🌎 Labouring for a greener UK grid #205

Happy Monday!

The Euros may be over, with a disappointing loss from CTVC’s home team, but elsewhere in the UK, a new administration could be a new testing ground for deploying climate tech.

In other news, roadblocks for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in Sweden; Spain green-lights new hydrogen funding; and Google’s new sustainability strategy for operational emissions.

In deals, $58m for wastewater treatment, $16m for next-gen recycling, and $11m for network analytics.

Thanks for reading!

Not a subscriber yet?

Subscribe Now

📩 Submit deals and announcements for the newsletter at [email protected].

💼 Find or share roles on our job board here.

Labour at the grid transformation point

This month, the UK’s Labour Party took office — and its newly announced climate policies took center stage.

Labour’s early pledges, such as achieving zero-carbon power by 2030 and net-zero by 2050, position England as a critical testing ground for deploying advanced climate solutions. An experiment of this size will be able to tap into new, readily available climate technologies that have never truly been tested yet at this scale and speed.

If Labour can capitalize on them, the country could set a precedent for other industrialized economies, which will be closely watching Britain's energy transition.

What happened?

The new UK prime minister, Labour’s Keir Starmer, ran for office on a platform of rapidly accelerating the country’s clean energy development. And voters responded by overwhelmingly voting for him and 400+ other Labour party members.

The platform included:

Clean power by 2030, to expand energy independence and shrink electricity bills. The party says that it can wean the UK off of foreign fossil fuels by doubling onshore wind, tripling solar power, and quadrupling offshore wind within the decade (as opposed to the rival Tories’ goal of 2035).
Permitting reform. Similar to in the US, complex permitting challenges and delays grid-related projects, capacity expansions, and technology additions. Labour has already said that it will reform these legal processes to accelerate buildouts.
Launching two new funds/companies for clean energy and climate tech. A newly created UK National Wealth fund would invest $9.6bn in projects across the country, while a new state-owned energy company, Great British Energy, would have $10.8bn (funded by a windfall tax on the record profits of the oil and gas giants) for clean energy.
Additional plans around improving water infrastructure and home heating.

And already, the administration has lifted the UK’s ban on onshore wind farms, brought the CEO of Carbon Trust in as head of the UK’s mission for clean power, and said it would not issue licenses for new drilling exploration in the North Sea.

Why it matters

As one of the world’s largest historical emitters, this shift in political leadership towards a serious climate agenda within the next decade changes the goalposts. The UK is going beyond the ongoing global focus on “energy security” — code for, decarbonization is hard, and we’ll likely need oil and gas for a bit, amid geopolitical turbulence and rising electricity demand.

Climate tech investment in the UK by vertical. Source: Sightline Climate.

But the UK has already started the journey to decarbonization — it has already largely phased out coal in the past 12 years. Now, looking back, that’s the easy part. To meet these new 2030 goals, the UK needs to remove gas (~30% in 2023) from its energy mix twice as quickly as coal was eliminated. And transitioning away from gas will require a complete overhaul of the grid infrastructure with the deployment of new technologies — without much substantial new funding, as the party does not plan to raise funds through taxes. This ambitious goal will transform the UK into a testbed for the potential of climate tech solutions for the next five years, while Labour is in power.

Winners

Gridtech: At the risk of stating the obvious, the UK will need to rapidly expand the electricity grid. But it faces similar challenges to the US — long permitting timelines, grid connection challenges, and more. Bringing new digital management tools and enhanced gridtech into the fold could help meet these goals (though some projects are already seeing opposition).
Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES): Specifically called out in Labour’s manifesto, LDES stands to win big, especially given its major onshore wind goals. And the technology is more mature and quicker to implement than the other advanced tech mentioned in the manifesto, small modular reactors (SMRs).
SMRs (maybe): While generally thin on details, Labour mentions SMRs as an important part of the solution, signaling continuing support. But given the UK currently has none in construction, it seems hard to see a path to deploying them at scale in time.
Carbon capture & storage (CCS): This could be another tack that Labour takes to get to net-zero, if shutting down gas plants proves politically or logistically infeasible.
Hydrogen: Labour has said that it will use its National Wealth Fund to directly invest in hydrogen and industrial clusters, with the goal of providing new jobs. While little detail was given, the explicit directive could mean that the lagging sector gets a boost.
Conventional nuclear. Labour has been clear it wants to finish Hinkley Point C, the UK’s massively delayed and over-budget conventional nuclear power station, and also site Sizewell C, the UK’s second planned new conventional plant. But Sizewell is estimated to take 9-12 years to build, so even if work began this year, it wouldn't come online until 2030. Still, the party has suggested it will extend the lifetime of the UK’s existing (and aging) nuclear fleet — something that could make a meaningful difference for much-needed clean firm power capacity in the country.

