The largest funding rounds of 2024

TL;DR

• 2024 was one of the strongest years in terms of renewable energy investment with clean energy investments reaching $320 billion.

• Companies that received the most significant funding, over a billion dollars each, included Intersect Power, Sila, Form Energy, Beta Technologies and Ascend Elements.

• Each of these companies has different specialisms; Intersect Power concentrates on renewable energy generation at scale, Sila and Ascend Elements work to improve lithium-ion batteries, Form Energy specialises in energy storage, and Beta Technologies leads the way in electric aviation.

• These companies are all already well established, have formed partnerships with the likes of Google, Amazon, and the US Government, and have the potential to bring their products to the mass market.

• The renewables investment landscape looks positive but is still concentrated in the developed world. 2025 will bring challenging economic conditions and be a test of political will – this could change the way investors choose to operate and the industries they decide to fund.

The detail

While there are many metrics that we can use to measure the growth of the renewable energy industry and its potential impact, investment is arguably one of the most telling. Not only does it benchmark the confidence the financial sector has in clean energy, but it also illustrates the sectors and technologies that financiers believe have the most potential to achieve commercialisation and enact lasting change.

2024 was one of the strongest years yet in terms of renewable energy investment. Of the $3 trillion invested in the global energy sector, two-thirds of that funding went towards clean energy technologies and related infrastructure. While rising interest rates might have detracted investors, the easing of certain supply chain pressures and falling prices for some of the more established renewable energy offerings have helped ensure that clean energy investment continued the momentum it’s been gathering since 2020.

Indeed, spending on renewable power, grids and storage now exceeds the spending on fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, with clean energy investments reaching $320 billion in 2024, an increase of 50% since 2020.

When it comes to where these funds are being placed, solar takes the lead, closely followed by wind power. These legacy renewables continue to deliver a good return on investment; in 2023, each dollar invested in wind and solar PV produced three and half times more energy than a dollar spent on the same technologies 10 years ago. Nuclear power also saw a resurgence in 2024, claiming a 9% share of total investment, and spending on battery storage technologies surpassed $50 billion.

The billion-dollar club

Looking at the companies that attracted significant investment in 2024, there are five that closed rounds of over $1 billion: Intersect Power, Sila, Form Energy, Beta Technologies and Ascend Elements. These innovative companies work in different areas of cleantech and renewable energy, but they share forward-thinking technology, high-profile partnerships, and products that have the potential to be commercialised and rolled out globally.

Based in the US, Intersect Power both generates and provides the infrastructure for large-scale low-carbon electricity, fuels and related products. In 2024, it raised $1,827,000,000 and has entered into a partnership with Google to supply power and storage solutions for the tech giant’s data centres. Designed to help meet the electricity demand generated by the explosion of artificial intelligence, these gigawatt-scale data centres will be located across the US and Google will act as the anchor tenant.

Intersect Power has become known for its scale. It focuses on large and transformative clean energy projects that can decarbonise the grid and generate energy without the need for new transmission infrastructure. Its base portfolio now has 2.2 GW of operating solar PV and 2.4 GWh of battery storage either already in operation or in construction. Meanwhile, it hopes to attract $20 billion in investment by 2030, which will allow the company to break ground on 4 GW of solar PV and 10 GWh of battery storage. Its goal is to improve digital infrastructure deployment, ease the burden on the grid, and improve reliability and affordability for energy consumers.

Manufacturing better batteries

Sila, in contrast, focuses its attention on one hero product: its Titan silicon anode. Attracting $1,255,000,000 in investment in 2024, Sila was founded by ex-Tesla employee Gene Berdichevsky and its factory will be based in Washington state in the US. Describing itself as a leader in next-gen battery materials, the company created the Titan silicon anode by replacing the graphite in a lithium-ion battery anode with silicon.

There are many advantages to using silicon rather than graphite, especially in powering electric vehicles. It has global appeal as it can be produced almost anywhere, while graphite can only be mined and processed in specific regions. The Titan silicon anode can also store up to 10 times more charge than graphite and delivers a 20% energy boost over the industry’s best performing cells. Not only does this mean that batteries could be produced with lower carbon emissions and improved performance, but it’s predicted the future iterations of the Titan could reduce recharge times to less than 10 minutes and lower the cost of batteries.

