Happy Monday!
The data center backlash is hitting political battlegrounds, and utility regulators and the future of the grid are stuck in the crosshairs. We dive in, in this cross-post from our sister newsletter on the moves and motives shaping power markets, Powerstack. Read on and subscribe here.
In deals, $250m for satellite constellations in California; $150m for autonomous electric vehicles in California; and $26m for compact pressurised SMRs in Massachusetts.
In other news, more Iran War and energy market developments; the trade war with Canada escalates; and FERC approves VPPs in PJM.
And don’t miss our annual NYCW 2026 tracker, the insider guide to the week's best climate tech events. The more people who submit, the better it gets, so add yours here!
Thanks for reading!
Not a subscriber yet?
📩 Submit deals and announcements for the newsletter at [email protected].
💼 Find or share roles on our job board here.
CTVC is powered by Currence, market intelligence to power the AI era.
This week, Georgia utility regulators raised concerns about Georgia Power's proposed 25-year power contract for an OpenAI data center campus. The utility had made a deal to supply Project Camellia, OpenAI's $20bn, 3.2GW data center campus outside of Savannah, with electricity delivered in phases from 2028 to 2032. Under the contract, OpenAI agreed to pay full infrastructure costs and committed to up to 1GW of demand response to cut its power draw by roughly a third during periods of peak grid stress.
But the Georgia Public Service Commission staff flagged two things: that the contract didn’t adequately protect ratepayers if OpenAI exits early, and that the public version of the contract was redacted in its entirety. The PSC had put in place data center contracting rules in January 2025 that were supposed to provide protection, requiring longer terms and financial guarantees in contracts for customers with 100MW+ of load. OpenAI’s load meets that 32 times over. Georgia Power filed an extension to revise the proposal, and PSC staff now has until August 26 to decide whether to formally object.
As data centers become bigger political issues, state utility regulators like the PSC become more important. They approve or reject rate increases, sign off on new power plants, decide who pays for grid upgrades, and ultimately how much your bills end up. The Georgia Public Service Commission is one of 10 state utility regulators in the country where voters elect commissioners directly. (In most states, the governor appoints them.) This year, nine of the 10 elected states have seats on the ballot.
Last November, Georgia voters voted two Republican PSC incumbents out, by 25 percentage points, a flip for 22 counties that went for Trump. New PSC Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard won on the affordability message. Georgia Power had secured six rate hikes in three years; bills rose an average of $43 per month.
But 13 days before Johnson and Hubbard took their seats, the commissioners, including the two lame-duck incumbents, approved Georgia Power's 10GW grid expansion, estimated to cost $50–60bn with roughly 80% of the new load earmarked for data centers. When the new commissioners moved to reconsider it, the 3-2 Republican majority voted them down.
This November, two PSC seats are on the ballot, so it’s a toss-up if the PSC will go Democrat or Republican. Meanwhile, across Georgia, more than 20 counties and municipalities have enacted their own data center moratoria or restrictions, after two statewide moratorium bills failed in the legislature. Counties have been acting on their own. The November PSC election is the closest thing Georgia has to a statewide vote on the question. And it’s not just Georgia, countrywide, data centers are on the ballot.
Affordability is real. Bills are rising, customers are feeling it, and we need to build the next era of the power system without sticking consumers with the open tab.
But the affordability debate has become a bit of a kitchen sink.
Rates are up? Data centers. Gas prices are up? Data centers. Grid investment is up? You guessed it: data centers.
Yes, data centers are driving load growth, and they should pay their fair share. But the grid was old before ChatGPT showed up. ASCE says 70% of power transformers are 25+ years old, 60% of circuit breakers are 30+ years old, and 70% of transmission lines are 25+ years old. Meanwhile, we're asking that aging system to handle electrification, extreme weather, two-way power flows, and a lot more load.
That costs money.
And here's where the politics can make the economics worse.
Threatening ROE bills from governors looking to run for president are not helpful. We can't rate-freeze our way out of this. Squeeze utility cash flows and returns too far, credit ratings can fall. Lower credit ratings mean more expensive capital. More expensive capital means more expensive infrastructure. And guess who eventually pays for that?
👋 Hi, customer.
Kicking investment down the road doesn't make it cheaper. It can make it more expensive.
Nor are we going to wish load growth away. That social media post complaining about data centers? It required compute running inside...a data center.
