Sustainability

northvolt-targets-zero-emission-aviation-with-‘superior’-lithium-metal-battery

Northvolt targets zero-emission aviation with ‘superior’ lithium metal battery

Battery, Next Featured, Planes, Sustainability / /
Northvolt targets zero-emission aviation with ‘superior’ lithium metal battery

Linnea Ahlgren

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Linnea Ahlgren

Swedish low-carbon battery startup Northvolt is on a bit of a roll lately. Recently, the company revealed a new collaboration with Scania to produce the longest lasting EV batteries on the market. Now, its wholly-owned subsidiary Cuberg has unveiled a program to develop high-performance batteries to achieve “safe and sustainable” electric flight. 

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to zero-emission electric aviation is, apart from access to renewable energy, battery technology. Today’s batteries are, simply put, too inefficient and too heavy. 

However, Cuberg says it has already achieved significant milestones in its next-generation lithium metal cell battery technology. This involves a lithium metal anode and proprietary liquid electrolyte, which the company says simultaneously solves the interlocking challenges of battery performance and manufacturability. 

Furthermore, Cuberg says it will have “superior power and energy capabilities to today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries.” The aim is to develop a breakthrough lithium metal cell boasting an energy density of 1000 Wh/l by 2025. 

Significant achievements thus far include building and shipping a 20 Ah commercial-format lithium metal pouch cell with specific energy of 405 Wh/kg. Furthermore, the company has engineered and produced an aviation module based around the 20 Ah cells, with specific energy of 280 Wh/kg and energy density of 320 Wh/L. 

Cubergs aviation module
Cuberg’s aviation module has up to 40% higher specific energy than comparable lithium-ion technology. Credit: Northvolt/Cuberg

Importantly, the module platform has achieved what is called passive propagation resistance during a verification test campaign, which means it can resist the spread of a thermal runaway event from one cell to another.

Thermal runaway is one of the biggest safety concerns with lithiummetal cells, as it may cause the battery to catch fire or explode. As such, the verification is considered a key step when certifying batteries for aviation. 

Expanding lithium metal cell cycles

Meanwhile, lithium metal batteries, as opposed to lithium-ion, can only be recharged a few times before they become unusable. This may be cause for other sustainability concerns, given the environmental costs of lithium extraction. 

However, in a third-party validation in July last year, Cuberg’s cell cycle life was confirmed to have been extended to 672 cycles, with energy capacity of 380 Wh/kg, making it the world’s highest-performing and longest-lived lithium metal cell in a commercially representative cell size. 

Credit: Northvolt/Cuberg

Northvolt ranks first on the list of most-funded startups in Europe, with a total of €5.5bn raised to date. Furthermore, it has secured more than €50bn worth of contracts from customers including BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo and Polestar.

Northvolt acquired Cuberg, founded in 2015 and based in San Leandro, California, in 2021 to help bring the startup’s next-generation lithium metal cell technology to scale. 

Playing the long sustainable aviation game

Proportionally, aviation, as an industry, is not that big a polluter; it is responsible for “only” approximately 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This can be compared to transport as a whole (14%) and other industries such as agriculture, forestry and land use (24%). 

However, as other industries begin to decarbonise, the difficult-to-abate aviation sector’s share of emissions will expand. What is even more alarming is that global passenger traffic is predicted to reach 19.3 billion by 2041, up from a forecasted 8.4 billion in 2023.

It is true that the lion’s share of emissions come from long-haul air travel, and aerospace engineers may be a long way yet from coming up with a zero-emission high-capacity propulsion system. 

Meanwhile, innovation must start somewhere. Technology being developed today for the lower capacity regional air travel segment will serve as the foundation for more sustainable narrowbody and dual-aisle aircraft further down the road. 

As such, the immediate effect of replacing short-haul aircraft with electric or hydrogen-electric planes may not be globally significant. However, the extrapolated implications of developments in areas such as battery and fuel-cell technology coupled with energy storage may just be one of the avenues to solving aviation’s fossil-fuel dependency. 

Countries such as the UK, Norway and Sweden have already set deadlines to entirely decarbonise domestic aviation within the next couple of decades. Swedish electric aircraft startup Heart Aerospace has received firm orders for 230 of its 30-seat ES-30, along with options for another 100 and letters of intent for additional 108 units. The plane is scheduled to enter service in 2028, with a scalable upgrade path as “future battery technology matures.” 

Furthermore, the global electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) market has around 500 developers. Specifically, Cuberg has already received orders from established companies such as Boeing and urban air mobility (UAM) startups including BETA Technologies, Ampaire and Volt Aero. The company says it will deliver modules to select aviation customers throughout 2023. 

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Major VCs unite in alliance to help startups and investors reach net zero

Investors and funding, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Major VCs unite in alliance to help startups and investors reach net zero

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

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Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainabili Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainability, green tech, AI, and EU policy. With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.

A group of over 23 VCs across Europe and the US have joined forces this week to guide startups and their early-stage investors towards net zero, in an effort to decarbonise the global economy and the venture capital industry.

The Venture Climate Alliance (VCA) consists of both generalist and climate-focused firms, and its members manage a combined $62.3 billion in assets, according to Crunchbase figures.

To begin with, participating VCs pledge to inventory their Scope 1-3 emissions and, in turn, reach either net zero or negative emissions for their own operations (such as office energy consumption and employee commuting) by 2030 or earlier.

