Clean Energy Innovations

The future of batteries may not need lithium. ⚡🧂 For years, lithium has powered the clean energy revolution. Electric vehicles. Home batteries. Grid storage. But lithium isn't the only path forward. Researchers are now exploring battery chemistries built from materials as common as salt and oxygen from the air. Why does that matter? Because today's lithium batteries come with real challenges: ⛏️ Intensive mining 🌍 Concentrated global supply chains 💰 Rising costs 🔋 Performance that gradually degrades over time Salt-based battery technologies aim to tackle many of those issues. Potential advantages include: 🧂 Abundant, widely available materials 🔥 Improved safety ⏳ Longer operational lifetimes ⚡ Lower costs for large-scale energy storage The biggest opportunity isn't necessarily replacing lithium in electric cars. It's storing renewable electricity on the grid. Solar and wind need affordable storage to deliver power when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. If these next-generation batteries can scale commercially, they could reduce dependence on critical minerals while making clean energy more resilient and accessible. The next breakthrough may not come from digging deeper. It may come from using materials we've had all along. 📌PS: Found this helpful? Join 19,000+ founders and investors leveling up their game to fix this climate mess. 👉 Subscribe to my newsletter and get actionable insights delivered weekly! 🌍🚀 https://lnkd.in/ektv3C_s #BatteryTechnology #EnergyStorage #CleanEnergy #ClimateTech #RenewableEnergy #Innovation #FutureEnergy

Electric trucks like this giant will save Fortescue $300-400 million per year on avoided fuel costs alone. The decarbonisation of mining is happening right now – and it's being driven by economics. Liebherr's T264 battery electric haul truck stands higher than a double-storey house, weighs 176 tonnes and has a payload of 240 tonnes. It's not only electric, but also drives autonomously! Its 3.2 MWh battery can be charged in just 30 minutes by a 6 MW charger currently being developed by Fortescue, which will be one of the world's most powerful EV chargers. Fortescue has ordered 360 of these trucks as part of a $4 billion deal with Liebherr to electrify its iron ore operations. It has set itself a target of eliminating emissions from its Australian iron ore operations by 2030. Fuel is one of the largest operating costs in mining. Replacing diesel with electricity at this scale is transformational. Image credit: Liebherr

🚛 WHEN TRANSPORT LEARNS TO THINK GREEN I came across a concept today that stopped me — an autonomous hydrogen truck-trailer drone designed for long-distance freight. At first, it looked like another futuristic vehicle. But then it hit me: this isn’t just transport evolving — it’s intent evolving. For decades, we’ve designed logistics around speed and scale. Now we’re finally designing around sustainability. This new concept merges autonomy, aerodynamics, and hydrogen power to do something radical: → Eliminate carbon emissions in heavy freight. → Cut operational energy costs through intelligent routing. → Reduce highway congestion with coordinated drone convoys. It’s not just engineering — it’s a shift in philosophy. A move from moving faster to moving responsibly. We often talk about “green tech” as a feature — but the real shift happens when sustainability becomes the invisible infrastructure behind innovation. It’s not an addition to progress. It is progress. What’s needed now isn’t more invention — it’s integration. We need to: ✅ Build networks where clean energy and automation reinforce each other. ✅ Redefine “efficiency” to include environmental balance. ✅ Shift from carbon offsetting to carbon prevention at design level. Because the next breakthrough won’t come from faster engines — but from systems that make waste impossible by design. That’s when technology stops being an experiment in innovation… and becomes an expression of intelligence. So here’s the question I keep returning to — 👉 Will the next era of transport be powered by fuel — or by foresight? #Innovation #Sustainability #Hydrogen #AutonomousVehicles #GreenTech #Logistics #FutureThinking

🚨 New Publication Alert 🚨 What are realistic roles for hydrogen in the future energy transition? This paper provides important answers. Authored by Dr Nathan Johnson, Michael Liebreich, Daniel Kammen, Paul Ekins, Russell McKenna, and Iain Staffell and published in Nature Reviews Clean Technology this perspective piece critically examines hydrogen's role in our path to net-zero emissions. 🔍 Key Insights: - Hydrogen's versatility is clear, but its deployment should be strategic, focusing on sectors where other solutions are not available or favourable. - Challenges persist across the hydrogen value chain—from production and storage to transportation and end-use—necessitating coordinated infrastructure development. - While hydrogen holds promise for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors such as steelmaking, heavy transport, and long-duration energy storage, its role in areas like passenger vehicles and residential heating is not compelling given advancements in electric solutions. - Environmental considerations, including lifecycle emissions and resource use, must be central to hydrogen strategy development. - This paper underscores the importance of prioritizing hydrogen applications that are both economically viable and environmentally sustainable. 📖 Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/e3f53nmf