Key takeaways

Is a landslide the answer to planning reform? Decarbonizing grids requires building stuff, from the hundreds of miles of new pylons that move energy around to the new fields of solar and wind. Like other similar economies, NIMBYism has long thwarted attempts at the planning reform needed to enable the buildout. Thin majorities have scared governments from taking bold action, but now that Labour has a mighty majority, will it mean they can handle the revolt?
Climate tech doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The success (or failure) of these climate technologies won’t solely be based on how well they mitigate emissions. Some of the most effective solutions are also the most expensive, and with limited funds for these plans, the government may be a test case for policy and finance innovation as much as technology. So watch this space for more wonky market mechanisms like the UK's Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctioning that approves renewable projects.
Can I interest you in cost savings?* (*may contain traces of climate action) Following the approach of the Inflation Reduction Act, Labour largely didn’t sell its climate policies as such. Instead, it framed decarbonization primarily as a way of reducing consumer energy bills, and secondarily as a way of stopping “dictator Putin.” It seems people will vote for climate policies, so long as no one mentions that’s what they are. And even if the UK can’t achieve these policies, as plenty of critics suspect, it and the rest of the world could still learn some important lessons.

Deals of the Week (7/8 - 7/14)

Late-Stage / Growth

💧 ZwitterCo, a Boston, MA-based wastewater treatment firm, raised $58m in Series B funding from Evok Innovations, BHP, Blue Horizon Advisors, DCVC and Siteground Capital.

♻️ Polystyvert, a Montréal, Canada-based recycling polystyrene technology service, raised $16m in Series B funding from Earth Foundry, Infinity Recycling, and Swen Capital Blue Ocean Fund.

⚡ Eneida, a Coimbra, Portugal-based low-voltage network analytics service, raised $11m in Series B funding from Junction Growth Investors, HCapital New Ideas II, HCapital Partners, Korys, and Santander Alternative Investments.

⚡ epilot, a Köln, Germany-based cloud software for utilities, raised $11m in Growth funding from Expedition Growth Capital.

⚡ EVOS Energy, a Brisbane, Australia-based EV fleet management and charging service, raised $4m in Series B funding from Ampol and Autostrada.

🛵 River, a Bengaluru, India-based EV 2-wheeler manufacturer, raised an disclosed amount of Series B funding from Marubeni Ventures and Mitsui & Co.

Early-Stage

🌱 Scaler, a New York City, NY-based platform for decarbonizing real estate, raised $10m in Series A funding from Plural and Base10 Partners.

⚡ Zeti, a London, England-based platform for financing low-carbon vehicles and EVs, raised $6m in Series A funding from HYCAP Group.

📦 Uncaged Innovations, a Troy, NY-based sustainable leather alternatives maker, raised $6m in Seed funding from Fall Line Capital, Ponderosa Ventures, Golden Seeds, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures, and other investors.

🏠 ATEC, a Castlemaine, Australia-based smart stove technology platform, raised $4m in Series A funding from Gilles Vermot Desroches, Spark+ Africa Fund, DRW Venture Capital, International Development Enterprises (iDE), Kibo Investments, and Save the Children Australia Impact Investment Fund.

🌾 Foray Bioscience, a Cambridge, MA-based synthetic biology for soil health firm, raised $3m in Seed funding from ReGen Ventures, Engine Ventures, Superorganism, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments (SSI), and Understorey Ventures.

