Climate News | TechCrunch

Cocoon is transforming steel production runoff into a greener cement alternative

Brian Heater — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Cocoon is a new startup built on the belief that greener steel production and the creation of concrete slag doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.

AI-powered water heater could banish cold showers and carbon pollution

Tim De Chant — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Cala Systems’ water heater pairs an advanced heat pump with an AI-powered control system to forecast hot water demand.

Why Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy and other investors are scouring universities for founders

Tim De Chant — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Investors are assisting startup founders earlier than ever in an effort to help them bridge the first climate tech valley of death.

Adept Materials’ dehumidifying paint was inspired by trees and semiconductors

Tim De Chant — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 17:46:03 +0000

The startup developed a two-material system that helps homes self-regulate their internal humidity.

Axle Energy’s sprint to decarbonize the grid lights up with $9M seed led by Accel

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:01:00 +0000

Axle Energy is a B2B, back-end infrastructure business focused on connecting flexible assets, such as electric vehicles and home batteries, to energy markets that aren't otherwise available for consumers to dip into.

Leaf helps farms decipher the troves of data they generate

Rebecca Szkutak — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:03:34 +0000

Farms produce a lot of data. From machines to irrigation systems, farms generate a lot of information that could be helpful to both them and the companies that serve them. Traditionally this data has been siloed across different formats, making it hard to read and build off of. Leaf is trying to change that. New […]

Applied Carbon’s farm robot turns plant waste into biochar to capture CO2

Tim De Chant — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The startup has raised $21.5 million to build more of its machines and deploy them throughout the U.S.

Bill Gates-backed Type One Energy lands massive seed extension to commercialize fusion power

Tim De Chant — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

The startup is betting it can bring its fusion technology to market at a breakneck pace by leaning heavily on partners.

Energy tech startup Greenely grabs €8M to reach more households and support Europe’s energy transition

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding round to expand its energy management platform into neighbouring Nordic countries (so around $8.7M at current exchange rates). The energy tech startup is serving around […]

GM-backed Addionics aims to make lithium-ion batteries cheaper with wavy foil

Tim De Chant — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The startup has developed a way to create copper and aluminum foils that are laced with tiny holes and riddled with undulating peaks and valleys.

Micropep taps tiny proteins to make pesticides safer

Tim De Chant, Rebecca Szkutak — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:00:21 +0000

Farmers have got to do something about pests. But nobody really likes the idea of using more chemical pesticides. Thomas Laurent’s company, Micropep, thinks the answer might already be in the plants themselves. Micropep is exploring how naturally occurring compounds known as micropeptides might work as an entirely new class of pesticides. If the startup […]

Terradepth wants to map the rest of the ocean floor

Rebecca Szkutak, Tim De Chant — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 20:53:47 +0000

After hearing that a U.S. Navy submarine ran into an underwater mountain, Joe Wolfel was surprised to find out just how little both government and commercial organizations knew about the ocean floor. It stuck with him throughout his time in the Navy and years later he launched a company to try to fix it. Wolfel […]

Farmblox puts the control into farmers’ hands with its AI-powered sensor-reading platform

Rebecca Szkutak — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:11:03 +0000

Nathan Rosenberg, the founder of farm automation platform Farmblox, said if there is one thing to know about trying to sell technology to farmers, it’s that you can’t tell them what to do. “[Farmers] are multigenerational,” Rosenberg told TechCrunch. “It is not a profession, it’s more a community, a way of life, and you need […]

Tracking the EV battery factory construction boom across North America

Rebecca Bellan — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 13:31:20 +0000

A wave of automakers and battery makers — foreign and domestic — have pledged to produce North American–made batteries before 2030.

CrowdStrike chaos leads to grounded aircraft — and maybe an unusual weather effect

Tim De Chant — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 17:48:26 +0000

The IT outage may have an unexpected effect on the climate: clearer skies and maybe lower temperatures this evening

Without this company’s technology, future fusion power plants might never light up

Tim De Chant — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Marathon Fusion emerges from stealth with a plan to help fusion power plants extract tritium, a necessary fuel.

WHAM! Nuclear fusion experiment hits new record for magnet strength

Tim De Chant — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Strong magnets are essential for the type of fusion power being pursued by Commonwealth Fusion Systems and a number of other startups.

Mitti Labs aims to make rice farming less harmful to the climate, starting in India

Jagmeet Singh — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 04:30:11 +0000

Mitti Labs aims to transform rice farming in India and other South Asian markets by reducing methane emissions by 50% and water consumption by 30%.

A startup set out to fight climate change — it did it by helping plumbers

Mike Butcher — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 12:31:17 +0000

HERO Software has closed a €40 million Series B financing round, and plans to expand across Europe.

Fusion pioneer Commonwealth Fusion Systems is selling core magnet tech to the University of Wisconsin

Tim De Chant — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Fusion power may still be a few years away, but one startup is laying the groundwork for what it hopes will become a bustling sector of the economy.