12 investors dish on what 2026 will bring for climate tech

What we drew from this source

The claims Via News extracted from this document. We point to the source; we don't replace it.

• Natural gas turbines seeing linear growth; selling all capacity; limited new manufacturing

  80% confidence

• Geothermal is hot on solar's heels for new generation

  80% confidence

• Private credit and commercial lenders entering with insurance underwriting support

  80% confidence

• Massive innovation where AI meets physical world

  80% confidence

• First off-grid world-scale data center expected

  80% confidence

• Labor shortage driver for next-gen robotics; national security concerns

  80% confidence

• Chemfinity achieving domestic metal refining at cost parity with China

  80% confidence

• Shift from demand to resilience and grid decoupling in data center trends

  80% confidence

• Unit economics of foundational AI shops will not look good but investors will support through trough

  80% confidence

• Defense and industrial policy backing dual-use climate tech for cost/supply security

  80% confidence

• Underground transmission line build-out using robotics to reduce wildfire risk

  80% confidence

• Thermal energy storage for load shifting in industrial applications ready for scale

  80% confidence

• Battery recycling subsector to watch for IPOs

  80% confidence

• Focus shifting from generation to grid execution speed

  80% confidence

• Robotics not humanoid type; taking over labor-intensive industries: industrial, agriculture, waste, manufacturing

  80% confidence

• 40-45% of world copper refining is in China, followed by Chile

  80% confidence

• Data centers will become better grid participants through flexibility, load shaping, power quality for faster interconnect

  80% confidence

• IRA policy shifts expected but won't stop zero-carbon generation trends

  80% confidence

• Industrial heat pumps, thermal storage for steam/process heat becoming cheaper than gas boilers

  80% confidence

• Local governments may challenge hyperscalers for community-aligned solutions and municipal partnerships

  80% confidence

• Nuclear expected to be IPO/SPAC leaders in 2026

  80% confidence

• Federal support for critical minerals, battery materials as supply chain security priority

  80% confidence

• Relectrify deploying 100 MWh cumulative capacity in 2026; cell-level semiconductor control eliminates inverter

  80% confidence

• PJM grid (Midatlantic to Illinois) and Texas favored for battery deployment

  80% confidence

• Fusion is still 10+ years from high-capacity grid deployment

  80% confidence

• AI-driven physical science (Zanskar, Fabric8 Labs) talent pool impressive

  80% confidence

• ASICs/ASIPs will begin replacing GPUs for AI inference workloads

  80% confidence

• Distributed power, heat, computation trends emerging

  80% confidence

• Single gigawatt data center requires tens of thousands of tonnes of copper

  80% confidence

• Significant investment expected in SAF in 2026

  80% confidence

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