🌎 The blue wave lifts (some) climate tech #321

Happy Monday!

In case you've been living under a rock, a blue wave swept the US on Election Day, from Congress down to county ballot questions. We break down what changed and what it means for climate tech below.

Currence has more insights coming on how the midterms could reshape the energy and AI buildout, including a webinar. Keep an eye on your inbox.

In deals, $240m for EV manufacturing and electrification technology in California; $51m for autonomous electric freight hauling in California; and $34m for electric airplanes in Munich.

In other news, the IEA says the Iran war sped up renewables, Google is powering a Wyoming data center with gas plus carbon capture, and Revolution Wind is fully online.

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Can climate tech surf the blue wave?

A blue wave swept the US last week, from Congress to statehouses to utility commissions to county ballots. Affordability, especially energy affordability, was the undertow, and it pulled down even deep-red seats. Here’s the breakdown of what changed and what it means for climate tech.

What happened

Congress flipped. Democrats won the House with about 255 seats projected. They flipped more than 40 Republican-held districts, including several that GOP redistricting drew to stay red. Republicans failed to flip any House seat. Democrats will also hold at least 54 Senate seats after flipping seven: Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. Alaska and Mississippi remain uncalled.
Governors flipped harder. Democrats won at least 22 of 36 governor races, flipping five (Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas) without losing a seat. They formed new trifectas in six states: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Utility regulators rode the wave. Democrats took Georgia’s Public Service Commission for the first time in decades, flipped a seat on Nebraska’s PSC, and won two seats on Arizona’s all-Republican commission, while Louisiana added another Republican to its PSC. Governors elected this cycle will appoint about 75 utility commissioners by 2030, and Democrats now pick roughly 59 of them.

Climate measures split. Colorado voters rejected Amendment 82, which would have written a right to buy and sell natural gas into the state constitution to block local gas bans. California went the other way, rejecting Prop 45 about 56% to 44%. The measure would have fast-tracked clean energy, housing, and broadband projects by capping lengthy environmental review (CEQA) at one year.
Data centers lost almost everywhere. Voters sided with data center restrictions in 44 of 45 counted local referendums across 12 states. Of 34 called governor races, 32 winners back stronger regulation or restrictions, and 12 back bans or moratoriums. Campaigns spent more than $380m on TV ads mentioning data centers, with Democrats outspending Republicans 3-to-1.
Markets voted too. The Dow jumped 1,570 points the day after the election, its best day since April 2025, as First Solar rose 15% and Enphase 12% while data center power plays slid (Vistra fell 9%, Constellation 5%, and GE Vernova 6%). Oil dropped 9% from Monday’s close by midweek. The rally didn’t last. An AI selloff Thursday sent the Dow down 1,833 points and pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory.

Why it matters

Climate tech has spent nearly two years fighting an unfriendly administration, from canceled DOE awards and the OBBB’s tax credit phaseouts to stop-work orders on offshore wind.

At the same time, AI load growth and the Hormuz crisis turned power bills and gas prices into kitchen-table issues. Meanwhile, climate tech has contorted to fit inside the data center boom, to unlock dollars and demand.

Now that the blue tsunami has crested, what’s left in its wake?

Federally, Democrats will fall well short of 60 Senate votes and a veto-proof majority until at least 2029, and the wave thinned their pool of partners. At least eight of the 21 House Republicans who pushed to save the clean energy tax credits in 2025 lost, including Conservative Climate Caucus leaders Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Jen Kiggans, and Juan Ciscomani. Still, starting in January, Democrats can block further legislative rollbacks, subpoena agencies, and use appropriations as leverage.

That leverage gets its first test tonight, when the Senate takes a procedural vote on the bipartisan permitting bill. Trump endorsed it Sunday, and its Democratic authors, Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse, don’t want to wait for a better deal. But House Democrats like Jared Huffman think a Democratic Congress can get more come January.

At the state level, governors and utility commissions will decide on rates, interconnection rules, resource plans, and large load tariffs. The new governors split into two camps, pause or make ‘em pay. Texas’s Gina Hinojosa, Wisconsin’s David Crowley, and Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms want to pause new data centers, a big shift in Texas, the industry’s second-largest market. Ohio’s Amy Acton and Nevada’s Aaron Ford want data centers to pay their own way, with Acton saying new projects must bring their own generation. Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson wants to keep the state’s 100% clean energy mandate on track, and in Minnesota, the new trifecta gives stalled VPP and plug-in solar bills a path. In Georgia, the new Democratic PSC majority inherits Georgia Power’s 10GW expansion, roughly 80% of it for data centers.

So did the blue wave swamp data centers? Not quite yet. Of the 300+ local bans enacted nationally, only three projects totaling 2.3GW have been delayed, and roughly 38GW is still expected online by 2027. But the votes are a wake-up call. State and local officials control many levers, from zoning votes to air permits to large load tariffs. That will change where and how data centers get built. Expect a flight to quality, accelerating smaller, more distributed campuses on sites that already have power, permits, and local buy-in.

Key takeaways

Affordability is now the climate tech pitch. Products that show up as a lower bill (rooftop solar plus storage, VPPs, efficiency, flexible load) have political tailwinds. The caveat is, rate freezes and ROE squeezes raise utilities’ cost of capital, and that eventually lands on bills too.
Hyperscalers will pay more for permission. Clean power requirements, full grid cost allocation, and bring-your-own-generation rules like Ohio’s could become standard terms in new Democratic states, which favors flexible load, onsite generation, and storage.
The clock starts now. Advocates want new governors to show bill relief ASAP, and that’s a hard promise to keep. Grid upgrades and transmission take years, and rate freezes kick costs down the road. Lowering bills and getting credit for it will still be a tough climb before the 2028 presidential election.

