Clean Energy Venture Group is an angel investment group that provides seed capital and management expertise to early stage clean energy companies. The group is comprised of seasoned operating executives with strong capabilities in the energy and environmental sectors. With each investment, they not only bring capital, but also the value of their experience and network to help companies achieve their goals. While their focus is in the Northeast United States, they have worked with companies throughout the country.

Clean Energy Venture Group

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a public benefit corporation created in 1975. NYSERDA's earliest efforts focused solely on research and development with the goal of reducing the State's petroleum consumption. Subsequent research and development projects focused on topics including environmental effects of energy consumption, development of renewable resources, and advancement of innovative technologies.

NYSERDA

Trafigura is a multinational commodity trading company that specializes in the trading and distribution of a wide range of commodities, including oil, metals, minerals, and agricultural products. Founded in 1993, Trafigura has grown to become one of the world's largest and most prominent commodity trading firms. The company is involved in various aspects of the commodity supply chain, including sourcing, transportation, storage, and distribution. Trafigura operates globally and has a significant presence in key markets and regions around the world. Trafigura's activities often involve trading physical commodities, financial derivatives, and other instruments to manage price risk and optimize supply chain operations. The company's operations are complex and diversified, covering a broad spectrum of commodities and industries. Trafigura also owns and operates a number of industrial assets, including Nyrstar, a multi-metals producer, and Puma Energy, a fuel storage and distribution company; as well as joint ventures with Impala Terminals, a port and logistics provider, and Nala Renewables, a power and renewable energy investment and development platform.

Trafigura

Evok Innovations is a clean technology & energy transition fund leveraging the strengths of a world-class team of technologists, company builders, and climate investors.

Evok Innovations

Breakthrough Energy Ventures is an investor-led fund made up of members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, guided by scientific and technological expertise and committed to investing patiently in developing new ways to live, eat, travel, and build. Breakthrough Energy Ventures provides reliable and affordable power without contributing to climate change. Breakthrough Energy invests in new technologies that make power reliable and affordable for everyone while not warming the planet.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust is a charitable organization that raises funds for a variety of social issues. It focuses on promoting environmental awareness and supporting an organization that supports charities whose mission is environmental protection, with a particular focus on the developing world. It was founded by Jeremy Grantham and Hannelore Grantham in 2005.

Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust

Quidnet Energy

Quidnet Energy is a technology-driven energy company that powers the carbon-free electric grid. Its technology is a form of hydroelectric energy storage using time-tested well-drilling and construction technologies to pump water under pressure into subsurface geological reservoirs to store energy. When variable renewable energy is not available, this water is released to drive hydroelectric turbines to power the electric grid. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Houston with offices in San Francisco and Saratoga Springs, New York.

Quidnet Energy (Quidnet) aims to overcome the inefficiencies in conventional pumped hydro-electric storage to provide long-duration energy storage solutions for utilities and renewable energy developers. Quidnet aims to provide 10+ hours of utility-scale energy storage versus the average long-duration utility-scale energy storage capacity of four to six hours.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Moving industry forward with next-gen advancements in energy storage and transmission

Alternative Energy

Hunt Energy Enterprises

Collaborate on a build-transfer program for 300 MW storage projects using Quidnet geomechanical energy storage technology in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid operating region.

Companies developing long-duration stationary energy storage technologies that are essential to match the intermittent supply of renewable sources with the inflexible demand for energy. Includes utility-scale, industrial, and residential stationary energy storage solutions

