The Climate Tech Podcast with Fexingo: Energy, Sustainability, and Decarbonization Companies

Episode 78 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) — a quietly booming sector that could slash building heating emissions. Lucas and Luna drill into a specific case: the Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada, which uses a borehole thermal energy storage system to store summer solar heat underground and supply 90 percent of neighbourhood heating year-r...

Episode 77 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores wave energy — a renewable source that's been stuck in pilot phase for decades. Lucas and Luna look at a specific startup called CorPower Ocean, which has deployed a buoy-based wave energy converter off the coast of Portugal. They discuss how it works, the economics per kilowatt-hour, and why wave power could be a game-changer for offshore sensors, de...

Solar panels are flooding the market, but what happens when they die? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the growing problem of end-of-life solar waste and the startups racing to solve it. They focus on one company, SolarCycle, which has developed a process to recover 95% of the value from retired panels, including silver, silicon, and aluminum. With over 100 million panels expected to be dec...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how a startup called Full Cycle Bioplastics is turning food waste into a biodegradable plastic alternative called polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA. They break down the science behind PHA, the economics of scaling production, and why this could be a game-changer for both the waste management and plastics industries. With food waste accounting for 8 percent of glo...

Episode 74 of The Climate Tech Podcast examines how networked thermostats and demand-response programs are quietly becoming one of the most scalable tools for grid reliability. Lucas walks through a real case: a midwestern utility that deferred a $200 million peaker plant by paying 50,000 households to let it adjust their ACs during heat waves. Luna questions the privacy trade-offs and whether the...

In this episode of The Climate Tech Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how one startup is turning captured carbon dioxide into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). They dive into the technology behind the process — using electrolysis to convert CO2 into syngas, then into jet fuel — and discuss the economics, the scale needed to make a dent in aviation emissions, and the regulatory tailwinds (like the SAF...

Nitrogen fertilizer production currently relies on the Haber-Bosch process, which consumes 2% of global energy and emits 1.3% of CO2. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a startup called NitroFix that has developed a low-temperature, atmospheric-pressure nitrogen fixation technology using a novel catalyst. The company claims it can produce ammonia fertilizer on-site using only air, water, and...

Carbon removal credits are moving from science project to actual market. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the numbers behind a single purchase: how one startup sold 100,000 tons of carbon removal credits at $400 per ton, who is buying them, and what the economics look like as buyers push toward $100 per ton. They explore the tension between permanence, verification, and scalability, and...

Episode 70 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising source of clean energy: waste heat. Every year, vast amounts of industrial heat — from factories, data centers, and power plants — are released into the air. Lucas and Luna dive into how startups are using thermoelectric generators and heat-to-power systems to capture that heat and turn it into electricity, offering a new way to improve...

Lucas and Luna dig into the messy world of corporate carbon accounting. With net-zero pledges everywhere, how do you know if a company is actually cutting emissions or just buying cheap offsets? They examine a specific case: a startup called Watershed that helps companies like Stripe and Shopify measure their full value-chain emissions. Lucas explains the difference between Scope 1, 2, and 3 emiss...

Solar panels degrade faster in hot, humid climates. One farm in Vietnam lost 20 percent of its original nameplate capacity in just eight years. Lucas and Luna dig into how a startup's protective coating could slow that degradation, why the industry has been slow to test for long-term wear, and what this means for the economics of utility-scale solar in the tropics. A deep, specific look at a hidde...

Episode 67 of The Climate Tech Podcast dives into the messy business of recycling lithium-ion batteries at scale. Lucas and Luna examine one startup's approach — a chemical 'scrubber' that recovers lithium from black mass without the usual toxic byproducts. They walk through why most battery recycling today is inefficient (less than 5% of lithium is recovered globally), how the scrubber process wo...

Data centers are guzzling water to keep servers from melting — a single facility can use as much as a small town. Lucas and Luna look at a startup called LiquidStack that replaces water-based cooling with a two-phase immersion system. The process: servers are submerged in a non-conductive dielectric fluid that boils at a low temperature, carrying away heat without evaporation. LiquidStack claims i...

