Is it easy being green?
Today’s edition is all about how Atlanta innovators are helping prevent the worst effects of global warming. Let’s get into it.
The gathering storm...and fire...and drought
It’s been a banner year for natural disasters — in the worst way. Hurricane Ida and related flooding contributed to more than 80 deaths and an estimated $95B in damages. Summer floods in Europe and China killed hundreds and upended global supply chains. Wildfires are blazing their way across California. A severe drought is decimating local wildlife and agriculture across the Western U.S.
The costs associated with extreme weather events increased eight-fold — from $175B to $1.4T — between the 1970s and 2010s. And without major changes, things are only expected to get worse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report concluded that we can no longer stop global warming from intensifying in the coming decades yet can avoid its most devastating effects by acting now to limit the increase in global temperature.
Americans are beginning to wake up to the climate crisis. Nearly 60% believe the effects of global warming have already begun, while another 10% expect the effects to begin within their lifetime. Younger generations are particularly worried; Millennials ranked climate change within their top three concerns in a recent Deloitte survey and Gen Zers put it first.
That’s the Debbie Downer part. So what are we doing about it?
Climate tech on the rise
Scientists, policymakers, founders, and investors point to a range of solutions for curbing carbon and other greenhouse gases. These span from renewables and better long-term energy storage to more efficient buildings, smart power grids, electric vehicles, synthetic meat, nuclear fission and fusion, and clean hydrogen. Many of these technologies have gotten cheaper over time. The costs of solar panels, wind turbines, and lithium-ion batteries, for instance, plummeted over the past decade.
Investors are bought in on bankrolling these endeavors. Venture capitalists, eager to help drive breakthroughs and garner big returns by tackling a massive societal problem, pumped a record $17B into climate tech startups last year.
How Hotlanta is working to slow warming
Atlanta companies and investors are getting in on the action. The City of Atlanta itself helped set the tone by adopting a plan in spring 2019 to transition Atlanta to 100% clean energy by 2035.
Major corporations based in Atlanta, like Cox Enterprises and Southern Company, have channeled resources into cleantech. Cox has poured more than $1B into environmentally sustainable businesses and technology — including by investing in electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian and waste-into-energy conversion company Sierra Energy, and by recently acquiring BrightFarms, an indoor farming startup, and Spiers New Technologies, a company that services and repurposes used lithium-ion batteries from EVs.
In July, Southern Company spun out Cloverly, whose API calculates carbon emissions from activities like e-commerce, fleet transport, and supply chain operations based on customers’ data and then purchases a corresponding amount of carbon credits to offset those emissions. Incubated within Southern Company since 2019, the startup raised a $2.1M seed round as part of the spinout, led by Tech Square Ventures with other local investors Panoramic Ventures, Knoll Ventures, and Circadian Ventures as well as SaaS Ventures and the SoftBank Opportunity Fund.
Atlanta tech players SalesLoft and Fulcrum Equity Partners have worked to neutralize their emissions by collaborating with startup Green Places. The North Carolina-based company provides a free web-based carbon footprint calculator, facilitates the purchase of carbon offsets, and offers green certification and other sustainability-focused services.
The broader Atlanta region is also becoming a major hub in the EV ecosystem. Heliox, a Dutch company that develops chargers for electric vehicles — including a recently-launched bi-directional charger that turns EVs into storage assets to help energy companies better manage their grids — opened their North American office in Atlanta in June. South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation is spending $2.6B to build two EV battery plants in Commerce. And Duckyang, a battery module and energy storage system supplier to SK Innovation, is setting up a manufacturing facility nearby in Braselton. EV parts manufacturers GEDIA Automotive Group and TEKLAS have also recently located operations in Dalton and Calhoun.
Sustainability in North Georgia isn’t limited to EVs though. In 2019, South Korea-based Hanwha Q CELLS opened the Western Hemisphere’s largest solar panel manufacturing plant in Dalton. The plant produces an estimated 12,000 panels a day focused primarily on meeting the U.S.’s growing solar demand.
The New Planeteers
A cohort of new sustainability- and cleantech-focused startups has also emerged in Atlanta in recent years. These players include:
Cherry Street Energy: A company that develops and operates solar energy systems for customers like the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, and Emory University, and which garnered a $50M investment in August.
Grubbly Farms: A supplier of sustainable protein sources (dried black soldier fly grubs or “grubblies”) for backyard chickens launched by Georgia Tech students and cousins Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga in 2015. Grubbly Farms’ founders participated in Georgia Tech’s CREATE-X initiative and the Techstars NYC Accelerator and last raised a $2.9M seed round led by Atlanta-based Overline VC.
Cove.tool: A developer of software products that optimize building design for energy and cost by accounting for factors like energy consumption, light exposure, water use, and carbon emissions. The company raised a $5.7M series A round last October and its software is already used by thousands of architects, engineers, and developers around the world.
Resilient Power Systems: A 2020 TechStars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator graduate and U.S. Department of Energy American-Made Solar Prize winner, RPS is commercializing technology that decreases the size and cost of EV charging stations and solar inverters for electric utilities and their customers.
Solar Inventions: A startup focused on improving solar panel efficiency and reducing their production costs led by former tech executive Bill Nussey, serial entrepreneur Gregg Freishtat, and Georgia Tech electrical engineering Ph.D. Ben Damiani. Solar Inventions won the DOE Solar Prize the year before Resilient Power Systems.
Urjanet: A software provider that raised a $14.65M series D in June 2020 to support the growth of its platform for aggregating and connecting utility data to businesses and software applications for purposes like energy management analysis and sustainability reporting.
Sila Nanotechnologies: An engineered materials company that developed a silicon-based anode to replace traditional graphite ones in lithium-ion batteries, boosting battery energy and reducing their costs. The technology has the potential to revolutionize batteries in applications ranging from EVs to consumer electronics, electric power storage and transmission, and electric planes — accelerating the push towards renewables and greater efficiency. Although Sila is based in Alameda, CA, it counts Professor Gleb Yushin of Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering as co-founder and CTO and was a graduate of Georgia Tech’s ATDC incubator. The company raised a $590M series F in January, valuing Sila at $3.3B.
This mix of startups and established companies represents just a subset of the enterprises helping push Atlanta to the forefront of climate tech. They and their peers offer an inspiring glimpse into a future Atlanta and world free from reliance on fossil fuels and committed to combatting the existential threats of climate change. That future will require hard work, capital, and more technological breakthroughs — not to mention a sweeping change in behavior by the rest of us.