Quidnet Energy (Quidnet) aims to overcome the inefficiencies in conventional pumped hydro-electric storage to provide long-duration energy storage solutions for utilities and renewable energy developers. Quidnet aims to provide 10+ hours of utility-scale energy storage versus the average long-duration utility-scale energy storage capacity of four to six hours.&nbsp;&nbsp;Quidnet’s proprietary geo-mechanical pumped storage system uses conventional drilling technology to convert subsurface rock layers into energy storage reservoirs. When electricity is in abundance, it is used to pump water from the surface level to the subsurface rock layers, where water is stored at high pressure. Pressurized water from the subsurface level is then allowed to pass through a turbine to generate electricity. Quidnet’s solution operates in a closed-loop system, to prevent the evaporative loss and allow for water to be reused for prolonged periods.&nbsp;Quidnet’s technology is highly modularized and is available in 1-10 megawatt modules for custom deployment. This overcomes inefficiencies in the conventional pumped hydro-electric storage technology such as land use considerations and the need for heavy infrastructure such as reservoirs and dams.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of March 2024, Quidnet Energy had four energy storage projects under development in Texas, New York, Ohio, and Alberta (Canada).&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8960">March 2022</a>, Quidnet entered into a 15-year agreement with CPS Energy, a public utility service provider, to build a long-duration energy storage project in Texas.Funding and financialsIn November 2022, Quidnet was awarded a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14855">USD 10 million grant</a> by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through its SCALEUP program. Quidnet will be using this funding to scale its Geomechanical Pumped Storage (GPS) to a commercial system at CPS Energy, the largest US municipal utility. In June 2020, Quidnet raised USD 10 million in a Series B funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Evok Innovations.&nbsp;

Canada-based Carbon Engineering (CE) specializes in Direct Air Capture (DAC) and air-to-fuel (ATF) technologies. ATF technology turns atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) DAC facilities into low-carbon fuels. The company’s pilot DAC plant in British Columbia captures one ton of CO2 per day. As of March 2024, CE is working with 1PointFive to commercialize its air-to-fuel processes.Key customers and partnershipsCE has partnered with Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (the venture capital arm of the oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum) to build its first commercial DAC facility in Texas Permian Basin. The proposed facility will capture one million tons of CO2 per year. The construction of the plant is to be completed by 2024. CE has also begun engineering at its <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14178">second DAC facility</a> in Kleberg County, Texas to capture 30 million tons of CO2 per year. The site is expected to begin operations by late 2024. CE also has a partnership with Storegga Geotechnologies to deploy its DAC technology in the UK. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10949">June 2022</a>, CE extended its collaboration with 1PointFive to deploy DAC projects globally.CE allows customers to pre-purchase carbon removal quantities from its future projects. In March 2021, Shopify became CE’s first customer, having reserved 10,000 tons of carbon removals. CE has also partnered with BeZero (a British climate asset and liability management company) for a joint retail offering that allows customers to purchase carbon removals through BeZero’s website. In November 2021, CE also signed up BMO Financial Group, a Canadian financial service provider, as a new customer and plans to deliver 1,000 tons of carbon removal units.CE estimates the net cost of its DAC technology to be around USD 94–232 per ton. The net cost of capture from its proposed one-megaton commercial plant is expected to be “little less than USD 200 per ton”. The company has also reported that its net cost of capture needs to fall below USD 150 per ton for the technology to make commercial sense.In October 2021, Carbon Engineering also partnered with Huron Clean Energy (Canada), The Upper Nicola Band (Canada), and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures to develop a large-scale commercial ATF facility in British Columbia. The facility is expected to begin operations in 2026. In November 2021, the company partnered with Air Canada to explore sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) opportunities.Funding and financialsCarbon Engineering's most recent funding event was in<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14763"> November 2022</a> when it raised an undisclosed amount from aviation leaders, Airbus and Air Canada, to support the development of its DAC technology. Prior to this in March 2019, Carbon Engineering raised USD 68 million from Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and BHP. The company also received a USD 25 million grant from the Canadian government in June 2019. The cash helped speed up development and go-to-market activities for Carbon Engineering’s DAC technology.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21044">August 2023</a>, Occidental Petroleum announced a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Carbon Engineering for USD 1.1 billion in cash. The deal was closed in <a href="https://www.blg.com/en/about-us/deals-and-suits/2023/11/occidental-petroleum-completes-us1-1-billion-acquisition-of-carbon-engineering-ltd#:~:text=On%20November%203%2C%202023%2C%20Occidental,equity%20of%20Carbon%20Engineering%20Ltd.">November 2023</a>.

