 10-kilowatt liquid-metal cooled microreactor that’s currently under construction. Amazon Web Services, GE Vernova, ConocoPhillips, and data center operator DCX are the first potential commercial users. Link.

• Eavor Technologies began commercial operation of its closed-loop geothermal system in Geretsried, Germany, delivering its first electrons to the German grid, marking the first successful deployment of the Calgary-based company's in-house drilling technology. Link.

• Zanskar announced the discovery of a significant geothermal opportunity in western Nevada. “Big Blind” could yield more than 100 MW, marking the first "blind" geothermal system identified for commercial use in more than 30 years. If developed, it’d be the U.S.'s first new conventional plant on a previously undeveloped site in nearly a decade. Link.

• A bipartisan group of House lawmakers advanced the SPEED Act through the Natural Resources Committee to accelerate permitting reform (reforming the National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA] specifically). The bill would shorten lawsuit-filing windows to 150 days, limit judicial remedies, create shortcuts for environmental reviews, and attempt to prevent future administrations from revoking approved permits. TBD whether it can get the requisite 60 Senate votes. Link.

• DG Matrix will begin shipping commercial solid-state transformers next month from its manufacturing plant in Lahore, Pakistan, with UL certification expected in Q1 2026, and a 54,000-square-foot production facility under construction in Raleigh, North Carolina, set to start production by Q3 2026. Link (paywall).

• The DOE announced a $134 million funding opportunity for projects that recover and refine rare earth elements from waste. Link.

• Archer Aviation plans to create an electric air taxi network in South Florida. Link.

• Nature retracted a 2024 study that predicted climate change would cause a 62% drop in global economic output by 2100 after economists discovered massive (insane, really) data errors from Uzbekistan, the exclusion of which would revise the forecast down to 23%. Friendly reminder to assume that on the first read of any single study or article, it’s wrong. Link.

• The U.K. grid regulator approved £28 billion (~$37 billion) in upfront infrastructure funding, with total investment across electricity and gas expected to reach £90 billion by 2031, translating to a £108 annual increase in network charges on customer bills. Link.

• The DOE eliminated the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) from its org chart and created a new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) to consolidate critical minerals initiatives and absorb most EERE programs. The reorganization, framed around "energy dominance," removed “renewable energy” from the linguistic structure and established dedicated offices for fusion research, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and elevated geothermal energy into a new Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office. Link.

• 74% of S&P 500 companies have revised their emissions data in corporate sustainability reports, typically upward, according to a new Harvard analysis. Link.

• U.S. LNG exports hit a record high in November, easing gas prices in Asia and Europe heading into winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Link.

• Zillow removed a feature that allowed users to view extreme weather-related risks for more than one million homes after real estate agents said it hurt sales. Link.

• Exxon Mobil cancelled plans to build a 1 billion cubic foot per day blue hydrogen facility in Baytown, Texas, citing inability to find committed customers willing to pay the premium price after the Trump admin withdrew a $332 million DOE grant. Link.

• BP withdrew from a blue hydrogen project in England amid strict new European Union standards for carbon capture requirements to qualify as clean hydrogen. Link.

• Beijing's official purchasing managers index remained below the 50 mark (signaling contraction) for an eighth consecutive month in November, with an unusually downbeat private PMI also dipping below 50, suggesting China's export rebound has failed to halt the manufacturing slump. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

• Heirloom, based out of Brisbane, CA, raised $150 million in Series B funding led by Development Bank of Japan and Chiyoda Corporation, with investments from Japan Airlines, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Mitsui & Co., as Japan's greenhouse gas-trading system prepares to shift from voluntary to mandatory compliance next year. Link.

• Heven AeroTech, based out of Sterling, VA, raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IonQ at a $1 billion post-money valuation to develop hydrogen fuel cell-powered long-endurance unmanned aerial systems. Link.

• Antares, based out of Torrance, CA, raised $71 million in Series B funding led by Shine Capital and $25 million in debt to build compact nuclear microreactors for remote military bases, industrial sites, and deep space missions. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• Spark Cleantech, based out of Paris, raised €30 million (~$34.8 million) in Series A funding led by 360 Capital and Taranis to scale its pulsed-plasmolysis technology that converts hydrocarbons into clean hydrogen and solid carbon. Link.

• Modo Energy, based out of London, raised £25 million (~$33.3 million) in Series B funding led by Molten Ventures to scale its market intelligence platform for valuing electrification assets. Link.

• ZincFive, based out of Tualatin, OR, raised $30 million in Series F funding from Helios Climate Ventures and others to scale production of its nickel-zinc battery systems. Link.

• pH7 Technologies, based out of Vancouver, raised $25.6 million in Series B funding led by Fine Structure Ventures to develop metal-extraction technology for mining operators. Link.

• Gravis Robotics, based out of Zürich, raised $23 million in Series A funding co-led by IQ Capital and Zacua Ventures to develop autonomy kits for earthmoving vehicles. Link.

• Ripple Foods, based out of Berkeley, CA, raised $17 million led by Material Impact and Rich Products Ventures to scale production of pea-protein-based milk alternatives. Link.

• Rail-Flow, based out of Frankfurt, Germany, raised €12.5 million (~$14.5 million) in Series A funding led by Trill Impact and Bonsai Partners to enhance its AI-powered rail-freight transport management platform. Link.

• ECAIR, based out of Saint-Denis, France, raised €11 million (~$12.8 million) from Planet A and other investors to scale its installer-focused financing platform for energy transition efforts. It also raised €6 million (~$7 million) in debt funding from Enerfip. Link.

• ExploMar, based out of Shanghai, raised $10 million in Series A funding co-led by unnamed investors to develop electric propulsion systems for maritime transport. Link.

Smaller funding rounds:

• Addis Energy, based out of Cambridge, MA, raised $8.3 million in seed funding led by At One Ventures to develop its clean ammonia production technology. Link.

• Marble Imaging, based out of Bremen, Germany, raised €5.3 million (~$6.1 million) in seed funding led by High-Tech Gründerfonds to provide high-resolution Earth observation intelligence. Link.

• Carba, based out of Eden Prairie, MN, raised $6 million led by Rusheen Capital Management and Canopy Generation Fund to expand its pyrolysis/biochar technology and landfill-integrated carbon removal projects into Asia. Link.

• Spotlite, based out of Coimbra, Portugal, raised $4.1 million in seed funding co-led by Índico Capital Partners and Explorer Investments for its predictive infrastructure monitoring insights platform built on top of satellite imagery. Link.

• Arctus Aerospace, based out of Bangalore, raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding led by Version One Ventures to build high-altitude autonomous aircraft for earth observation applications. Link.

• Hachiko, based out of Sydney, Australia, raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Archangel Ventures to expand its optimization software for commercial and industrial battery energy storage systems. Link.

• Fremantle Seaweed, based out of Fremantle, Australia, raised ~$2.2 million in seed crowdfunding to build cultivation infrastructure for asparagopsis seaweed (which may help reduce methane emissions from ruminant livestock). Link.

• Mater-AI, based out of London, secured £1.5 million (~$2 million) from Twin Path Ventures and others to accelerate its AI-powered platform for designing thermoelectric materials that convert waste heat into usable energy. Link.

• Sofi Filtration, based out of Espoo, Finland, raised €900,000 (~$1 million) from EIT RawMaterials to accelerate industrial pilots of its ultrasound-based water filtration technology for critical mineral recovery. Link.

Bye,

— Nick