VCA’s members will also encourage their portfolio startups to align with the net zero goals by 2050 or sooner, and will help founders in setting the right targets for their businesses. For climate-focused companies, this could include support to existing efforts. For non-climate-focused companies, this could entail providing access to additional resources, such as specific tools and methodologies.

Once startups have set their net zero transition goals, the VCA will offer further assistance depending on their needs, such as supporting response mechanisms to climate-related risks, or adapting to regulatory developments.

The alliance’s members will share annual updates on both their own and their portfolio companies’ progress.

“Our goal is to bridge the gap between what’s happening in public markets, where hundreds of companies have made bold forward-looking net zero commitments, and early stage innovation, which has the potential to decarbonise legacy industries through a combination of better products, more efficient processes, and lower costs,” said Alexandra Harbour, founder & chair of the VCA and a principal at Prelude Ventures — one of the alliance’s founding members.

“By harnessing the collective expertise of top venture capitalists from both sides of the Atlantic, the VCA has the potential to significantly influence the funding decisions that shape the future of climate startups and technologies,” added Danijel Višević, Founding Partner at VCA member World Fund.

The Venture Capital Alliance counts 10 founding members: Prelude Ventures, Capricorn Investment Group, DCVC, Energy Impact Partners, Galvanize Climate Solutions, S2G Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Tiger Global, World Fund and 2150.

The following firms are also participating: Obvious Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Valo Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Fifth Wall, Overture Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Spring Lane Capital, Azolla Ventures, Systemiq Capital, The Westly Group, Innovation Endeavors, and ReGen Ventures.

The VCA is also an official partner of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions as part of its Race to Zero campaign.

Membership to the alliance is open to any VC that agrees to pledge to its commitments.

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Can plant-based meats be healthy? This foodtech startup says yes

Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / /
Can plant-based meats be healthy? This foodtech startup says yes

Linnea Ahlgren

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Barcelona’s food tech startup Heura has unveiled its new patent-pending technology aimed at producing meat substitutes without the lengthy and sometimes off-putting ingredients list. The company says it is the first scalable technology of its kind to add “superior” nutritional value to plant-based foods. 

The data is abundantly clear – if we are to have any chance at halting global warming, we need to revolutionise our food systems. Approximately 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases come from the raising of livestock.

Furthermore, research has shown processed red meats to be carcinogenic. This means that what we choose to put on our plates matters, for the health of both the collective and the individual. 

However, the initial enthusiasm for vegan meat alternatives has waned somewhat, with shares in one of the most eponymous alternatives, Beyond Meat, losing over 60% of their value over the past year alone. 

Often, companies behind the fake meat revolution are criticised for relying too heavily on artificial additives, with long lists of unpronounceable ingredients. Furthermore, the ultra-processed products are often devoid of essential nutrients. 

“I think that the worst enemy of the category are bad products,” said Heura’s co-founder Marc Coloma. “We see that there has been kind of a gold rush in this category where a lot of products had been launched super fast to the market without meeting consumer expectations.”

Patent-pending thermomechanical technology

Most approaches to creating vegan meat substitutes are sort of trial and error. Producers experiment with different blends of binders and additives as well as vegetable proteins to see what works. 

Enter Heura’s patent-pending technology. The thermomechanical technique uses heat and mechanical energy to shape or modify a material’s properties. This, Heura says, allows it to create plant-based meat substitutes with higher quality inputs and a shorter ingredients list. 

Día histórico en Heura: hoy presentamos nuestra primera patente (de muchas que vendrán) y no podemos estar más felices. #Sucesores pic.twitter.com/1mwG7VbOK8

— Heura Foods #FoodActivists (@HeuraFoods) April 25, 2023

We haven’t been able to glean the exact details about the actual breakthrough. However, during the launch of the project platform, named Good Rebel Tech, last year, the company’s Science and Technology director Isabelle Férnandez, stated that,

“Instead of focusing on extracting and isolating proteins from legume seeds, we are researching ways to leverage the functionality of whole plants in their naturally occurring structures.” 

For now, focus will be on products in the deli, cheese and whole meats. And as anyone who has ever dined in Spain can attest, these are far more popular categories than the most commonly substituted burger patty.

But, protein?

The company has already developed two products using the technology: a frankfurter-style sausage and ham-style slices, both made from soy protein. The frankfurters have a protein density of 72%, and the “ham” 70%. Heura is hoping to have both products hit store shelves by the end of Q4 2023. 

List of ingredients for the frankfurter? Water, soy protein isolate, extra virgin olive oil, radish, carrot and paprika flavour concentrates, lemon juice from concentrate and vitamin B12.

You may have noticed it does not, like so many fake meat products, contain coconut oil. This is due to another milestone reached by Heura’s R&D department last year, where it managed to replace the saturated fat alternative with a 100% olive-oil-based analogue. 

Successful equity crowdfunding

Heura Foods was founded in 2017, in a co-working office in the centre of Barcelona. Its first customer was a small, local business in the Poble-sec neighbourhood. The startup has raised €36 million to date – including an equity crowdfunding campaign which landed it €4 million in just 12 hours. In 2022, the company secured a turnover of €31.4 million, and in 2023, it grew 44% in Q1 compared to the same quarter the year before. 

