World's first fusion plant under construction

Hi folks,

Hope you had a lovely weekend and happy August (!). Here’s all the news that caught my eye across the space over the past two weeks (plus a few fundraising rounds I’d missed earlier in July). We’ll do more of the not-so-hot news up top today and get to better news further down. Gotta end on the positives sometimes.

ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• Here’s a handy view of how many IRA dollars got allocated versus how many dollars have since been clawed back by the recent passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Link (paywall).

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• The world is not (at all) on track to meet a 2023 UN pledge to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, according to new Ember analysis. Link.

• EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced draft plans to overturn the 2009 "endangerment finding" that established federal authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This could lead to subsequent rulings overturning or cutting regulations on emissions from cars, power plants, factories, and more. Link.

• On Friday, the Interior Department also released a secretarial order requiring solar and wind projects on federal lands to match the energy density of coal, gas, or nuclear plants before receiving permits. Effectively, this standard could kill most renewable projects on federal lands. The order also de-designated over 3.5 million acres of offshore wind development areas. Link. Link (paywall).

• The Department of Energy also canceled a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express transmission project connecting Kansas wind to Illinois demand, citing financial concerns after Senator Josh Hawley lobbied Trump directly to kill the "green scam" (audibly sighs). Link.

• Businesses canceled over $22 billion in clean energy projects in the first half of 2025, including $6.7 billion in June alone, with over 16,500 jobs lost to cancellations and scale-backs according to E2's Clean Economy Tracker. Link.

• After a banner month of solar deployment in May, China's June solar installations plunged 85% to 14GW, as new policies went into effect removing pricing protections for renewable projects. These stochastics should be seen as a result of May installations front running the new regs, and don’t really buck the massive trend of solar deployment in China in general. Link.

• Ford's EV division lost $1.3 billion in Q2, while Tesla delivered 384,122 cars—a 13.5% quarterly decline. U.S. EV sales also dropped 6.8% year-over-year in June, challenging predictions that there’d be a rush in EV purchases to capitalize on tax credits that will be phased out after September 30th. Link. Link. Link.

• Norway's Equinor booked a $955 million impairment on its U.S. offshore wind project, citing tariffs and regulatory uncertainty under Trump (Trump suspended several offshore wind leases on his first day back in office). Link.

• The world's forests absorbed only one-quarter of typical CO2 levels in 2023-2024, with massive wildfires releasing over 4 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to adding a third of China's emissions to the atmosphere each year. Link.

• Natron Energy, based out of California, paused construction of its $1.4 billion sodium-ion battery "gigafactory" in North Carolina that was set to create over 1,000 jobs, citing policy uncertainty. Link.

• Fortescue, based out of Australia, canceled its green hydrogen projects in Arizona and Queensland, citing U.S. policy shifts away from green energy that have "stopped emerging green-energy markets." The company expects to take a $150 million write-down. Link.

• Oil and gas giants Shell, Aker BP, and Enbridge withdrew from the Science-Based Targets initiative after draft standards required ending new oil and gas field development, with SBTi delaying guidelines until 2030. Link.

• Global coal consumption hit a record in 2024, with more than half burned in Chinese power plants. 2025 may well represent another record year for coal consumption, as consumption has risen in the US and Europe this year as natural gas prices are up relative to 2024 and despite substantial cleaner energy capacity deployment. Link. Link.

• U.S. crude oil production actually surged to a record 13.49 million barrels per day despite four-year low prices. TBH, quite surprised oil production is at new all-time highs, as rig counts are down. Still not convinced that Trump’s “drill baby, drill” rhetoric is the main driver behind rising oil production? South Korea also committed to buy $100 billion in U.S. LNG under a new trade deal with Trump. Link. Link.

• Continuing on the commodities beat, U.S. copper prices fell 17% after Trump announced his 50% copper tariffs would only apply to certain semi-finished products rather than all copper imports. Goes to show—especially with Trump in office—week-to-week market stochastics are hard to glean much information from (and you can forget making quick, concrete business and investment decisions in response to them). Link.

• Helion began construction on its first fusion power plant in Washington state, signaling it’s laser-focused on staying on track to deliver power to Microsoft by 2028 under what was also the world's first commercial fusion power purchase agreement. Link.

• Nuclear regulators approved several steps to bring Michigan's Palisades plant closer to becoming the first U.S. commercial reactor to ever restart, though final approvals are still pending. The project has received over $1.5 billion in federal backing to restart. Link.

• New York became the first state to ban gas in most new buildings under seven stories starting December 2025, though exceptions remain for laboratories, restaurants, and large buildings that could otherwise introduce grid capacity issues when fully electrified. Federal courts upheld the law despite industry challenges. Link.

