☠️ Chevy Bolt discontinued

🎯 CLIMATE NEWS THAT MATTERS

📈 BUSINESS & MARKETS

• The Chevy Bolt has been discontinued, highlighting a shift towards bigger and pricier electric vehicles, but its practicality makes it a loss. Read more.

• True Green Capital Management has acquired a majority stake in CleanChoice Energy, a retail energy provider and community solar aggregator, to boost its solar business with an investment of $100 million to own and operate solar projects, while preserving the CleanChoice brand and team. Read more.

• The weight of electric vehicles (EVs) is causing concerns for traffic safety, parking garages, and roads due to their heavier weight compared to gas vehicles, despite the push towards EVs for more sustainable transportation options. Read more.

• Airbnb will provide a $2,500 grant to vacation-rental hosts in Massachusetts to install air-source heat pumps and increase the energy efficiency of their properties through a pilot program. Read more.

• Shell is withdrawing from the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the UK, to concentrate on its role as a technical developer in the Acorn CCS project in Scotland. Read more.

• The price of smaller electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to decrease as sales continue to climb. The IEA predicts that nearly one in five cars sold in 2023 will be electric, and that EVs could reduce oil demand by 5 million barrels per day by 2030. Read more.

• Enphase Energy's earnings call revealed that the company's sales and profit margins are being impacted by rising input costs, including supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. Additionally, the company noted that the current regulatory environment in certain states has become less favorable for solar installations and net metering, which is the practice of selling excess solar energy back to the grid. Read more.

• Xcel Energy has received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to provide microgrids and other resiliency projects for large commercial and industrial customers in Minnesota. Read more.

🏛 POLICY & POLITICS

• California's elimination of net metering and introduction of new incentives for homeowners with rooftop solar is expected to drive a surge in home battery installations, benefiting battery companies as the state's solar industry moves towards a more battery-centric future. Read more.

• The US Supreme Court has declined to review climate change lawsuits brought by local governments against several oil companies, allowing the cases to proceed to state trials, which could result in Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell facing claims of knowingly contributing to climate change. Read more.

• Leaders from seven European Union countries surrounding the North Sea, as well as Norway and the UK, have pledged to increase renewable energy generation in the region to boost energy security, through wind farms, "energy islands," and carbon capture and renewable hydrogen projects. Read more.

• The impact of climate change on US farms is severe and while there is talk about a "climate farm bill" in Washington, D.C., important changes such as crop diversification and shifting towards plant-based diets are not being fully discussed, according to some experts. Read more.

• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a rule banning natural gas in new construction in Berkeley, California, which has raised concerns among other cities planning to phase out natural gas. Read more.

🚀 STARTUPS & TECH

• The Venture Climate Alliance (VCA), a coalition of around two dozen venture capital firms, has announced its formation with the aim of combating the climate crisis. The group includes well-known tech investors such as Tiger Global and Union Square Ventures. The VCA's goal is to “define, facilitate, and realize net zero-aligned pathways” for early-stage startups. Read more.

• SPAN, a company specializing in home electrification technology, has secured $96 million in a Series B2 funding round, bringing the total amount raised to $231 million. SPAN intends to use the funds to expand its partnership reach to new categories, such as major home appliances, smart home devices, and grid integrations, and to accelerate its research and development capabilities. Read more.

• Avalanche Energy, a startup developing a small modular nuclear fusion reactor, has raised $40 million in a venture round. The company is focusing on a small design to enable easier commercialization, but it is uncertain when or if fusion technology will become commercially viable. Read more.

• Tidal power turbines installed in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada have been suspended after the company running them, Cape Sharp Tidal, failed to obtain the necessary permit to continue testing. The company has struggled with technical and financial challenges over the past few years, and the suspension is a major setback for the once-promising green energy technology. Read more.

• Electrolyzers are becoming increasingly important in the transition to a green hydrogen economy. These machines use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can then be used as a clean fuel source. Read more.

🌎 SOCIETY & IMPACT

• A case study conducted on a duplex in Cleveland, Ohio, that has been in the family for 75 years. The owners decided to fix up the duplex in 2021, and after making aesthetic and sustainable improvements, they unintentionally conducted a multi-year case study in which they experimented with two identical housing units – one powered by gas and the other electric. Read more.

• Agroforestry, the practice of combining agriculture and forestry to create productive and sustainable land use practices, is getting overlooked in the United States. Propagate, a startup, is one of the few companies in the US that combines agriculture and forestry to create sustainable land use practices. Read more.

• The trend of states imposing annual fees on electric vehicle (EV) owners is growing as more people switch to electric cars. Lawmakers argue that EV owners should pay a tax because they still use public infrastructure for transportation. More than a dozen states, including Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio, have already implemented such a tax. Read more.

• Farmers are growing Liberica coffee, a variety that has been long overlooked by coffee drinkers and producers because it has a distinct and stronger taste compared to Arabica and robusta. However, with the threat of climate change looming over the coffee industry, Liberica is becoming a valuable asset. Read more.

• A $700 million "living laboratory" for climate solutions is being built on Governors Island, led by Stony Brook University. The island, located off Lower Manhattan, was turned over to New York City by the federal government in 2003 with the stipulation that it not be used for housing. Read more.

🤓 WHAT I’M READING

📊 CHART OF THE WEEK

➡️ COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

WoCl is founding the Climate Workforce Coalition, a network of organizations working together to rapidly build the climate workforce. This network with be made up schools, unions, Fortune 50 companies, climate organizations, conferences, and many other organizations with the influence and inspiration to make climate work mainstream. Learn more.

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