Furthermore, Heura has tripled its market share in Spain over the past three years, and has agreements with retailer groups in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK.

Could the possession of a patent in an otherwise quite wild west low barrier-to-entry plant-based meats industry lure more investors to Heura’s cause? We will enjoy a cruelty-free frankfurter (or two) while we wait to find out, thank you very much. 

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Dutch startup to build floating solar array at North Sea wind farm

Corporates and innovation, Investors and funding, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Dutch startup to build floating solar array at North Sea wind farm

Siôn Geschwindt

Story by

Siôn Geschwindt

A Dutch startup has been awarded a contract to install floating solar panels at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea. 

Oceans of Energy secured the contract from CrossWind, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco. The renewable energy startup has been tasked with building a 0.5MW floating array between wind turbines at the 750MW Hollands Kust Noord wind farm, located 18.5km off the coast of the Netherlands.  

According to the startup, which was founded in 2016 by Dutch engineer and entrepreneur Allard van Hoeken, this would be the first offshore solar farm in the world to be connected, installed, and operated within a wind farm in “high-wave conditions”.

The solar panels will be situated in between the offshore wind turbines, providing backup power on sunnier but less windy days. The panels will be moored to the wind turbines and connected to the same cables, transporting energy efficiently to end users. 

Van Hoeken says the project “will function as an example for combined offshore wind and solar parks in the future.”

The solar array will provide energy for around 500 households once it links up to the Dutch electric grid in 2025, two years after the wind farm comes online.  

Until now the startup has mainly relied on subsidies from the Dutch government, of which it has raised €20m to date. Financial details of the new contract with CrossWind, however, were not disclosed.  

Oceans of Energy’s pilot floating solar array located 15km off the coast of The Hague has successfully survived years of storms and rough seas. Credit: Oceans of Energy.

Oceans of Energy built a slightly larger array in 2019 which it has been using to test the technology and its ability to withstand some of the roughest seas on Earth. The rig is still operational despite being hit by some pretty severe storms over the last few years. 

Researchers from Utrecht University have closely monitored energy production at the pilot array, located around 15km off the coast of The Hague, at a testing zone known as the North Sea Farm.  

“In addition to removing the problem of a land shortage, there are several other benefits to building at sea, similar to those in wind energy,” solar energy expert Wilfried van Sark at Utrecht University, who is involved in the project, told Reuters. “There is more sun at sea and there is the added benefit of a cooling system for the panels, which boosts output by up to 15%,” he said.

According to Dutch research organisation TNO, 200 gigawatts of solar power is expected to be generated in the Netherlands by 2050, 25 of which will be on inland waters and 45 at sea. This is expected to open up many opportunities for Oceans of Energy and other budding startups like SolarDuck, a Norwegian-Dutch venture that is currently building an even bigger floating solar array in the North Sea.

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Scania and Northvolt develop battery for electric trucks with 1.5 million km lifespan

Corporates and innovation, Investors and funding, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Scania and Northvolt develop battery for electric trucks with 1.5 million km lifespan

Siôn Geschwindt

Story by

Siôn Geschwindt

Heavy truck manufacturer Scania and emerging EV battery powerhouse Northvolt have developed a battery for electric trucks that they say will last as long as the vehicles themselves — about 1.5 million kilometres.

The lithium-ion battery is the product of a five-year partnership between the two Swedish companies that began in 2017. ​​At the time, Scania was on the lookout for more robust, cost-efficient, and sustainable battery cells for its heavy-duty trucks and buses — and Northvolt was poised to deliver. 

“Northvolt’s mission to build the world’s greenest batteries perfectly matched Scania’s purpose to drive the shift towards sustainable transport,” said Scania’s CEO Christian Levin in a statement.

The lithium-ion cell was produced at Northvolt’s Ett gigafactory in north Sweden, which opened last year and runs entirely on renewable hydro and wind power. As a result, the partners estimate the battery has a carbon footprint of approximately one-third that of a comparative industry equivalent.  

The cell’s long lifespan also makes it one of the most durable and long-lasting batteries in the electric vehicle industry. Most EV batteries on the market today are only estimated to last between 150,000-300,000 km. 

“At the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an ambitious timeline for the development of a high-performance battery cell which would enable their plans for electrifying heavy transport,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt. “To have proceeded through extensive development and validation phases, and now be delivering cells from Northvolt Ett which exceed our initial expectations in terms of performance is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved.” 

northvolt-ett-gigafactory-sweden
Northvolt’s Ett gigafactory in Sweden’s icy north made Europe’s first ever domestically produced lithium-ion battery in 2022. The factory, which employees around 500 people, covers an area three times the size of the iconic Pentagon building in the US. Credit: Northvolt

Northvolt will start mass production of the truck batteries at its Ett gigafactory imminently. Over the next few years, Northvolt aims to increase capacity at Ett to 60 GWh to supply clients like Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo and, of course, Scania. 

In addition, Scania will open a new battery factory in Södertälje, Sweden, next year, where Northvolt’s battery cells will be assembled into battery packs for the start of production of heavy-duty electric trucks. Developing long-lasting batteries is seen as an important milestone on the company’s electrification roadmap, which aims for electric vehicles to make up 50% of sales by 2030. 