• New York also announced its first bulk energy storage solicitation for 3GW of batteries with 15-25 year contracts. Link.

• LG Energy Solution signed a $4.3 billion deal to supply Tesla with lithium-ion phosphate batteries made in Michigan over three years, helping reduce Tesla's reliance on Chinese imports amid ongoing tariff uncertainty. Link.

• Norway's Northern Lights facility accepted its first shipment of 7,500 metric tons of captured CO2 for permanent storage, making it the world's first commercial carbon shipping terminal designed for permanent sequestration. Link.

• Advanced geothermal startup Quaise Energy successfully drilled to 100 meters using millimeter wave technology, marking progress toward accessing deeper, hotter underground resources. Link.

• Empire Wind offshore wind farm noted some progress in New York, with cable installation beginning to transport power from turbines to 500,000 NYC homes, representing a rare bright spot for the struggling offshore wind sector. Link.

• Lucid Motors, based out of California, set a Guinness World Record with its Air Grand Touring EV traveling 749 miles on a single charge, beating Mercedes-Benz's previous 649-mile record. Lucid’s luxury EV starts at about $110,000. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

• China Fusion Energy, a Chinese state-owned company based out of Beijing, raised $1.6 billion in expansion funding from China National Nuclear Corporation and other investors for its nuclear fusion R&D operations. The company’s total registered funding exceeds $2 billion. Link.

• Bedrock Robotics, based out of San Francisco, a company founded by veterans of Waymo and Segment, raised $80 million from Eclipse and 8VC to develop self-driving retrofit kits for construction and worksite vehicles. Link.

• Positron AI, based out of San Francisco, raised $51.6 million in Series A funding from Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, and DFJ Growth for AI inference chips targeting energy efficiency advantages over Nvidia. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• Candi Solar, based out of Zurich, Switzerland, raised $24 million from Norfund, Stoa, and Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund for customizable solar and battery solutions targeting African businesses. Link.

• Transvolt Mobility, based out of Mumbai, India, raised $20 million in growth funding from the International Finance Corporation for shared electric mobility services. Link.

• Planted Solar, based out of California, raised $12 million in Series A extension from Piva Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Khosla Ventures for solar deployment robots and software to accelerate deployments. Link.

• Estes Energy, based out of San Francisco, raised $11 million in seed funding from BMW i Ventures, Fortescue, DCVC, and New System Ventures to make more durable high-voltage battery systems. Link.

• Provectus Algae, based out of Noosaville, Australia, raised $10.1 million in Series A funding from At One Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, and others for its algae-driven photosynthetic bioproducts. It also raised $2.5 million in grant funding from the Australian government. Link.

• Fuse Energy, based out of London, raised $10 million from Lowercarbon Capital and others, bringing its total funding to $100 million. The company also cited crossing $90 million in annualized revenue for its renewable retail energy services. Link.

Smaller funding rounds

• Nevoya, based out of San Francisco, raised $9 million in seed funding from Lowercarbon Capital, Floating Point, and others to build a fully-electric trucking carrier business. Link.

• Solarock, based out of Paris, raised €7 million (~$8.1 million) from Pale Blue Dot, Noa, Ring Capital, and Kima Ventures for its franchise network of solar panel installers that connects homeowners with local contractors. Link.

• Civ Robotics, based out of San Francisco, raised $7.5 million in Series A led by AlleyCorp for autonomous surveying robots and construction material deployment machines. Link.

• NetZeroNitrogen, based out of Nottingham, England, raised $7 million in seed funding from Azolla Ventures, World Fund, and others to make synthetic nitrogen fertilizer alternatives. Link.

Other funding notes

• Private equity giants KKR and Energy Capital Partners announced a $4 billion investment to build a data center campus in Texas under their $50 billion AI infrastructure investment agreement, with power sourced from a nearby Calpine gas plant (and likely more net new generation to be announced). Link.

• Electra, based out of Paris, France, secured €433 million (~$503 million) in green loan financing to continue expanding its EV charging network across European markets. Link.

• Zenobē, based out of London, raised €325 million (~$377 million) in debt funding from Mitsubishi UFJ, CIBC, ABN Amro, and others for its electric vehicle fleet operations and to deploy more EV charging infrastructure. Link.

• Chestnut Carbon, based out of New York City, secured $210 million in project debt financing from JPMorgan, Bank of Montreal, CoBank, and East West Bank for nature-based carbon removal projects. Link.

• Washington State awarded Avalanche Energy $10 million to build FusionWERX, a commercial-scale test facility for magneto-electrostatic fusion technologies that will also serve as a testing hub for other fusion companies and national labs. Link.

One shot

Here’s a film photo I am pleased with from my recent Mexico City travels:

Have a great week,

— Nick