Carbon Engineering

TAE Technologies is a next-generation renewable energy company focusing on fusion technology. The company’s technology attempts to fuse hydrogen and boron to produce light to generate heat for power generation. TAE aims to connect the first hydrogen-boron fusion power plant to the grid in the 2030s and expects to demonstrate net energy on its next research reactor Copernicus around mid-decade.TAE Technologies has obtained more than 1,400 patents and launched several spin-off technologies in sectors such as electric mobility, power management, and life sciences. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15971">January 2023</a>, formed a new subsidiary known as TAE Power Solutions. This subsidiary is developing a unique technology platform derived from fusion research to improve the reliability, efficiency, longevity, and affordability of electric-powered products, including EVs and renewable energy storage.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6255">October 2021</a>, TAE Technologies partnered with the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), a Japanese research institute, to test hydrogen-boron (p-B11) fusion reactions. Furthermore, in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16848">March 2023</a>, TAW and NIFS carried out the world’s first hydrogen-boron fusion experiments in a magnetically confined fusion plasma.Since 2014, TAE Technologies has worked with Google to apply machine learning, data science, and advanced computations to jointly develop the Optometrist Algorithm to speed up experiments involving plasma, the core ingredient in a fusion reaction.Funding and financialsThe company’s most recent funding event was a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11710">July 2022</a> USD 250 million round led by Google. The company planned to use the funds to construct its research reactor “Copernicus.” Prior to this, in April 2021 TAE Technologies raised USD 280 million led by Google and New Enterprise Associates. Funds were expected to be used to further the company’s fusion experiments and to build a new reactor-scale facility.

TAE Technologies

Canada-based Enerkem converts waste into transportation fuels and chemicals. The company produces renewable methanol and ethanol from non-recyclable and compostable solid waste. Ethanol produced by Enerkem is used as a high octane oxygenate in gasoline to reduce its toxicity.Enerkem operated a pilot biofuel facility in Edmonton, Canada, which was capable of recycling upto 40,000 metric tons of waste, annually. As of January 2024, the facility has produced ~5 million liters of ethanol and methanol. As part of this project, Enerkem had a 25-year agreement with the city of Edmonton to recycle 100,000 dry metric tons of waste per year. In February 2024, the company reported plans to retire the facility and focus on the deployment and commercialization of its technology.Key customers and partnershipsEnerkem is developing a biofuel facility at Varennes (Canada) in partnership with Hydro-Quebec. The facility, which is set to come online in 2025, will couple Enerkem’s technology with a 90 MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer system to produce 125 million liters of biofuels and circular chemicals from 200,000 metric tons of waste per year.Enerkem is also developing a facility in Tarragona, Spain in partnership with Repsol to manufacture 290 million liters of methanol from non-recyclable waste and residual biomass per year. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20773">July 2023</a>, Enerkem partnered with Dimeta to begin a feasibility study to examine the development of two large-scale projects to convert waste into renewable and recycled carbon dimethyl ether (DME). The projects are to be developed in Northwest Europe and in the Gulf Coast of the US, with each project expected to produce ~165,000 tons of DME annually from mixed residual waste.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20774">August 2023</a>, Enerkem partnered with Technip Energies where the latter agreed to contribute its expertise in engineering, technology integration, and project delivery to support projects developed by Enerkem.Funding and financialsEnerkem’s <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9646">most recent funding </a>event was an April 2022 CAD 255 million (USD 203 million) round led by Repsol. The funds were to be used to expand Enerkem’s geographical footprint in Europe and to scale up the deployments of its gasification technology.

Enerkem

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is an MIT spinoff that focuses on commercializing fusion energy using revolutionary high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets to build smaller and lower-cost tokamak fusion systems. The company aims to manufacture these magnets and is building ‘SPARC’, its net energy fusion machine with MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Following this, CFS plans to build a fusion power plant named ARC.In February 2023, CFS opened its new 50-acre campus in Massachusetts, US. This will contain the company’s corporate headquarters, advanced manufacturing facility, and the SPARC facility.Key customers and partnershipsIn July 2022, CFS signed a five-year Collaboration Framework Agreement with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to carry out a series of work projects to support the development of fusion energy. In March 2023, CFS signed a framework agreement with Eni to carry out a series of work projects to advance fusion energy.Funding and financialsIn August 2023, CFS was awarded three undisclosed grants by the US Department of Energy’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program to fund research and development projects with the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, and University of California at Los Angeles. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19658">May 2023</a>, CFS was one of eight companies to receive a total of USD 46 million from the US Department of Energy’s Milestone-based Fusion Development Program to advance design, research and development for fusion power plants.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7124">November 2021</a>, CFS raised USD 1.8 billion in a Series B funding round led by Tiger Global Management. The company planned to use the proceeds to build and operate SPARC and commence deployment of ARC.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems

General Fusion aims to develop utility-scale fusion power using Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology. In December 2022, the company demonstrated plasma energy confinement times, plasma temperatures, and compression system performance that support its goal of meeting 100 million degrees Celsius in its MTF demonstration.&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22691">August 2023</a>, General Fusion announced a new MTF machine known as “Lawson Machine 26” (LM26). The company intends to use the machine to achieve fusion conditions of over 100 million degrees Celcius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) by 2025, and progress toward scientific breakeven by 2026. The LM26 is designed to validate the company’s ability to symmetrically compress magnetized plasmas in a repeatable manner and achieve fusion conditions at scale. It integrates the company's existing operational plasma injector with a new lithium liner compression system.Construction of General Fusion’s demonstration at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Campus began in 2023 and is expected to be commissioned in 2026 and fully operational by early 2027.Key customers and partnershipsIn June 2021, General Fusion partnered with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to build and operate a fusion demonstration plant (FDP) at UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, UK. In July 2021, General Fusion partnered with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a nuclear technology laboratory managed by the Canadian National Energy Alliance, to develop tritium extraction technologies for fusion power.&nbsp;In February 2022, General Fusion, Bruce Power, and the Nuclear Innovation Institute partnered to accelerate the delivery of clean fusion power in Canada. In November 2022, the company partnered with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories again to carry out a series of joint projects to accelerate the deployment of commercial fusion power in Canada.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22653">October 2023,</a> General Fusion partnered with Kyoto Fusioneering to advance critical systems for MTF commercialization, including the tritium fuel cycle, the liquid metal balance of the plant, and the power conversion cycle. During the same <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23302">month</a>, General Fusion expanded its partnership with TRIUMF to design diagnostics that will advance the former’s technology and prove the performance of its MTF demonstration, LM26. In December 2023, the company partnered with the University of Lisbon to develop a key diagnostic for MTF technology.Funding and financials&nbsp;In March 2024, General Fusion and TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, received a USD 800,000 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance grant. The companies intended to use the funds to advance technology to develop an ultra-fast neutron spectrometer system to measure plasma temperatures at fusion conditions of over 100 million degrees Celsius.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24966">December 2023</a>, General Fusion received CAD 5 million (~USD 3.7 million) from the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). The company planned to invest the funds in the research and development of the company’s MTF demonstration, LM26. The company’s latest funding round was in August 2023, when it raised USD 25 million in the first close of its Series F funding round. Participants of the round included existing investors, BDC Capital, and GIC, as well as new grant funding from the government of British Columbia.In November 2021, the company raised USD 130 million led by Temasek. Previously, in January 2021, General Fusion raised an undisclosed amount from Thistledown Capital, a venture capital firm established by Shopify founder Tobias Lütke.

General Fusion

Companies that facilitate renewable energy generation through next-gen advances in conventional renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydro

Companies that facilitate renewable energy generation through disruptive bioenergy technologies such as waste to energy (WTE) and advanced biofuels

Companies that facilitate renewable energy generation through disruptive technologies such as geothermal, fusion, wave, tidal, etc.

Provides next-gen renewable energy sources and energy storage for sustainable energy consumption

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<div>
Quidnet Energy, a provider of long-duration energy storage solutions, has entered into a partnership with Hunt Energy Network, a company that develops and operates a network of distributed energy resources. Hunt Energy has also invested USD 10 million in Quidnet Energy as part of this partnership.
The collaboration will focus on a build-transfer program for 300 MW storage projects, which will utilise Quidnet's unique geomechanical energy storage technology. These projects will be located in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid operating region. Quidnet's long-duration energy storage will be combined with Hunt Energy's expertise and subsurface technologies to drive these projects.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Before Hunt Energy’s investment, Quidnet was awarded a USD 10 million grant by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/14855"> November 2022 </a> . The partnership would expand the company’s existing range of projects under development in Texas, New York, Ohio, and Alberta (Canada).&nbsp;

Quidnet Energy

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