Other automakers in the EV heavy vehicle space include Tesla, which is developing an electric semi truck imaginatively dubbed ‘Tesla Semi’, and Volvo, which is already distributing its electric trucks to customers throughout Europe. Swedish startup Einride, considered a competitor to the Tesla Semi, is taking the tech a step further with its plans to roll out fully autonomous electric trucks. 

While electric heavy vehicles only made up 0.6% of sales in Europe last year, accounting firm PWC predicts that they will account for one-third of all truck sales in Europe by 2030, and 70% by 2035,  due to tightening regulations on fossil fuel-powered vehicles and the falling costs of cleaner alternatives. 

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Swedish startup wants €1.5BN to build emissions-free steel plant

Corporates and innovation, Government and policy, Insider, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Swedish startup wants €1.5BN to build emissions-free steel plant

Siôn Geschwindt

Story by

Siôn Geschwindt

Swedish startup H2 Green Steel has announced its plans to raise more than €1.5bn in equity funding to build steel plants that emit virtually no emissions.

The startup, backed by high-profile investors such as Mercedes, Maersk, and Spotify’s chief executive, is constructing a ‘green steel’ manufacturing plant in Boden, north Sweden. 

Construction of the plant will be financed through more than €5bn in debt and equity. The startup said in October that it had received support from European financial institutions for €3.5bn in debt financing, making it one of the most capitalised climate tech projects in Europe. 

H2 Green Steel confirmed today that it is now in the process of securing the remaining €1.5bn equity funding and is working with advisers from Morgan Stanley, Financial Times reports. 

Traditionally, steel is made by combining iron ore with coke (a type of coal) at extremely high temperatures. The burning coke produces carbon monoxide, which converts the iron ore into ‘pig iron’ — the basis of steel. The only problem is, when the coke burns it produces a lot of CO2. In fact, the steel industry as a whole is responsible for an estimated 8% of global CO2 emissions. 

H2 Green Steel looks to decarbonise steelmaking by replacing coke with ‘green’ hydrogen (hydrogen produced using renewable energy). Hydrogen reacts with the iron ore to create pig iron — but without the emissions. The only by-product, the startup says, would be water vapour.  

An artist’s impression of the green steel plant in Boden. The startup hopes the plant will produce 5 million tonnes of green steel by 2030. Credit: H2 Green Steel

The hydrogen itself would be made in an electrolyser at the Boden site. The electrolyser would be powered by ​​renewable energy, including hydropower from the Lule River and nearby wind farms. Overall, this process is predicted to slash steelmaking emissions by 95%.    

If successful, the Boden plant will be the first large-scale green steel plant in Europe, with its products used to construct everything from cars and cargo ships to buildings and bridges. The startup expects to roll out the first commercial batches of its steel by 2025 and aims to produce five million tonnes of green steel a year by 2030. 

However, global annual steel production is currently around 2,000 million tonnes, according to figures from the World Steel Association. This would make the production capacity of the Boden plant a mere “drop in the sea,” Ms Lund Waagsaether, senior policy advisor at the Brussels-based climate think tank E3G, told the BBC.  

But the Boden plant isn’t the only one of its kind in the pipeline. H2 Green Steel has already signed an agreement with Spanish company Iberdrola to build a plant powered by solar power on the Iberian peninsula. Hybrit, another Swedish company, hopes to open a fossil-free green steel plant by 2026 in a joint venture with mining operator LKAB, Nordic steel company SSAB, and energy company Vattenfall. GravitHy plans to open a hydrogen-based plant in France in 2027, and German steel giant Thyssenkrupp recently said it aims to introduce carbon-neutral production at all its plants by 2045.

These projects are set to boost Europe’s domestic production of green steel, and could soon have political backing too. The EU is in the process of finalising the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a strategydesigned to make it more expensive for European companies to import cheaper, non-green steel from other parts of the world. 

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Irish startup and CERN join forces on experimental energy transmission project

Government and policy, Insider, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Irish startup and CERN join forces on experimental energy transmission project

Thomas Macaulay

Story by

Thomas Macaulay

Senior reporter

Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy.

An Irish startup has teamed with CERN to develop a new form of insulation for superconducting cables, which are designed to accelerate the green energy transition.

Named SuperNode, the company has invented energy transmission cables that can transfer immense power across long distances. As the system requires less space and voltage than conventional copper-based cables, the environmental impact is reduced.

These benefits derive from superconductivity. This phenomenon occurs when certain materials are cooled below their critical temperature — typically -180°C for high-temperature superconductors. As a result, superconductors can offer a hefty power density and zero electrical losses.

To harness this potential, SuperNode needs unique scientific resources — which is where CERN comes in.

“In its research, CERN pushes the limit of superconductivity to reach record energy levels and operates one of the largest vacuum systems in the world,” said CERN’s Paolo Chiggiato in a statement.

“In particular, to avoid collisions with residual gas molecules inside the accelerators, we must reach extreme levels of vacuum. Vacuum is also used at CERN as a thermal insulator for our superconducting magnets. We believe that this know-how can be successfully applied to evaluate the technological solutions proposed to insulate the superconducting cables developed by SuperNode.”

To test the tech, CERN will subject candidate materials to temperatures, pressures, and environments that replicate the conditions that the cables will face. CERN will also design and develop a novel test rig to validate scale prototypes. Eventually, the rig will be installed at SuperNode’s Dublin headquarters — dubbed the European Cryogenic Centre for Superconductors.

