Tariffs are back on the menu, boys

Hey there,

The work week ended with another flurry of tariff and export restriction-based melees between China and the U.S., which sent the vibes in markets and among policy and geopolitical analysts’ commentary back into April and May mode. We’ll keep cool, calm, and collected as we discuss that and other happenings in energy and sustainability circles from the week.

Also, friendly reminder: One of my favorite events of the year, DERVOS, an annual symposium of the best and brightest minds in distributed energy resources (DER), is happening on Friday, Oct 17th (this coming week), on Governors Island in NYC. If you want a discount to come hang out with me, and more importantly, lots of other really sharp people, use this link and/or code KEEP COOL_GIVEAWAY to book.

FIRST, A QUICK MISSIVE FROM FRIENDS

Climate change is giving electric utilities a beating. Wildfires, storms, and other hazards are causing outages and frustrating big companies' efforts to expand to meet the AI-driven demand for more power. This latest report from Climate Proof explores how three utilities, E.ON, Enel, and Energy Australia, are adapting to these climate risks. It also showcases 10 companies ranging from early-stage start-ups to established firms that help the utilities industry future-proof its operations.

Read the report in full HERE, and sign up to Climate Proof for more adaptation content HERE.

ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• Friendly reminder that Tesla is a battery & autonomy company that uses cars as a wedge to scale supply chains and collect data; in Q3, the company deployed more battery energy storage than ever (chart my own, link to their latest investor relations filing follows). Link.

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• Solar and wind outpaced global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, with renewables on track to overtake coal worldwide for the first time on record as India and China saw notable fossil fuel generation reductions. Link.

• California hit record clean energy milestones with solar generating 39% of utility-scale power in H1 2025 while fossil fuels fell to a new low of 26%, aided by battery storage delivering a record 11GW of evening discharge. Link.

• China built an enormous clean energy network on the Tibetan Plateau, including the 162-square-mile Talatan Solar Park in Gonghe County, the world's largest solar cluster, harnessing high altitude for renewable energy to power AI data centers. Link.

• BYD became the world's 4th-largest automaker in H1 2025. Link.

• U.S. oil production hit a record of 13.64 million barrels per day in July, up 109,000 from June, further cementing its position as the world's top producer. Link.

• China unveiled the world's first underwater data center to reduce cooling energy consumption. Link.

• On the trade war front, China tightened export controls on rare earths, requiring approval for products where rare earths account for 0.1% of value, with military applications "generally won't be approved." It then dropped the hammer with a slew of additional trade restrictions, outlined in the graphic below. In response, Trump imposed an additional 100% tariff on all goods from China, marking another escalation in trade tensions. Presumably, the goal for both parties is to find some form of resolution at some point. For now, the result is significant whiplash with deleterious downstream impacts on the global economy. Markets sold off meaningfully in response on Friday. Link.

• NextEra SVP Petter Skantze stated battery storage is now "the cheapest form of new capacity" in the US with "order of magnitude" faster deployment than gas with more modularity and flexible siting. Link.

• The $5 billion Biden-era federal EV charging program is moving forward following a June court order ruling that efforts to freeze the money were illegal. Link.

• The European Institute of Innovation and Technology approved a record €978 million (~$1.34 billion) package for 2026-2028 innovation support across climate, energy, and food systems. Link.

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced €3 billion (~$3.27 billion) in zero-emission vehicle purchase incentives through 2029, targeting low and middle-income households, as Germany’s auto sector struggles with Chinese competition and tariff uncertainty. Specifically, Germany recorded its worst industrial output figures in years; specifically, an 18.5% month-over-month drop in industrial output from the automotive sector. Total output is still ~15% below pre-pandemic levels. Link. Link.

• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa, and Omar M. Yaghi for metal-organic frameworks that can capture CO2, filter pollutants, and trap moisture from desert air. Link.

• Scientists achieved a breakthrough in RNA mapping of wheat, identifying when genes are active, which should help accelerate the development of climate-resilient varieties that use less water and fertilizer. Link.

• Researchers from the Two Frontiers Project discovered methane-eating microbes in Italian waters near Montecristo that could help slow global warming, given that methane emissions drive short-term warming more readily than carbon dioxide emissions do. Link.

• Pando Electric launched the Pando+ Charger, a $999 modular EV charger that allows multifamily property staff to swap damaged cables without an electrician, integrating with their Gen2 ecosystem. Link.

• Sunrun and Baltimore Gas & Electric launched the nation's first residential vehicle-to-grid distributed power plant, with Ford F-150 Lightning trucks dispatching energy to the grid during peak demand and earning owners up to $1,000 per season. Link.

• California lawmakers gave the state's grid operator permission to work with other Western states on creating a regional electricity market through the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, potentially unlocking cost savings and reliability improvements. Link.

• The U.S. and Finland signed a deal to expand America's icebreaker fleet due to Arctic geopolitical importance, as melting ice opens new shipping routes and resource extraction opportunities. Link.

• Japan's Liberal Democratic Party elected Sanae Takaichi as leader, positioning her to become the country's first female prime minister while pushing nuclear over renewables and 100% energy self-sufficiency. Link.

• Japan also delayed indefinitely an offshore wind funding auction scheduled for October 14 to reassess the effects of higher interest rates and rising costs, after Mitsubishi withdrew from previous auction projects. Link.

• The Navajo Transitional Energy Company bid just $186,000 (less than one cent per ton) for a 1,262-acre federal coal lease in southeastern Montana, illustrating coal's diminishing value in the U.S. Link.