Lucas and Luna explore the weird and promising world of enteric methane capture. They dig into how a California-based startup called Mootral is developing a feed supplement that reduces methane emissions from cattle by up to 30 percent. The episode covers the chemistry of methanogens, the economics of carbon credits from burping cows, and the challenges of scaling in a low-margin industry. Lucas b...

Lucas and Luna dive into the world of direct air capture with a focus on Climeworks, a Swiss startup that has built the world's largest plant to pull CO2 straight from the atmosphere. They break down how the technology works, why it costs $600 per ton today, and the path to $100 per ton. Lucas explains the chemical process using solid sorbent filters, while Luna questions the energy footprint and...

Episode 63 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising solution to renewable energy storage: abandoned mine shafts repurposed as gravity batteries. Lucas and Luna break down how one UK startup, Gravitricity, is using decommissioned mine shafts to lift and lower massive weights, storing energy as potential power and releasing it when needed. They walk through the physics, the cost economics c...

Lucas and Luna explore a new approach to clean hydrogen: methane pyrolysis. Instead of splitting water with renewable electricity, this startup heats methane in an oxygen-free reactor, producing hydrogen gas and solid carbon — not CO2. They break down the chemistry, the economics, and the challenge of finding markets for the carbon byproduct. With a $45 million Series B in early 2026 and a pilot p...

Episode 61 of The Climate Tech Podcast breaks down a new wave of startups producing green hydrogen directly from sunlight, bypassing electrolysis entirely. Lucas and Luna examine the technology behind photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, the key players like SunHydrogen and H2U Technologies, and the challenge of scaling from lab to gigawatt. They discuss why this matters for industries like...

Episode 60 of The Climate Tech Podcast dives into the surprising link between green hydrogen and the $70 billion ammonia fertilizer industry. Lucas and Luna explore how a single plant in Varennes, Canada, built by a startup called H2 Green Steel, is using electrolyzers to produce carbon-free hydrogen that replaces natural gas in ammonia synthesis. They break down the numbers: traditional ammonia p...

Episode 59 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a new frontier in critical mineral extraction: direct lithium extraction from geothermal brine. Lucas and Luna dive into how one startup is using advanced filtration technology to pull lithium — the key ingredient in EV and grid batteries — from hot, mineral-rich water deep underground. They discuss the specific chemistry, the energy economics, and w...

Concrete is the second-most-used substance on Earth after water, and its production generates roughly 8 percent of global CO2 emissions. In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at a California startup that is replacing the clinker—the emissions-heavy binder at the heart of Portland cement—with finely ground volcanic rock. The company claims its process cuts embodied carbon by up to 70 percent while m...

The steel industry generates about 7% of global CO2 emissions. A Swedish startup called Stegra, backed by over one point eight billion dollars, is building a fossil-free steel plant using green hydrogen instead of coal. Lucas and Luna explore how hydrogen-based direct reduction works, the staggering energy requirements, and whether this process can scale beyond Sweden. They also discuss the econom...

Solar panels are supposed to last 30 years — but many are failing in under 15. Lucas and Luna examine why early degradation is becoming a hidden cost for solar farms, and how a startup called ReVault is using AI to predict failures before they happen. They break down the chemistry of panel decay, the financial math of premature replacement, and whether the industry's warranty model is broken. A de...

Lucas and Luna dive into the chemistry and economics of sodium-ion batteries, focusing on one startup's surprising choice: using carbon from wood waste as the anode material. The episode opens with the announcement that a Swedish battery company has secured $100 million in Series C funding to scale production of sodium-ion cells for grid storage. Lucas explains why sodium-ion matters — sodium is a...

Episode 54 of The Climate Tech Podcast explores a surprising twist in methane utilization: turning it into food. Lucas and Luna dig into the work of Calysta, a California-based startup that has developed a fermentation process to convert methane into a protein powder called FeedKind. They break down the science — methane-eating microbes growing in bioreactors — and the economics: Calysta's joint v...