Can you build a climate-tech decacorn? Hell yeah. Just take a plane to China 🇨🇳 and visit CATL and BYD. As many of us head to NYC for Climate Week, it’s worth pausing to reflect. Earlier this summer, I joined a group of VCs on a tour across China’s #climatetech ecosystem. We visited factories, spoke with founders, and met investors. We thought we knew China was ahead. The reality? The gap is staggering. ➡️ CATL: the most automated gigafactories I’ve ever seen. Defects are measured in Parts Per Billion. Forget Six Sigma — welcome to Nine Sigma. ➡️ BYD: rolling out an EV in 380 minutes, while European OEMs still debate platforms. ➡️ Startups: scaling from lab to megawatt level in just two years. At some point I started thinking kW doesn’t even exist in Mandarin… 👉 The biggest shock? Chinese companies don’t pitch disruption first. They scale incremental products fast, win markets, and then push into the “crazy sh*t.” The West tends to do the opposite. So what does this mean for us? 🚀 Startups: Commercialise early. The steepest learning curve comes from customers, not labs. Launch incremental, later innovate radical. 🏢 Corporates: Survival means adopting startup speed. Europe doesn’t lack innovators — it lacks customers at scale. 💰 VCs: Some sectors are no longer investable head-to-head (battery packs, solar cells, electrolysers). The play is collaboration, not duplication. Don’t get me wrong, China is not flawless. But the outcome is undeniable: a country without climate legislation has delivered the fastest green transformation. I will share more thoughts and learnings in future posts. Meanwhile, you can read more about our trip in this Bloomberg article by Alastair Marsh: https://lnkd.in/dVBsxcWg Big thanks to Roger Zhang & Sharon Chen from Persimmon Systems for organising the trip, and to fellow travellers Talia Rafaeli, Nick de la Forge, Ashwin Shashindranath, Jan Christoph Gras, Jacob Bro, Sebastian Heitmann, Torben Schreiter. #venturecapital #innovation #decarbonisation

In Switzerland, they're turning their train tracks into solar farms! Using the unused space between train rails, solar startup Sunways are installing solar panels, without disrupting train traffic. After getting the green light from the Federal Office of Transport, 48 panels are being laid across 100 meters of track in Neuchâtel, with the potential to generate 16,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. The panels can help power everything from local homes to the trains themselves, and thanks to removable designs and built-in cleaning systems, they won’t interfere with rail maintenance. If the pilot is a success, it could scale up and potentially cover railways across Switzerland, supplying up to 2% of the country's electricity needs. It’s a great example of using overlooked spaces to meet growing energy demands, all while preserving natural landscapes. Would you like to see this in your country?

⚡ Ten days. That’s all it took for Germany’s 15-minute market to expose our next big energy problem. When Germany switched from hourly to 15-minute spot market prices, it wasn’t just a technical change. It was like turning up the sensitivity dial on the entire energy system. Suddenly, the grid started telling us the truth… every 15 minutes. And it’s fascinating what that truth looks like. 1️⃣ Prices now move with the weather Every passing cloud, every burst of sunshine, you can see it reflected in the market. Prices spike, dip, recover, all within minutes. It’s messy, yes. But it’s also honest. 2️⃣ Flexibility has become the real star In a world that moves every 15 minutes, flexibility isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s everything. Batteries, smart EV charging, flexible industrial loads… These aren’t “future tech” anymore. They are what keep the grid balanced in real time. 3️⃣ Renewables are setting the rhythm Midday prices drop when solar floods the grid. Evenings see the classic ramp-up as the sun fades but demand stays high. The market is finally dancing to the rhythm of the sun and wind. 4️⃣ The Flexibility Gap is showing There are a few moments, very few (marked in golden circles), when renewables actually exceed demand. Those moments whisper: “We could have run on 100% renewables… if only we had more flexibility.” Storage, smart demand, and hydrogen can turn those whispers into everyday reality. 5️⃣ Efficiency is quietly improving More granular trading means fewer mismatches, less waste, and better alignment between generation and demand. The system is learning to breathe more naturally, in smaller, faster rhythms. 6️⃣ It’s not just about power anymore. It’s about timing. In a 15-minute market, the question isn’t “how much energy do we have?” It’s “when do we have it?” That’s a mindset shift for utilities, for industry, and for all of us watching this transition unfold. 💭 My takeaway Germany’s 15-minute market is teaching us that the energy transition doesn’t just need clean power. It needs quick reactions. We’ve built renewables. Now we need to build flexibility. Because in this new world… every 15 minutes counts. ⚡