Deals of the Week (11/2-11/8)

VC / Growth

🚗 Harbinger, a Garden Grove, CA-based medium-duty EV manufacturer and developer of electrification technologies for BESS and defense, raised $240m in Series D funding from Tiger Global, Capricorn Investment Group, Ridgeline, ArcTern Ventures, Australian Gulf Capital, and other investors.

🚛 Humble, a San Francisco, CA-based autonomous electric freight hauling vehicle developer, raised $51m in Series A funding from Obvious Ventures, Eclipse, and Energy Impact Partners.

✈️ Vaeridion, a Munich, Germany-based electric airplane developer, raised $34m in Series A funding from SHIFT Invest, Invest-NL, World Fund, Project A, and Vsquared Ventures.

🧪 FluoRok, an Oxford, England-based developer of an HF-free fluorochemical manufacturing process, raised $29m in Series A funding from Supernova Invest, Bidra Innovation Ventures, Business Growth Fund (BGF), Center for Process Innovation (CPI), EverQuest Capital Partners, and other investors.

🔋 Green Voltis, a Stockholm, Sweden-based route-to-market (RTM) optimizer for battery storage assets, raised $15m in Series A funding from Lochpine Capital.

🏠 NON.energy, an Antwerp, Belgium-based heat pump-as-a-service provider, raised $12m in Series A funding from undisclosed investors.

⚡ Two Point O Capital, a Mumbai, India-based clean energy financing solutions platform, raised $10m in Series A funding from Transition Venture Capital, Omnivore, and angel investors.

📊 Atmospheric AI, a London, England-based developer of AI models for raw material supply, raised $10m in Seed funding from DBL Partners, Anamcara, Broadscale Group, RAISE, and Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company.

🌾 altM, a Bangalore, India-based developer of specialty chemicals and biomaterials from agricultural residue, raised $10m in Series A funding from Rainmatter, Mela Ventures, Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures, and Spectrum.

🔋 Econili, an Ipoh, Malaysia-based global lithium-ion battery recycler, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from Vynn Capital.

🧪 Viridi CO2, a Southampton, England-based CO2-based surfactant and catalyst developer, raised $3m in Seed funding from Odyssey Ventures, Alphatron Impact Ventures, and TOP Ventures.

Project Finance / Debt

🔋Return Energy, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based BESS project developer and operator, secured $937m in Debt funding from Deutsche Bank and Rabobank.

⚡ Lightyears, an Auckland, New Zealand-based distributed solar developer and operator, secured $56m in Debt funding from Infradebt.

Exits

💧 Aquatic Labs, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ocean biogeochemical sensing technology developer, was acquired by Omen AI for $16m.

♻️ Waste Absolute, a Bangkok, Thailand-based industrial non-hazardous waste landfill operator, was acquired by Gulf Energy Development for $12m.

🌿 Edko, a Bossier City, LA-based provider of vegetation management services for critical infrastructure, closed a PE Buyout from L Squared Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount.

Funds

🚀 Creandum, a Stockholm, Sweden-based early-stage venture capital firm, closed its $750m Creandum VIII, to back pre-seed through Series A startups across Europe and the US.

This is a sample of deals available for Currence clients. Can’t get enough deals?

Request a Currence demo

Reading List

🌍 The IEA’s Renewables 2026 report finds the Iran war accelerated clean energy buildout. [Link, Link]

The oil price spikes have pushed the renewable energy buildout forward, as energy security priorities boost domestic, clean generation.

🏗 Google is building its first Wyoming data center, powered by a 702MW fuel cell and linear generator running on natural gas paired with carbon capture, part of a $17bn investment in the state alongside utility partner AEP. [Link]

Google’s second CCS project after Illinois, and another hyperscaler bringing its own generation rather than waiting on an interconnection queue. Gas-plus-capture is a compromise that lets a data center claim low-carbon power on a quick timeline.

🌬 Revolution Wind reached full commercial operation, a 704MW wind farm off Rhode Island, despite repeated Trump administration attempts to halt it. [Link]

☀️ Array and Shoals agreed to an all-stock merger, with Shoals holders taking about 65% of the combined company and closing expected in Q1 2027. [Link]

Consolidation among US solar as tax credit support thins and Chinese competition tightens.

🏭 DTE Energy wants to build gas plants with carbon capture in Michigan, a plan that could meet state climate goals but depends on technology US electric utilities have yet to successfully deploy. [Link]

🔋 India approved viability gap funding for 92GWh of storage, split across 60GWh of pumped hydro, 30GWh of lithium, and 2GWh of other technologies, with a 40% domestic content requirement. [Link]

Part of India’s push for domestic storage, as the country diversifies storage tech to meet growing demand.

⚡ Walmart and Base Power announced a strategic agreement to bring home backup power and energy savings to Walmart customers. [Link]

Base raised $1bn at a $13bn+ valuation on the strength of its Texas VPP model, and Walmart’s footprint boosts distribution across markets.

🚚 RIP Cybertruck. Musk announced Tesla will wind down production of the electric truck by the middle of next year. [Link]

🔋 Latitude’s roundup of data centers shifting power demand by 2030, featuring Currence data. [Link]

Opportunities & Events

💡SET Award 2027: Apply for equity free €10,000 prizes per category for energy and climate startups. Finalists pitch in Berlin at the SET Tech Festival in March 2027. Apply by November 30

💡Hello Tomorrow Challenge: Global deeptech competition with a €200K grand prize and prizes for track winners. Includes climate/energy-relevant tracks. Apply by November 30.

💡Louisiana Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Initiative: The Louisiana CDR Initiative will connect selected technology companies and projects with relevant public and private-sector stakeholders and help them align infrastructure, funding, and permitting. Apply by November 13.