So, my hottest take: Embrace the change. Then make it affordable.
Make large loads pay their fair share. Large-load tariffs aren't perfect, but they're a start. Keep iterating. Get the cost allocation right. Use flexibility to squeeze more capacity from the grid we already have. Build generation, transmission, and distribution where we need it. Invest in the technology that lets us operate all of it better: software, hardware, sensors, and a new grid. Protect consumers.
Affordability is the problem to solve. Avoiding investment isn't the solution.
Subscribe to Powerstack here.
🛰 Muon Space, a Mountain View, CA-based satellite constellations operator, raised $250m in Series C funding from Eclipse Capital, ACME Capital, Activate Capital Partners, ArcTern Ventures, Congruent Ventures and other investors.
🚗 Also., a Palo Alto, CA-based autonomous electric vehicles developer, raised $150m in Series D funding from Prysm Capital, Eclipse, Greenoaks Capital, and MVP Ventures.
⚛️ Apollo Atomics, a Cambridge, MA-based compact pressurized water SMR developer, raised $26m in Seed funding from FCVC, Alumni Ventures, Duke Capital Partners, Nucleation Capital, Pelion VC, and other investors.
✈️ Ampaire, a Long Beach, CA-based hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion systems developer, raised $19m in Series B funding from DiamondStream Partners, Alaska Star Ventures, Autodesk Foundation, Climate Capital, Elemental Impact and other investors.
🌡 Sonic Fire Tech, a Cleveland, OH-based acoustic fire suppression technology developer, raised $15m in Seed funding from The O.H.I.O. Fund and Khosla Ventures.
☔ RockRose Risk, a Napa, CA-based provider of insurance for wildfire risk, raised $12.5m in Series A funding from Congruent Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and Nuveen Real Estate.
⚡ Companion.energy, a Ghent, Belgium-based enterprise energy management software developer, raised $9m in Seed funding from Realyze Ventures, Asterion Ventures, NAP, Pi Labs, and Übermorgen Ventures.
🌾 Computomics, a Tübingen, Germany-based developer of AI-driven bioinformatics for plant breeding, raised $7.3m in Series B funding from Convent Capital, Amathaon Capital, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg.
🐄 Oceanloop, a Munich, Germany-based provider of software-driven aquaculture technology, raised $6.5m in Seed funding from Hatch Blue and Stolt Ventures.
🌊 Oshen, a Plymouth, England-based autonomous ocean sensing robotics developer, raised $5m in Seed funding from Lunar Ventures, AlbionVC, Concept Ventures, and Twin Track.
⚡ GreenJoules, a Pune, India-based producer of biofuels from waste agricultural residue, raised $6.5m in Series B funding from Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings and Singularity AMC.
💨 Mafix, a Seattle, WA-based developer of carbon-negative fertilizer from silicate rocks, raised $5.4m in Pre-seed funding from Azolla Ventures, Astera Institute, Counteract, Impact Science Ventures, and Plug and Play Ventures.
⚡ SnerpaPower, a Reykjavík, Iceland-based developer of AI-powered energy management software, raised $3.5m in Seed funding from Encevo Group, BackingMinds, and Crowberry Capital.
⚡ Swift Current Energy, a Boston, MA-based renewable energy project developer, raised $750m in Debt funding.
⚡ Key Capture Energy, an Albany, NY-based utility-scale battery energy storage systems project developer, raised $300m in Debt funding from Standard Chartered.
⚛️ Apollo Atomics, a Cambridge, MA-based compact pressurized water SMR developer, raised $5m in Debt funding from Oakridge Financial Partners.
⚡ Power Info, a Issaquah, WA-based software provider for grid operations, was acquired by PowerGEM for an undisclosed amount.
☀️ RenuTrak, a Mesa, AZ-based provider of solar tracker retrofits and components, was acquired by Kinematics for an undisclosed amount.
This is a sample of deals available for Currence clients. Can’t get enough deals?
🇮🇷 US Treasury Secretary Bessent announced “economic D-Day" sanctions package targeting Iran's last oil export lifelines. The escalation could impact energy markets: Brent has been trading around $93/barrel, with roughly 8m barrels a day still offline from pre-war Hormuz flows of ~20 million bpd. [Link]
Traders had been pricing in a deal since June, so Brent came off its highs, but this is a roil. It continues the inflationary pressure, both for consumers already squeezed on energy costs and for project developers whose cost of capital keeps not normalizing. The secondary target here is the Iran-China oil corridor, as Chinese teapot refineries have been Iran’s last serious buyer. Washington is running that fight and the Canadian critical minerals standoff at the same time.