In parts of Germany, solar panels are being used not just on rooftops—but as walls, fences, and highway noise barriers. From small backyard installations to large-scale infrastructure pilots, these vertical solar surfaces are proving to be a smart use of space. With wood and building material costs rising in recent years, solar panels have started to offer better long-term value, especially when their energy output is factored in. Pilot projects along Germany’s A44n and A46 highways show it’s technically and economically viable to build solar-powered sound barriers on embankments, potentially generating megawatts of clean energy while reducing road noise. Meanwhile, companies like Fraunhofer ISE and R. Kohlhauer are testing new wall-mounted PV designs to improve safety and performance. For homeowners, solar fences like Green Akku’s “ZaunPV” kits are gaining popularity. These plug-and-play solar fences can continue generating power through winter, thanks to their vertical positioning—often avoiding snow buildup and catching low-angle sunlight better than some rooftop panels. With pricing starting around €416 for a basic setup, they’re being seen as both a fencing solution and an energy source. From highways to home gardens, Germany is quietly showing how vertical solar integration could be a practical way forward—especially in places where land is limited, but sunlight isn’t.

THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND FLUORINATED INSULATION LIQUID AND IMMERSION COOLING. 1. Fluorinated insulation liquids are engineered fluids that do not conduct electricity, making them ideal for cooling electronics directly. 2. These liquids are chemically inert, meaning they don’t corrode or react with components, ensuring long-term reliability. 3. They have high dielectric strength, allowing safe immersion of high-voltage devices like servers, transformers, and supercomputers. 4. Used in immersion cooling, hardware is fully or partially submerged in the liquid to efficiently dissipate heat. 5. These liquids typically include perfluorocarbons (PFCs) or fluoroketones, which are stable and thermally efficient. 6. Immersion cooling eliminates the need for traditional fans or air conditioning, drastically reducing energy consumption. 7. The liquids have low viscosity, allowing better flow and even heat distribution around all hardware surfaces. 8. Fluorinated liquids are non-flammable and thermally stable up to high temperatures, making them safe in demanding environments. 9. In data centers, immersion cooling using these fluids allows for higher server density, saving space and infrastructure costs. 10. These liquids are reusable and recyclable, lowering long-term operating and environmental costs. 11. They support quiet operations since there are no moving fan parts or airflow systems involved. 12. Fluorinated liquids also have low global warming potential when designed with modern eco-safe formulations. 13. They are used in modular data centers, edge computing stations, and blockchain mining farms for heat control. 14. The technology supports zero water usage, unlike traditional cooling towers that consume large volumes. 15. These liquids allow precise thermal control, even in overclocked or mission-critical systems. 16. They're ideal for cooling GPU-intensive tasks like AI processing, VR simulations, and scientific computing. 17. In telecom and defense, immersion cooling using fluorinated liquids offers high system reliability in harsh environments. 18. The liquids are easy to monitor and maintain with sensors that track clarity, temperature, and level. 19. With no air required, there’s no dust buildup, keeping systems cleaner and reducing maintenance cycles. 20. Fluorinated insulation liquids are pushing the future of sustainable high-performance computing, where silence meets power.

This invention could impact 1.6 billion lives! 🔆 (And it's completely off-grid) Cooking fuels pose a global challenge: ↳ 1.6 billion people rely on polluting fuels for daily cooking ↳ Traditional cooking causes 3.8 million premature deaths yearly ↳ Fuel collection consumes 5+ hours daily in rural communities ...all while the sun delivers free, clean energy every day. In rural France, a carpenter, noticed this and decided to act. He created a wooden solar oven that anyone could use. Here's how it works: A) Reflective mirrors focus sunlight into an insulated chamber B) Dark cookware absorbs and retains this concentrated heat C) Temperatures reach 150°C (302°F) - perfect for most cooking D) Simple angle adjustments control heat intensity The design solves key adoption barriers: ↳ Uses carpentry skills available in most communities ↳ Requires zero electricity or ongoing fuel costs ↳ Eliminates indoor air pollution from cooking fires ↳ Creates zero CO2 emissions during operation The UN estimates solar cooking could prevent 10 million hectares of deforestation annually From a carpenter's workshop... ...to a sustainable cooking revolution. Sometimes the most powerful solutions don't require new technology - just reimagining what's already available. Would you try cooking with the sun? 📥 Follow me for daily insights on NatureTech and Nature Finance