Figure 1: Subsea Superconducting Cable
A study commissioned by SuperNode found that an integrated pan-European energy grid could reduce energy costs by 32%. Credit: SuperNode

The tie-up with CERN caps a busy month for SuperNode. Last week, the company announced that shareholders Aker Horizons and Dr Eddie O’Connor had committed €16 million of extra money towards developing the tech. The new funding followed a previous €14m cash injection made last year.

John Fitzgerald, CEO of SuperNode, believes adding CERN to the mix will provide a further boost.

“To meet increasing electricity demands, future transmission grids will have to reliably transfer bulk electricity over distances of hundreds of kilometres — connecting consumption hubs with areas of production, which are often located far away,” he said.

“We believe that by working together, we can find innovative solutions to improve the world’s energy infrastructure. Without new grid technology, we cannot integrate the level of renewables governments across the world have targeted and we will not achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement”.

Figure 2: Underground Superconducting Cable
SuperNode says its system is more efficient, cheaper, and better for the environment than any other viable alternative. Credit: SuperNode

The collaboration also comes at a historical moment for CERN. The lab has just taken its first steps towards building a 91 km-long particle accelerator. The new system would more than triple the length of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — currently the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider — which will complete its mission around 2040.

The plans were revealed amid growing competition for Europe’s leading position in the field.

The most notable rival is China, which also intends to build the world’s largest particle accelerator. CERN’s Malika Meddahi told AFP last week that “China displays the same ambition” as Europe.

“Let’s be vigilant and be sure that we are not on the verge of a change in this hierarchy,” she said.

Some concerns have also been raised over the enormous cost of the new collider. Critics worry that the investment in fundamental science would be better spent in applied sciences. But the collaboration with SuperNode is further evidence that CERN’s work can lead to practical applications.

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VCs invested €60BN in climate tech last year — here’s where it went

Investors and funding, Next Featured, Sustainability / /
VCs invested €60BN in climate tech last year — here’s where it went

Linnea Ahlgren

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Despite the tech startup funding landscape appearing gloomier than in many years, there are a few potential bright spots. Long-term climate targets in Europe and beyond are creating new opportunities for cleantech developers and investors. 

While there may be a recent dip in activity, funding has practically catapulted in the past couple of years. In order to recover from our addiction to fossil fuels, it is going to take a fundamental shift of the current paradigm. And there are significant amounts of money being thrown at the problem. 

As reported by Bloomberg, the total global investment into the energy transition, private and public, reached $1.1 trillion in 2022. This was up from a mere $214 billion ten years prior, and the numbers have positively skyrocketed since 2020.

Graph showing climate tech investment from 2004 until 2022
The last couple of years have seen an unprecedented investment in climate tech. Credit: BloombergNEF

Specifically, the total of VC funding in climate tech last year hit $70.1 billion – a rise of 89% compared to 2021 in an otherwise bleak year for investments. 

While the US leads the global climate tech VC investment race with $26.8 billion, Europe sits firmly in second place with $17.9 billion, which represents an increase by over 100% from the year before. 

Most of European climate tech investment is local

A report put together by Dealroom and Talis Capital late last year found that in 2021, the European climate tech ecosystem was worth over $100 billion: a value that has also more than doubled since 2020. The majority — 70% — of European climate tech investment stems, thus far, from local investors. 

Graph displaying value of European climate tech ecosystem in 2021
The overall value of the European climate tech ecosystem more than doubled between 2020 and 2021. Credit: Dealroom.co

“What we find fascinating about climate tech companies is that – as opposed to the great venture stories of the last decade like Uber and Airbnb – they aren’t creating new markets,” said Matus Maar, co-founder and managing partner at Talis. “Instead, they’re approaching some of the largest existing markets and reinventing them with sustainable alternatives.”

Energy storage tops the list for cleantech investors

Meanwhile, it is not a matter of simply throwing more money at already existing clean technologies. Previously, venture capitalists may have chosen to mostly fund startups in, for instance, solar power and EVs. As these technologies have matured, the trend is shifting towards other innovations such as decarbonising food production, or carbon capture and sequestration. However, energy storage technologies, including batteries, are seeing the highest levels of investment. 

According to Bloomberg, mobility funding still ranks high on the list of total amount invested globally with ($11.4bn), but has been surpassed by storage ($18.4bn), and is closely followed by food and agriculture ($9.5bn). The other main sectors are renewables ($8bn), circular economy ($6.2bn), carbon markets ($5.4bn), built environment ($4.9bn), resources ($4.7bn), data and finance ($1bn), and biosphere ($0.6bn). 

When looking at the top five of number of deals closed, mobility only came in as the fifth sector (334), beaten by storage (559), food and agriculture (537), circular economy (508), and renewables (417). 

In the words of the authors of the Bloomberg report that presented the figures, for early-stage investors, “solar panels and electric vehicles are so 2011.” 

However, according to fresh data, even the climate tech sector is not immune to the diminishing investment trend. VC and private equity flows fell 12.8% in Q1 compared to the rolling four-quarter average.

