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Climate Tech

Lyten headquarters.
Climate Tech

Even Domestic Battery Makers Are Feeling the Pain of Trump’s Tariffs

Bay Area battery maker Lyten sources 80% of its components in the U.S. But its ability to scale still depends on trade.

Climate Tech

The Nuclear Industry Loves This Geothermal Startup

In a Heatmap exclusive, XGS Energy is announcing a new $13 million funding round.

Blue
BYD Deals Another Blow to Tesla

AM Briefing: BYD Leapfrogs Tesla

On EV sales, a clean energy lobbying blitz, and fusion

Yellow
Trump and technology.

Crusoe Is Pushing the Definition of Climate Tech

A climate tech company powered by natural gas has always been an odd concept. Now as it moves into developing data centers, it insists it’s remaining true to its roots.

Blue
Climate Tech

Thea Energy Hits Milestone in Quest to Simplify Fusion

This fusion startup is ahead of schedule.

Fusion.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Thea Energy</p>

Thea Energy, one of the newer entrants into the red-hot fusion energy space, raised $20 million last year as investors took a bet on the physics behind the company’s novel approach to creating magnetic fields. Today, in a paper being submitted for peer review, Thea announced that its theoretical science actually works in the real world. The company’s CEO, Brian Berzin, told me that Thea achieved this milestone “quicker and for less capital than we thought,” something that’s rare in an industry long-mocked for perpetually being 30 years away.

Thea is building a stellarator fusion reactor, which typically looks like a twisted version of the more common donut-shaped tokamak. But as Berzin explained to me, Thea’s stellarator is designed to be simpler to manufacture than the industry standard. “We don’t like high tech stuff,” Berzin told me — a statement that sounds equally anathema to industry norms as the idea of a fusion project running ahead of schedule. “We like stuff that can be stamped and forged and have simple manufacturing processes.”

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Climate Tech

Climate Tech Is Facing a ‘Moment of Truth’

The uncertainty created by Trump’s erratic policymaking could not have come at a worse time for the industry.

Cliimate tech.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

This is the second story in a Heatmap series on the “green freeze under Trump.

Climate tech investment rode to record highs during the Biden administration, supercharged by a surge in ESG investing and net-zero commitments, the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and at least initially, low interest rates. Though the market had already dropped somewhat from its recent peak, climate tech investors told me that the Trump administration is now shepherding in a detrimental overcorrection. The president’s fossil fuel-friendly rhetoric, dubiously legal IIJA and IRA funding freezes, and aggressive tariffs, have left climate tech startups in the worst possible place: a state of deep uncertainty.

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