In partnership with

Good morning,

We took a break last week, but we’re back with plenty to dig into—from the unexpected boom of renewables in conservative counties to the crucial role of project finance in industrial decarbonization. Plus, a look at why energy storage is having a moment—and why it might just be the most important clean tech right now.

Let us know how we’re doing in the feedback poll and don’t be shy with comments—this audience is packed with brilliant minds, and we’d love to hear from you.

Let’s get into it.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Curated finds from around the web

The U.S. added a staggering 47% more clean energy in 2024 than the year before. 95% of that was CARBON-FREE. In fact, few states DIDN’T add solar. Texas and Florida added the first and second most new capacity: 8.9GW and ~3GW, respectively, compared to only 2.5GW in California. Most clean energy is being built in counties that voted for Trump.  

Insurance could help us save the coral reefs - seriously. As all of us in L.A. are having to become experts on firestorms, we’re also reading up on insurance. It’s not all bad, and in fact, some innovative insurance products are helping to protect nature across the planet, including coral reefs. Their investments and others in nature-based solutions will need to grow to $542 billion / year by 2030, up almost 3x from what it is today. 

It turns out that cities can experiment. Denver spent less than half a million dollars to work with several community groups on different approaches to reward biking in the city. The results are in: they show definitively that people who are paid to ride, ride more - even AFTER the city stopped paying them. 

The biggest barrier to industrial decarb isn’t technology, it’s project finance for FOAKs. U.S. Department of Energy alumni have joined together to launch an advisory firm focused on stacking public and private dollars to bring multi-million and billion-dollar industrial decarb projects to life in the U.S. They port financial and partnership models from other industries to clean energy to build and scale first-of-a-kind projects (FOAKs). The firm, Precursor, joins a slew of other organizations, like RMI and Deep Science Ventures’ Mark1 and European venture fund Axeleo Capital, trying to solve the FOAK “valley of death” - even if government dollars might be harder to find.   

QUOTE

THE RUNDOWN

Why energy storage could be the most important tech of the decade

According to experts, energy storage might be the most interesting and important clean energy tech right now. As costs to construct some forms of renewable energy fall below fossil fuels, energy storage has become a critical component of the equation to decarbonize and stabilize the grid. It provides power when renewables (or faulty fossil fuel plants) are not generating energy; it accommodates demand surges and reduces demand charges at peak times; and as we have seen recently across the U.S., it provides power during PSPS, or public safety power shutoffs (essentially, when the grid has to be taken offline due to climate and weather emergencies).

In the past, a subset of energy storage, battery energy storage systems (BESS), have gotten a bad rap. Truthfully, some are to blame for major fires, and four hours (the standard for current battery technology) doesn’t seem like a lot of storage compared to the cost of procuring it and figuring out where to locate it. However, recently, BESS is seeing a resurgence of public and private investment and technology improvements.

Last year, the U.S. Dept. of Energy put out one of its commercial lift-off reports about long-duration energy storage, citing the need for cost curves to drop and demonstrations to turn to scale. Companies are piloting different battery chemistries, including aluminum and zinc, that could push storage duration well above a new threshold of eight hours (and beyond to as much as 100 hours) without having any threat of catching fire. And when we hosted a delegation of Canadian energy storage companies two weeks ago, we heard from utilities, data centers, logistics companies, ports, and community choice aggregators about the importance of BESS with varying storage capacities and durations to manage increased loads from electric trucks, cargo handling equipment, building electrification, data processing, and PSPS. 

So, what’s next for energy storage? If recent news is any indication, there will be significant public and private investment. Most prevalent will be scaling up utility-scale BESS plus renewable energy projects (if you thought you’ve stood in a long line before, check out the interconnection queues for BESS + solar). Following just behind will be major tech players procuring on-site storage to manage new loads, as well as project developers for logistics, warehousing, fleets, and major real estate developments trying to meet sustainability goals and accelerate project timelines by avoiding utility hook-ups. If we at Twoº & Rising have our druthers, there will also be some clever re-uses of EV batteries to power electric two-wheelers and two-wheelers… 

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:

1. Sign up for The Rundown AI newsletter

2. They send you 5-minute email updates on the latest AI news and how to use it

3. You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI

Sign up to start learning.

DETOURS

A new photography exhibition is capturing the Anthropocene in stunning detail. Second Nature at the Cantor Arts Center features 44 artists across six continents, showcasing striking images of humanity’s impact on Earth.

VIBES