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How high-performance car data will increase EV battery performance

Electric vehicle, Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / /
How high-performance car data will increase EV battery performance

Linnea Ahlgren

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

The popularity of motorsports shows no sign of waning. With its reach amplified by the Netflix hit show Drive to Survive, Formula One in particular has gained an entirely new audience platform. What its electric car Formula E sister league may lack in characteristic sound profile (and on-screen drama), it makes up for in environmentally friendlier engineering. 

With new battery technology, Formula E cars might soon beat those of F1 for speed. Furthermore, the experience gleaned from the tracks could also be applied to enhance commercial EV batterylife and performance.

Ultra-high performance platform on display in Bologna

This week, WAE (formerly known as Williams Advanced Engineering, a branch of Williams Grand Prix Engineering, the company behind the Williams F1 racing team), displayed its latest ultra-high performance electric vehicle platform EVR at the E-TECH Europe conference in Bologna.

EVR platform from WAE
The EVR is currently being displayed outside of the UK for the first time. Credit: WAE

With its state-of-the-art 85kWh battery and peak power of 1650kW, EVR enables sub-2.0-sec 0–100km/h acceleration and a top speed of more than 400km/h. For reference, the top speed ever registered by an F1 car was just over 397km/h, when the Honda F1 team drove a modified version of their Formula One car across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

The third generation Formula E cars currently racing reach speeds of around 320 km/h. Meanwhile, Croatia’s Rimac Nivera set the top speed for an electric hypercar last year when it it hit 415 km/hat the Automotive Testing Papenburn track in Germany. 

Offering EV developers a modular approach

The company says that EVR has an inherent flexibility and modularity which allows it to offer startups a complete turnkey solution with the entire vehicle, as well as exterior design support. 

“We wanted to put something out there on our own platform because, whether it’s a new starter, a brand re-entrance, or even an established OEM looking for a halo car, it’s a step up on the development of vehicles that might take three to four years. We can give them something which is already 12 months into that process,” Chris McCaw, lead engineer at WAE, stated. 

In addition to the EVR platform, WAE’s stand at E-TECH also featured its Scalable Battery Module (SBM) system and the prototype TE-1 e-motorbike, Triumph’s first zero-emission prototype demonstrator.

The TE-1 is part of Triumph’s electric motorcycle strategy. Credit: WAE

WAE provides the electrical systems for almost all the electric race series including Gen 3 Formula E, Extreme E, ETCR and electric Skootr racing. Since 2013, clients of the company’s products have won nine driver’s championships and eight constructor’s championships, putting it on a far better footing recently than its petrol-powered cousin.

Today, WAE also launched Elysia – its new battery intelligence branch sprung from over a decade of experience in the electric high-performance car business. The company says it brings together electrochemistry, modelling, AI and data science to increase the performance of any battery system.

Battery intelligence software to increase battery health and lifespan

Elysia’s software package is divided into two branches. The first consists of embedded algorithms designed to run on standard automotive-grade hardware platforms. The second is  a cloud platform that features prognostics designed to detect real-world failure mechanisms. According to the company, this will benefit everything from e-scooters to road cars and electrified mining trucks.

Tim Engström, technology lead at Elysia by WAE, says that the modern lithium-ion battery is currently going through a “second advent,” much due to the utilisation of data availability. 

“The arrival of mainstream, low-cost telematics has afforded manufacturers and fleet owners the ability to understand more about their vehicles than ever before,” Engström states. 

Rendering of potential use cases for Elysia software
Elysia’s battery management algorithms can be applied to a range of use cases. Credit: Elysia by WAE

However, he believes that the transformative opportunities of this data has been, up until now, underutilised. Following a major push on connectivity, now the time has come to harness the battery data and “transform electric mobility on a larger scale.” 

“Battery intelligence is a new discipline that connects battery data seamlessly with electrochemists, battery systems engineers, and data scientists with the sole goal of delivering actionable insights to enhance and protect value across the battery lifecycle,” Engström continued.

The presentation of EVR and the launch of Elysia took place during the second edition of the E-TECH Europe conference in Bologna. The city sits at the centre of Italy’s “motor valley,” which has given birth to iconic brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati and Bugatti. 

Hundreds of companies exhibited their products in areas such as EV technology, fuel cell solutions, polymers, satnavs, driver identification systems, autonomous driving and connectivity.

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Are these hydrogen-electric RVs the answer to emissions-free holidays?

Electric vehicle, Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / /
Are these hydrogen-electric RVs the answer to emissions-free holidays?

Linnea Ahlgren

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Linnea Ahlgren

Not too far in the future, camper lovers could be going on holidays that are much kinder to the very nature they are looking to enjoy. At the beginning of this week, London and Vancouver-based startup First Hydrogen revealed the design for its next-generation zero-emission Recreational Vehicle (RV). 

The concept has been developed in collaboration with Switzerland-headquartered EDAG Group. Its introduction follows the presentation of First Hydrogen’s next-generation light commercial vehicle (LCV), also a result of a partnership with the global mobility expert.

The company states that the first generation of its fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) have already entered road trials with members of the UK Aggregated Hydrogen Freight Consortium (AHFC), starting with fleet management company Rivus. 

They will be tested for several different use cases, including delivery of groceries and parcels, health care and roadside assistance. First Hydrogen will then use data and feedback from the road trials to inform the development of its Generation II vehicle. 

Hydrogen fuel cells superior to battery EVs?