🇨🇦 The US-Canada trade talks collapsed, and two-way tariffs are reimposed. Trump put 50% tariffs on Canadian dairy, alcohol, autos, cement, wood products, and more, over the weekend. Carney matched dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp, paper, and electronics, from 8 September. [Link]
Energy, potash, and critical minerals are all explicitly excluded from the 50% tariffs; the US needs them too much to threaten them. Another signal of Washington’s drive for critical minerals and energy supply chains.
⚡ FERC ruled for VPP firm Voltus, potentially freeing up nearly 5GW of PJM capacity by forcing PJM to include virtual power plants and demand response in its capacity market. [Link]
This is a long time coming and a big capacity unlock in the power market where surging demand is the highest. Voltus has been building the commercial case with Google's Bring Your Own Capacity deal, and now has the regulatory ruling to match.
🌋 BLM's Utah geothermal lease sale broke records again, pulling in $24.7m in winning bids, more than all of last year's auctions combined. The high bid per parcel hit $4.2m and the high bid per acre reached $1,207, beating the New Mexico records set in June. [Link]
Geothermal land is getting bid up fast. We covered New Mexico's $16.6m sale in issue #301, where the high bid per acre was $701, and Utah just cleared that by 70% two months later.
🌡 Sage Geosystems brought its next-gen geothermal system online. [Link]
Another FOAK in a strong month for geothermal, alongside the BLM auction above and the House permitting package that passed in July.
💰 Clean energy capital expenditures are on track for $180bn in 2026, per a new Crux report. [Link]
Useful report to track clean energy progress, despite the policy setbacks. It also tracks with the MIT/Columbia finding that 74% of IRA-era capacity survives the rollbacks, the projects with strong underlying economics are still getting built.
🔋 Tesla launched a bundled Powerwall lease plus retail electricity offer in Texas, competing directly with Base Power's VPP model, and Sunrun’s market control. [Link]
Three major now going head-on for the same behind-the-meter Texas home battery customer. Base raised $1bn at a $13bn+ valuation months ago, Sunrun is the market incumbent, but Tesla is pitching affordability.
💧 A Danish green hydrogen-based methanol project secured its fourth offtaker, with Austrian oil and gas firm OMV joining Maersk (maritime fuel), the LEGO Group (plastics), and Novo Nordisk (chemicals) for the 42,000t/yr facility. OMV's contract is specifically for road fuels. [Link]
A clean split on what makes hydrogen projects live or die. Plug Power couldn't find buyers, while the Danish project lined up four across completely different markets. And diesel prices have been soaring amid the Iran War.
💧 Meanwhile, Plug Power abandoned its 100MW green hydrogen project in Belgium, originally a €350-400m build, citing offtake uncertainty. [Link]
⚡ Canada announced CAN$70 billion (€43.6 billion) for wind and hydropower generation in the eastern part of the country. [Link]
🔔 Fusion company Shine Technologies is prepping an IPO with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. [Link]
📅 Houston Energy & Climate Week: Six days of programming in the energy capital, Sept. 13–18, with the third annual Energy + Climate Startup Week (Sept. 14–18) across the city.
💡 EIC Accelerator: The EU's flagship deep tech funder is running its renewed 2026 program with a €414M budget, offering grants up to €2.5M plus equity for startups scaling breakthrough climate and energy tech. Short applications are rolling, but the next full-proposal cutoff is Sept. 2.
Program Director, Superhot Rock Geothermal, @CATF
Founding Chief Technology Officer @ Telluscope
Research & Insights Lead, Forward Deployed Analyst, Sr. Data Platform Engineer, @Aarden AI
Senior Program Director @Clean Break Fund
Data scientist, Geostatistics @Material Difference
Founding Engineer - Back End, Full-Stack @Material Difference
Head of Revenue, Senior Account Executive @Currence
Director of Growth & Giving @Elemental Impact
Head of Analytics - Commercial @Octopus Energy UK
VP, Communications @XPrize
📩 Feel free to send us deals, announcements, or anything else at [email protected]. Have a great week ahead!
We're bringing back the NYCW climate tech event tracker!
Newsletter