• The Trump administration announced the termination of the 6.2 GW Esmeralda 7 solar project in Nevada and is reportedly planning to terminate awards for two major Direct Air Capture Hubs in Louisiana and Texas worth up to $600 million each. Link. Link.

• Meanwhile, Shell’s U.S. president called Trump administration attacks on permitted offshore wind projects "very damaging" to investment, warning it sets a bad precedent that could well impact oil and gas in the future, too. Link.

• Generate Capital laid off 50 employees as the leading infrastructure investment firm realignes its strategy after growing "quickly and made some mistakes," moving from "leading-edge technologies" toward "boring community solar," according to co-founder Jigar Shah. Link.

• Nestlé withdrew from the Dairy Methane Action Alliance less than two years after forming it with Danone and Kraft Heinz, though other members, including Starbucks, General Mills, Bel Group, and Lactalis USA, remain committed. Link.

• Federal regulators opened an investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving software after 50+ reports of cars running red lights or veering into the wrong lanes. Link.

• Holtec International pulled the plug on plans for a temporary nuclear waste storage site in southeastern New Mexico, citing "untenable path forward" due to opposition from Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state legislature. Link.

• Ørsted announced it will cut 25% of its workforce (2,000 employees) by the end of 2027 as it refocuses on European wind development amid global offshore wind challenges. Link.

• California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a geothermal permitting reform bill that passed unanimously, claiming it would add unnecessary fees, despite industry leaders calling his argument "weak sauce." Link.

• CarbonCapture Inc. moved its first commercial DAC pilot from Arizona to Alberta, Canada, after DOE terminated its award, signaling American climate tech jobs being shipped overseas. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

• Base Power, based out of Austin, raised $1 billion in Series C funding to expand its residential battery leasing, grid services, and energy arbitrage business, led by Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. The company notes that it will soon operate the largest aggregated distributed energy resource (ADER) fleet in ERCOT. Link. Note: I also interviewed Base Power CEO, Zach Dell, and wrote about this business 18 months ago; read more about the comprehensive vision here.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• Membrion, based out of Seattle, raised $20 million in Series B1 funding co-led by Pangaea Ventures, PureTerra Ventures, Ecolab, and W.L. Gore for ceramic desalination membranes. Link.

• OpenSolar, based out of Sydney, raised $20 million in equity funding from Titanium Ventures, Google, and 2150 Sustainability Fund for its solar design and sales platform. Link.

• SwarmFarm Robotics, based out of Gindie, Queensland, Australia, raised ~$19.7 million in equity funding led by Edaphon with Clean Energy Finance Corporation and QIC for its autonomous farming robots and software. Link.

• Energy Robotics, based out of Darmstadt, Germany, raised $13.5 million in Series A funding to make autonomous drone and robotics software for oil, gas, and energy infrastructure monitoring. Link.

• Keenest, based out of Paris, raised €10 million (~$11.6 million) for its community-driven impact investing club that finances sustainability startups. Link.

Smaller funding rounds

• Bettani Farms, based out of Berkeley, raised $6.5 million in Series A funding led by S2G Investments for its plant-based cheeses made with a proprietary Caseed ingredient. Link.

• Vycarb, based out of Brooklyn, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Twynam, with participation from MOL Switch, Hatch Blue, Clocktower Ventures, Idemitsu, and SGInnovate, for its CO2-to-bicarbonate ocean carbon removal and storage strategy. Link.

• OpusFlow, based out of Deventer, Netherlands, raised €3.8 million (~$4.4 million) from Move Energy, Rise PropTech, and Peak for its platform designed to help automate renewable energy installations. Link.

• Asterix Foods, based out of Tel Aviv, Israel, emerged from stealth with $4.2 million in equity funding led by CPT Capital for its low-cost plant cell culture platform designed to produce complex animal-free proteins. Link.

• Clevergy, based out of Madrid, raised €3.2 million (~$3.7 million) led by Racine² and Axon Partners with Satgana and Wayra for its SaaS platform that helps customers with “real-time monitoring of consumption, optimised solar self-production, and control of smart devices such as EV chargers, batteries, and heat pumps.” Link.

• Munro, based out of Scotland, raised £2 million (~$2.3 million) from Elbow Beach Capital for its M-Series electric all-terrain vehicles. Link.

• TRIBBU, fka Hoop Carpool, based out of Madrid, raised over €2 million (~$2.3 million) led by Iberdrola and Grupo Ruiz for its incentive-based carpooling platform that leverages Energy Savings Certificates to make the economics work. Link.

• Terra Robotics, based out of Thessaloniki, Greece, raised €1.8 million (~$2.1 million) led by Uni.Fund to make laser weeding robots for farms. Link.

• BIOSORRA, based out of Nairobi, Kenya, raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from atmosfair and Fondo Nimbus to make biochar in Kenya and to advance regenerative agriculture and carbon removal efforts. Link.

Funds

• Brookfield Asset Management, based out of Toronto, raised $23.5 billion for a new clean energy fund that has already deployed $5 billion. Link.

• Energy Impact Partners, based out of San Francisco and New York, closed $1.36 billion for its Flagship Fund III to invest in growth-stage clean energy and AI-powered technology investments. Link.

• Theia Ventures, based out of Bengaluru, India, held a first close of a new fund to the tune of $30 million, backed by British International Investment, to invest in deep tech and decarbonization startups at the center of India’s energy transition. Link.

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Have a wonderful week ahead,

— Nick