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First Hydrogen’s vehicles are powered by high performance Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks supplied by Ballard Power. This generates electricity by converting chemical energy stored in hydrogen fuel into electrical energy, using a proton-conducting polymer membrane as the electrolyte. They operate at relatively low temperatures (50 to 100 °C) and can quickly vary output to meet shifting demand, which makes them a good fuel cell choice for the automotive industry. 

The company says this gives it a leg up on regular EVs as the hydrogen FCEV can carry heavier payloads. Furthermore, it takes much less time to refuel the hydrogen than it takes to recharge an electrical battery. The next-generation LCV range is projected at 500+ km. 

“These concept vehicles provide a glimpse of our company’s future and give a clear indication of our brand direction within the LCV space,” said Steve Gill, CEO of Automotive for First Hydrogen. 

First Hydrogen’s next-generation fuel cell LCV will be informed by data from Generation I vehicles currently in road trials. Credit: First Hydrogen

While the quest to decarbonise road transport is admirable in and of itself, there is also a solid financial foundation for the product: the global LCV market is projected to reach €686 billion by 2030. For the RV market, the corresponding prediction for the end of the decade is just under €107 billion. 

In Europe, RV sales hit an all-time high in 2021 with 260,000 new vehicles sold, very likely spurred by restrictions following the global health crisis. Here, First Hydrogen identifies particular opportunities with an often eco-conscious campervan crowd. 

“The First Hydrogen campervan is an example of how we see hydrogen fuel cell and other electric vehicle technologies having wider applications,” Gill added.

Looking to increase green hydrogen production

As with most startups working with hydrogen, First Hydrogen has to ensure that there will be enough to supply its products. No one will purchase a vehicle that cannot be powered after all, no matter how zero-emission it may be. 

Furthermore, the hydrogen needs to be green, meaning produced using renewable energy, otherwise the eco-friendly concept goes out the window. In summer last year, First Hydrogen applied for funding from the UK Government’s £240 million (€272 million) Net-Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF). 

The company’s two green hydrogen production projects will have an initial capacity of 40MW each and be situated in the Greater Manchester area and the Thames Estuary. The second round of NZHF competition is currently underway for both development and capital expenditure.

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The new wave of climate tech startups capturing carbon across Europe

Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / /
The new wave of climate tech startups capturing carbon across Europe

Chris Baraniuk

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Chris Baraniuk

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, work stopped at thousands of Ukrainian businesses – including carbon capture-focused startup Carbominer. 

As tanks approached the capital Kyiv, inhabitants of the city, including employees of the company, were forced to flee for their own safety.

Among them was Viktoria Oseyko, chief marketing officer, and her father Nick, founder and chief executive officer of Carbominer. But Ukraine soon retook control of the area.

“When the Russian forces were kicked out of the Kyiv region, it was like three or four weeks and the managing team decided to get back,” explains Oseyko.

Nick and Victoria Oseyko. Credit: Carbominer

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She and her colleagues have since completed a pilot trial of their machine that can capture CO₂ from the air so that it can be piped into greenhouses. This heightens plant photosynthesis, which helps farmers grow crops.

Carbon capture could prove essential component to halt pipeline warming

Carbominer is just one among many eclectic startups in Europe racing to develop technology that can capture carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that accounts for 66% of global warming.

Although reducing emissions is generally viewed as the key to tackling climate change, the UN, in a report published last month, highlighted that CO₂ removal might be necessary if the world is to achieve net zero emissions and limit warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels. This is due to what is called committed warming – the future warming in the pipeline as a result of the greenhouse gases we have already emitted. 

It takes time for a shift in energy balance to show up. This means that even if we were to stop emitting CO₂ and methane – the leading contributors to climate change – tomorrow, global temperatures would still keep rising as the gases linger in the atmosphere. 

New EU location to circumvent geopolitical challenges

The machines designed by the 10-strong team at Carbominer are still in development but Oseyko says that, by the end of the year, they hope to have a device that can capture 46 tonnes of CO₂ annually. 

This is fairly small-scale but the firm, which has raised $900,000 (€822,000) in funding to date, hopes that it will be able to provide captured CO₂ to agricultural customers at a relatively low cost.

“We are going to place the machine on site and then bill per usage of CO₂,” explains Oseyko.

The team at Carbominer aims for their machine to capture 46 tonnes of CO₂ per year. Credit: Carbominer

She adds that among the challenges faced by Carbominer, and many other Ukrainian companies, is the difficulty of importing materials into the country at present. And the fact that, under martial law, male members of staff cannot currently leave Ukraine, which makes engaging with the industry and visiting potential clients difficult. To mitigate this, the firm plans to open an office in neighbouring Poland this year, where Oseyko will be based.

Carbominer’s device consists of two linked machines. One has a large fan that draws air towards a sorbent, which captures the CO₂, and the other machine uses electrochemistry to release the CO₂ again when needed.

But one of the key difficulties with direct air capture systems is the need to move air around in order to get at the CO₂ within it – this requires energy. Oseyko says that, when fossil fuel-based electricity is used to power Carbominer’s system, it stops being carbon negative — but the firm intends to use renewable energy only.

Hitching a ride on existing air flow

In Finland, the team at Soletair Power has been thinking about how to get around the energy consumption issue.