As Sila’s battery will be compatible with any lithium-ion cell form factor and size, it is expected to appeal to the mass market. Its current customers include Panasonic and Mercedes, and the Titan silicon anode is expected to be used in the new Mercedes electric G-Wagon.

Mixing up materials

Also operating in the battery space, Form Energy received funding of $1,220,000,000 to help it develop and commercialise its low-cost batteries. Founded by Mateo Jaramillo, Form Energy operates a unique rust-to-energy battery business. Its approach combines iron and oxygen to make rust, a process that can be used to store and discharge up to 100 hours of battery power. This can help solve existing grid challenges, cost-effectively storing energy for multiple days to ensure a clean, secure, and reliable grid, even during prolonged periods of stress.

While the Form Energy battery is too heavy to use in electronics, it’s ideal for storing power in an electricity grid. The company has a high-volume battery manufacturing facility in Weirton, West Virginia, which employs over 300 people, and its first project kicked off in August 2024 with electricity supplier, Great River Energy in Cambridge, Minnesota. Expected to be fully operational from late 2025, the Cambridge Energy Storage Project will store 1.5 MW. In addition, Form Energy is also looking to build an 8.5 MW system in Maine, supported by the US Department of Energy.

Ascend Elements is the third company in our list to be operating in the battery arena, raising $1,126,000,000 in 2024 to fund its sustainable battery material manufacturing. It uses its patented Hydro-to-Cathode process to create new highly engineered precursor (pCAM) and cathode active materials (CAM) from elements reclaimed from spent lithium-ion batteries.

At its recycling facility in Covington, Georgia, which has been operational since August 2022, it hopes to start producing 99% pure lithium carbonate recovered from used lithium-ion batteries. Not only will these battery materials carry lower costs and lower emissions, but they can also help to raise the value of critical elements such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. The facility also has the capacity to evolve the electric vehicle industry, recycling up to 30,000 metric tonnes of materials each year, which can produce approximately 70,000 electric vehicle battery packs.

Tackling aviation emissions

Moving from electric cars to electric planes, Beta Technologies received $1,204,000,000 in investment last year to support its electric aircraft manufacturing. Based in Vermont, this aerospace company creates planes and accompanying infrastructure that could lower the cost of transporting goods and people safely and reliably, all while enhancing sustainability. It manufactures two aircrafts; the ALIA CTOL, which uses a runway to take off and land, and the ALIA VTOL, which can take off and land vertically. Both planes use high performance electric propulsion technologies and fly-by-wire flight control systems.

Thanks to this innovative technology, Beta Technologies planes can cut hourly operating costs by up to 75% compared to non-electric aircraft and reduce carbon emissions by up to 83%. Its perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that Beta Technologies has contracts with the military, global airlines like Air New Zealand, and delivery companies like Amazon and UPS. It’s a tried-and-tested product – the company has been flying its own aircraft and charging on its own infrastructure for more than four years and its production facility can produce up to 300 aircraft per annum.

These five companies are not alone in attracting significant sums in 2024. Pacific Fusion raised $900,000,000 to support its affordable fusion power inspired by nature. With the potential to unlock limitless, clean and on-demand power, it pioneers a process called magnetic inertial fusion to generate renewable energy. The carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) space also received sizable investment, with Twelve using its funds to convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals, fuels and other essential products. Fortera also closed a round of $115,000,000 to fund its zero-carbon cement.

An industry in evolution

These case studies prove that the renewable energy and cleantech markets are still extremely investable. Innovation is tackling many of the issues that have held the industry back, chiefly around cost and the mining impact of lithium-ion batteries – this is helping to boost the adoption of electric vehicles and tackle energy storage concerns. The most attractive companies from an investor’s standpoint are also working on products that can be manufactured at scale and, in many cases, have already secured partnerships with big name corporations.

Of course, that doesn’t mean renewables investment isn’t at risk. Navigating challenging economic conditions and world leaders that are not natural supporters of the clean energy sector may dissuade investors from pursuing opportunities in this arena. There is also a global discrepancy as investment remains focused in the developed world (especially in the US), with those least-developed economies being left behind.

It will be interesting to see what the investment landscape looks like 12 months from now and whether the same sectors will be attracting attention or if emerging technologies start making their mark. We’ll be watching closely.

— Lew 👋

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