WINDWATCHER
WINDWATCHER

The latest briefing

Edition 2026-07-28 · Covering July 20 – July 26, 2026

Grid iron and the second battery wave

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Read what happens in climate tech, and watch where the wind blows

BORA

BORA · Capital & deals

Where the money went

Eleven rounds, and the largest three were all electrons rather than molecules.

  • $420M

    FerrovoltBatteries

    The iron-air storage maker closed a Series C to finance its first gigafactory in Ohio, with two utilities pre-committing to eight-hour discharge contracts before the line is cold-tested.

    Read more →
  • $180M

    HelioscapeSolar

    Interconnection-queue software, of all things, drew a growth round: Helioscape says it has moved 14 GW of projects through study phases faster than the utilities' own tooling.

    Read more →
  • $96M

    Cinder CarbonCarbon

    A biochar-to-cement play with an unusually boring pitch — it sells a cheaper clinker substitute and books the removal credit as upside rather than the business.

    Read more →
  • $54M

    Qbit ThermalQuantum

    Quantum-assisted materials search for heat-pump refrigerants. The chemistry is speculative; the customer list, three appliance makers, is not.

    Read more →
  • $12M

    NorthlatticeGrid

    Reconductoring crews as a service. Unglamorous, capacity-constrained, and the fastest way to add transmission this decade.

    Read more →
SIROCCO

SIROCCO · Building & shipping

What got built

Four things left the slide deck this week and touched the ground.

  • 🔥

    Arc FoundrySteel

    First heat at the electric steel plant in Trollhättan — 90 tonnes, off wind power, twenty months after ground was broken.

    Read more →
  • 🌊

    TidewaveMarine

    A four-turbine tidal array went live in the Pentland Firth and is exporting at 88% of modelled yield, which is the first honest number the sector has published in years.

    Read more →
  • 🔌

    VerdantVPP

    Launched a residential VPP in Texas that dispatches without an app: the thermostat just decides, and the bill credit shows up.

    Read more →
  • ✈️

    Clearsky FuelsSAF

    Hit 10,000 tonnes cumulative synthetic jet fuel, a milestone that matters mostly because the offtake contract steps up in price above it.

    Read more →
ETESIAN

ETESIAN · Patterns

The pattern

Storage duration is the new unit of ambition.

  • Duration creepAnalysis

    Three of this week's five largest rounds were pitched on discharge duration rather than cost per kilowatt-hour. A year ago the deck said $/kWh; now it says hours. That reframe follows the tariffs — utilities are procuring firmness, and capital has noticed before the trade press has.

    Read more →
HARMATTAN

HARMATTAN · Caught & calendar

Caught

One number that does not survive its own footnote.

  • Atlas OffsetsClaims

    Announced "1 million tonnes removed." The methodology annex counts contracted future delivery through 2031. Delivered to date: 41,000 tonnes. The press release does not say so; page 14 does.

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HARMATTAN

HARMATTAN · Caught & calendar

On the calendar

Dates worth holding over the next fortnight.

LEVANTE

LEVANTE · Elsewhere

Elsewhere

Off the beat, and heading straight for it.

  • Datacenter siting rulesCompute

    Two US states moved to make large loads pay for their own interconnection upgrades. Every grid-adjacent business model in this edition is downstream of that decision.

    Read more →

  • Copper contangoCommodities

    Copper's forward curve steepened again. Cable, not cells, is now the long pole in most of these build-outs.

    Read more →

Previously