katie brigham

Not great!

American consumers are so dumb man

Satellite photos show California's sudden snowpack meltdown: Now you see it, now you don't Satellite images show the Sierra Nevada before and after a major heat wave melted significant portions of California's snow.

Now you see it, now you don't. Near the end of this extremely warm winter, California's snow is rapidly melting. My colleague @castleman.bsky.social shares some striking satellite images. He spoke with @weatherwest.bsky.social about the remarkably rapid loss of snow: www.latimes.com/california/s...

China Is Developing a Taste for Fake Meat Alternative proteins have floundered in the U.S., but investors are leaning in elsewhere.

in the U.S., the fake meat industry has been struggling for years. but over in china, the sector is gaining traction as the govt incorporates "future foods" such as alt proteins into its 5-year plan. could this be the latest U.S.-born innovation that china takes mainstream? i ~explore~

Even Utility CEOs Are Talking About Electricity Affordability Now It’s either reassure investors now or reassure voters later.

Utilities are in a very funny situation right now: they're bragging to their investors about their high earnings while also saying that they're very concerned about affordability heatmap.news/energy/utili...

Funding Friday: Google Locks Down 20 Years of Data Center Power This week is light on the funding, heavy on the deals.

In this week’s FUNDING FRIDAY:

🔌 Google signs a 20-year data center deal with AES
🚙 Rivian and EnergyHub link EVs into VPPs
:✨ Shine Technologies raises a quarter-billion dollars

Here’s all the news from @kbrigham.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/climate-tech...

Scoop: Energy Department Meeting With Utilities, Developers on Trump’s Nuclear Plans The public-private project aims to help realize the president’s goal of building 10 new reactors by 2030.

NEW:

US ENERGY DEPARTMENT IN TALKS OVER MAJOR NEW NUCLEAR POWER PROJECT

The Energy Department and Westinghouse are meeting with utilities & developers about a new project to buy long lead time parts for 10 new nuclear reactors

If successful, would speed up power plant construction & lower costs

This Fusion Company Is Already Making Money Shine Technologies is getting close to breakeven — on operations, at least — by selling neutrons and isotopes.

i also wrote up a lil profile of them back in october, they're neat!

a big bet on a fusion company that's *not* gunning for a commercial reactor anytime soon, but is already making money today by producing medical isotopes

Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge In an abrupt shift, the company may release future AI models without ironclad safety guarantees

Oh

Green steelmaker Boston Metal to cut jobs following equipment failure The startup’s critical metals business missed a key milestone due to an incident at its Brazil plant, leading it to lose financing and lay off 71 U.S.…

Green-steel startup Boston Metal is laying off 71 U.S. employees after an incident at its Brazil plant.

Inside Form Energy’s Big Google Data Center Deal The long-duration energy storage startup is scaling up fast, but as Form CEO Mateo Jaramillo told Heatmap, “There aren’t any shortcuts.”

form energy, the iron-air battery unicorn, has been pretty quiet this past year. but today, the company dropped a banger: it’s building a 30 gigawatt-hour battery to power a google data center in minnesota, set to be the largest battery in the world by energy capacity 🤯

Inside Form Energy’s Big Google Data Center Deal The long-duration energy storage startup is scaling up fast, but as Form CEO Mateo Jaramillo told Heatmap, “There aren’t any shortcuts.”

“It was arduous and challenging sometimes, but there aren’t any shortcuts. Pilots are easy, and scale is hard.”

Read more from @kbrigham.bsky.social’s interview with Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo on the startup’s major new energy storage deal:

heatmap.news/climate-tech...

Will Virtual Power Plants Ever Really Be a Thing? Boosters say that the energy demand from data centers make VPPs a necessary tool, but big challenges still remain.

"VPPs have been waiting for a crisis and cash to scale and meet the moment. And now we have both,” @rockymtninst.bsky.social's Mark Dyson told @kbrigham.bsky.social: heatmap.news/climate-tech... 🔌💡

Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!

How to Save Ski Season Europeans have been “snow farming” for ages. Now the U.S. is finally starting to catch on.

Sometimes solutions are deceptively simple. As in: Ski areas aren’t getting enough snow to open for the season? What if you made a REALLY BIG PILE OF SNOW to save for the next year? heatmap.news/adaptation/s...

Funding Friday: Transforming the Game Heron Power and DG Matrix each score big funding rounds, plus news for heat pumps and sustainable fashion.

Heron Power’s big raise, cash for sustainable fashion, and more in our latest climate tech funding roundup from @kbrigham.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/climate-tech...

Will Virtual Power Plants Ever Really Be a Thing? Boosters say that the energy demand from data centers make VPPs a necessary tool, but big challenges still remain.

there's no shortage of VPP hype these days, but are grid operators, utilities, and the regulations that bind them really ready for a world where small-scale electricity consumers are also producers? i explore the state of play

like this was made (seemingly just for fun?) by a remote staffing agency that helps businesses outsource work to the philippines? 🤷‍♀️

Drill My Debt Away YouTube video by Telostaff

hi what is going on?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQyF...

Funding Friday: It’s All in the Nucleus Plus a pre-seed round for a moon tech company from Latvia.

$450 million for laser-based fusion, a pre-seed round for a latvian startup aiming to power the "moon economy" and so much more this week!

What We Know About Trump’s Endangerment Finding Repeal The administration has yet to publish formal documentation of its decision, leaving several big questions unanswered.

What we know (and still don’t know) about the Trump admin’s most significant attack ever on US climate law: heatmap.news/climate/enda...

There’s More Than One Way to Build a Wind Turbine Startups Airloom and Radia looked at the same set of problems and came up with very different solutions.

Wind turbines have been more or less the same for 50 years. But startups Airloom and Radia are thinking outside the nacelle (so to speak) and coming up with new designs that aim to solve some old problems.

Read the whole story from @kbrigham.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/climate-tech...

Puerto Rico hasn't had reliable power in a decade.

The grid sends occasional surges through the wires that fry appliances.

Electricity rates are among the highest in the entire U.S.

Heat waves are getting intense in the summer, and outages mean A/C is no guarantee for an aging population.

🥲🥲🥲

power transformers mentioned in halftime show ⚡️

Funding Friday: A Fusion Project Takes a Big Leap Forward Plus, consolidation in carbon removal.

this week: funding for fission and fusion (as per usual) but also fleet electrification and climate resilience (we need more of this!)

The Super Safe, Super Expensive Nuclear Fuel That’s Making a Comeback Microreactor maker Antares Nuclear just struck a deal with BWX Technologies to produce TRISO.

TRISO — a long-studied, ultra-safe nuclear fuel — is having a resurgence, as companies turn to it to enable nuclear microreactors in ~space~ and at remote military outposts by @alexckaufman.bsky.social

Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund

Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

I don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated.

www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...