Other

💨 InterEarth, a West Perth, Australia-based cO2 removal service using trees, raised $8m in Corporate Strategic funding from FundWA and Securing Energy for Europe.

🐄 LAXEY, a Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland-based aquaculture projects, raised $7m in PE Expansion funding from Farvatn Private Equity and Kontrari.

🏠 Switchee, a London, England-based smart thermostat devices platform, raised $6m in Grant funding from Octopus Ventures.

🚗 Squad Mobility, a Breda, Netherlands-based solar-powered urban mobility service, raised $2m in Grant funding from the European Union.

🔋 TerraThermo, a Dublin, Ireland-based hot dry rock geothermal developer company, raised $1m in Project Finance funding from alfa8.

Exits

⚡ Solar Flow-Through, a Toronto, Canada-based solar energy investment and development developer, was acquired for an disclosed amount by SolarBank Corporation.

Can’t get enough deals? See full listings and deal analytics on Sightline Climate.

Request a Sightline Climate demo

In the News

Tech giant Google is no longer claiming to be carbon neutral, after its reported emissions rose ~50% in the last five years due to heavy computing needs stemming from the AI boom. Google also revised its net-zero strategy to instead achieve carbon neutrality, shifting from purchasing offsets towards reducing operational emissions, including at their data centers.

Spain approved $875m in subsidies for green hydrogen, after two years of delays. The subsidies will go to seven projects producing green hydrogen in five “hydrogen valleys,” getting to an overall electrolysis capacity of 652MW.

In more European climate tech news, SAF production in Sweden takes a hit as Shell pulls out of partnership with Vattenfall, which is now searching for a new partner. The project, launched in 2021, was meant to produce 82,000 tonnes of e-SAF and 9000 tonnes of renewable diesel annually, beginning production in 2027.

Six of Japan’s seven public pension funds, holding $566bn, have pledged to support ESG by signing the UN-backed Principles of Responsible Investment, a non-binding agreement to incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and ownership policies.

With France’s far right party losing the first parliamentary elections last week, French climate scientists and climate projects are likely safe, although still facing an uncertain future. With no clear winner for the elections, experts aren’t sure what policies will change around education and science.

This year’s COP host Azerbaijan said it’s launching a $500m green fund, with the goal to raise at least $500 million for climate projects from the state oil company Socar and other fossil fuel producers. Critics say that it’s proportionately still a very small amount compared to the $30b fund announced by the UAE at COP2.

Pop-up

Lufthansa’s SAF surcharge takes off this summer, with estimates of impact around €21-24 per ton of carbon.

Photo(voltaic) finish: ABB and NASCAR announced an all electric stock-car prototype developed in collaboration with Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet.

Singapore’s new culinary buzz: Regulators establish guidelines to approve the import and consumption of certain insects as food in Singapore.

Better, faster, stronger: New study indicates climate change 100+ million years ago helped sharks evolve into apex predators today.

Feeling winded: The IEA reports the cancellation of several projects, reducing initial expected capacity in May from 7,200 to 4,800MW.

Vitamin B(ee): A new study identifies which pollen is most nutritionally beneficial for bees.

The Washington Post unveiled an experimental AI language model based on published reporting to answer climate questions.

Opportunities & Events

💡Request for Information: Climate Tech Test and Demonstration Sites: Climate tech operators can submit insights on the current state of climate tech test and demonstration sites in Massachusetts by July 22nd.

📅 Climate Tech in the City: Join NECEC on July 24th, 2024 for a two-part event in Boston, MA, for an expo during the day and a block party at night with live music, free food, and drinks with fellow climate tech enthusiasts and innovators.

📅 Transcending Glass: Join a breakfast gathering of female and non-binary tech founders and ecosystem funders on July 25th in Boston, MA.

📅 Watt It Takes Live w/Matanya Horowitz of AMP: Join Powerhouse and AMP for a live evening podcast recording about transforming waste into valuable assets on July 24th.