“You need to move quite a lot of air in order to capture the CO₂. In buildings, that air is already moving,” says chief executive officer Petri Laakso.

Soletair Power’s carbon capture tech essentially piggybacks on existing ventilation systems in buildings, which transport indoor air – rich in CO₂ breathed out by occupants. The firm has 10 employees and has received €1.5 million in funding to date, besides an undisclosed amount in grants. 

The amount of CO₂ captured depends on various factors including the volume of air moved in each case but Laakso says systems already installed by the firm capture on the order of tens of kilos of CO₂ per day.

Will net-zero plans drive deployment?

Again, industry values the captured CO₂. Soletair Power has installed its technology in an office in the city of Vaasa, Finland, where the trapped CO₂ is eventually used in the manufacture of concrete so that it can be embedded permanently in building blocks.

“This is a valid technology,” says Dawid Hanak at Cranfield University. “It’s just how much you can capture and how scalable that is.”

Credit: Soletair Power

Laakso says his firm has already installed systems in Finland and Germany and will install another this summer. While individual deployments will not capture enormous amounts of CO₂, he adds, hundreds or thousands of buildings might eventually use the tech, vastly increasing its impact.

“There are many real estate companies promising that they will be carbon net zero by 2028 and they are turning to us,” says Laakso.

The cost? It varies depending on the installation but currently a large system can remove CO₂ for about €500 to €1,000 per tonne. Many firms are hoping to slash the cost of removal to $100 (€91) per tonne or below, eventually, so that CO₂ capture becomes affordable at the scales required to reach net zero.

Competitive advantage despite efficiency concerns

Carbon capture tech has its pros and cons. Stuart Haszeldine at the University of Edinburgh notes that there are easier methods of reducing humanity’s climate impact.

“The simplest way of addressing the climate issue is actually to become more efficient and get more value out of the same energy,” he says. Insulate buildings, for instance, so they require less energy to heat.

However, reducing one’s carbon footprint will become increasingly attractive commercially, argues Haszeldine as he suggests that firms able to lower their overall CO₂ output will have an advantage in terms of revenue and perception.

Plus, direct air capture helps to address CO₂ emitters that are spread over large areas and therefore hard to control, such as farming. If you can’t catch the CO₂ reliably at source, at least you can pull it out of the atmosphere later.

Using existing farming techniques to store carbon for millenia

Even some difficult-to-decarbonise industries could soon play a bigger role in seizing CO₂. In Ireland, a startup called Silicate has come up with a way of treating agricultural land so that it draws carbon out of the air and into the ground where a chemical reaction takes place, locking it down.

Silicate currently employs ten people and has not yet raised funding other than via grants, including $100,000 (€91,000) as a winner of the Thrive / Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge.

Surplus concrete is ground to dust before applying it to farmland. Credit: Silicate Carbon

Maurice Bryson, founder, explains that the process relies on unwanted or waste concrete, which can be crushed into a powdery material – “like a fine snowdust”, he says. By spreading this over a field, say every four years, farmers can maintain a high (more alkaline) soil pH, which is better for growing crops.

Farmers already de-acidify their soil using a technique called liming but the difference with Silicate’s approach is that the concrete reacts with carbonic acid in the soil, removing CO₂ from the air. The substances formed by this process, bicarbonate and calcite, ought to store carbon for many thousands of years.

Reduced costs with increased investment?

The firm aims to achieve removal rates of two tonnes of CO₂ per hectare, per 10 tonnes of crushed concrete applied to such an area – during the course of one year.

“The process is very passive, once you apply it to the field it gets to work itself,” says Bryson. “A key win, we think, for us is there is a possibility for the cost to fall below that $100 per tonne [of CO₂] price point.”

While direct air carbon capture technology is still in its infancy, investment in carbon capture and storage more than doubled over the past year, reaching an all time high of nearly €6 billion in 2022. With so many startups ploughing this field, and rising urgency over reaching net zero globally, these technologies will likely have a noticeably bigger role to play in the coming years. 

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Low-carbon energy startup wins Crown Agreement for 30MW tidal project

Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / /

Fossil-free though it may be, hydropower comes with its specific set of challenges. It has a high initial cost, and can often be invasive and destructive to local communities and biodiversity. Furthermore, it will, in all likelihood, become increasingly susceptible to droughts. But what if we could harness the power of the oceans themselves?

This is what Scotland-based Orbital Marine Power is aiming to do with its 2MW+ O2. Its developers say it is the world’s most powerful tidal turbine under commercial operation and a result of 15 years of refinement. 

Now, Orbital has just won an Option Agreement from Crown Estate Scotland for a new tidal energy project in the Westray Firth. This is an area of water in the Orkney islands where tidal speeds can reach over 3m/s. 

Adding more tidal turbines to marine energy centre

The low-carbon energy startup has already deployed one unit of the O2 at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), supplying energy to the UK grid since July, 2021. Following the award of contracts for difference (CfDs) – the UK government’s main mechanism for supporting low-carbon electricity generation – from allocation round 4 last year, it is getting ready to install a further three turbines. 

Essentially, tidal turbines work the same way a wind turbine does, only it is streams of water that move them, not air. Orbital’s floating O2 platform is 243 feet long and placed in tidal streams and moored to the seabed via strong anchors that hold it in place. It is connected to the local electricity grid via a subsea cable.