Adam Carver, CFA

  From CTV Updates The latest news from the ClimateTech world  Three breakthrough technologies just hit major milestones: Energy Vault's 57 MW battery system went live in Texas ahead of schedule, Anax Power is harvesting clean energy from pipeline pressure alone, and Captura opened their first US manufacturing facility for ocean carbon capture. Learn More: https://lnkd.in/gRe2TDYJ  

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⚡️Clean energy meets political risk. In my latest for POWER magazine, I explore why rebranding around election cycles can backfire - and how solar companies can stay adaptable without losing trust. 👇🏼👇🏼 #CleanEnergy #BrandStrategy #ReputationManagement #PowerMagazine

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The Tailwater Capital LLC team has been reviewing this new BloombergNEF report, and the takeaway is pretty clear: AI is putting serious pressure on the grid, and natural gas is going to be a big part of the solution. BNEF now expects U.S. data center power demand to hit 106 GW by 2035, a 36% increase from just seven months ago. The scale and speed of this shift are hard to ignore. But it’s not just more data centers. They’re also getting a lot bigger. Nearly a quarter of the new projects BNEF tracked this year are over 500 MW, more than double last year’s share. To keep up, natural gas demand from U.S. data centers is forecast to grow from 1.3 Bcf/d in 2024 to 6.8 Bcf/d by 2035. That’s nearly 5x growth in just over a decade. Data centers need real energy behind them, and that’s where natural gas has a major role to play. This is why we continue to believe in an all-of-the-above energy strategy at Tailwater. If we’re going to meet this kind of load growth while keeping power reliable and affordable, natural gas needs to stay in the mix. Full article here: https://bit.ly/4p6gF3H

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The DOE funding pullback is clarifying for climate tech investments, not catastrophic. The Department of Energy's decision to return over $13 billion in unobligated clean-energy funds has spooked founders who built capital strategies around grant timelines. Reality check: this is a policy reprioritization toward fewer discretionary grants and longer timelines, not a sector shutdown. What hasn't changed: projects with real economics still get funded. The Loan Programs Office continues approving disbursements for revenue-generating projects—manufacturing scale-up, grid infrastructure, nuclear restarts. DOE's Mine of the Future initiative and critical minerals programs remain active, supporting technologies that secure domestic supply chains. At MFV Partners, we stayed disciplined while others chased 2021-2023 IRA momentum. Those bets are struggling now. We focused on energy deep tech that works without subsidy dependency—solutions that pencil out regardless of administration. Our portfolio reflects this: Conifer builds rare-earth-free powertrains using ferrite magnets, directly addressing supply-chain bottlenecks while improving power density and enabling cleaner HVAC and mobility applications. SUN Mobility operates battery-swapping infrastructure for commercial fleets across India, Africa, and Southeast Asia—accelerating EV adoption in emerging markets while delivering ROI through better asset utilization. We have several other companies in stealth building similar economics-first solutions that drive real climate impact. What founders should do now: Use grants to derisk R&D where available, but build your scale path around customer pilots and project finance. Treat supply-chain resilience as a product feature. Prove the economics: predictable throughput, demonstrated reliability, and numbers that work with conservative assumptions. The fundamentals haven't changed. Electrification and grid modernization are productivity upgrades—lower costs, higher availability, better payback. That's where capital flows, regardless of headlines. We're continuing to invest actively in energy and electrification deep tech. If you're building solutions with strong unit economics that accelerate the energy transition, reach out. https://lnkd.in/gUfdzRXH https://lnkd.in/gNGm9zyM

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An "Energizing" Report from PitchBook: The clean energy transition is now commercially viable in places like Europe without government subsidy or incentives. California is closing in fast and Sunstone Advisors is 100% committed to this strategy: "The technologies have matured. Renewables like wind and solar are now commercially viable without subsidies. And with Europe’s post-invasion focus on energy security, PE firms are pouring capital into the energy transition—not out of climate altruism, but because the economics increasingly make sense." "Moreover, PE is no longer relying on returns propped up by policy. Erich Becker, a former power plant engineer turned investor at specialist firm Verdane, explains how investors seek assets that work on their own merits, without relying on unpredictable regulation... “We look for commercially viable products and services,” he said. “If there’s a regulatory tailwind, that’s great, but we don’t rely on it.” This shift in mindset is driving a broader change in where and how PE invests. Rather than just financing wind turbines or solar parks, firms are backing business models that will power cleaner systems—and do so profitably. “We back companies that provide equipment, services or software to renewable assets,” says Becker. “On the consumer side, energy efficiency is huge.” Love this! Penn Hill Capital Jesse Yanocha Preston Hayes Sunstone Management CalPERS Lena A. Gonzalez, MBA Josh Becker Zain Pirani

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𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐃𝐮𝐦𝐛 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 I recently sat down with Ryan Grant Little, the host of Another Climatetech podcast (but also a climatetech founder, advisor, and investor) to talk about why AI is the new electrification, and how it makes an increasingly complex energy system legible. Some other topics we covered: 🔋 Why electrification isn’t just inevitable - it’s the most capital-efficient climate solution on offer 🔄 What "sector coupling" means, and how heat pumps, EVs, and industry can all talk to each other ⚡ The distributed grid, smart meters, and how regulation is slowing everything down 🔐 Why cybersecurity for backyard solar systems might be our next national security crisis 🔌 The dark horses of climatetech: agrivoltaics and bi-directional EV charging At Vireo Ventures, we believe decarbonization is the greatest challenge and the greatest investment opportunity of our lifetime. Our investments, including - FLEXECHARGE, Atmen, nuuEnergy, dsb - are driving exactly that: the digital and electrified infrastructure needed to achieve net-zero and make our energy system work. Listen on Spotify 🎧 https://lnkd.in/dTUVs7id or Apple 🍏 https://lnkd.in/ddDHT_bS

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Energy affordability is now a competitiveness issue. From California to Pennsylvania — and increasingly here in Ohio — rising power prices, grid constraints, and clean-energy demand are reshaping energy policy and investment decisions. For mid-sized industrial companies, energy strategy is no longer just about price. It’s about reliability, flexibility, and long-term access to power that supports growth. At TPI Efficiency we’re helping manufacturers navigate this shift with smarter procurement and operational energy strategies as policy and markets continue to evolve. #EnergyMarkets #OhioManufacturing #EnergyPolicy #GridReliability #CleanEnergy #IndustrialEnergy #MidwestEconomy

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