Cleantech Growthlab

The race to build AI infrastructure is putting Big Tech’s climate promises under pressure. Enverus projects $5 trillion in spending by 2030 to build 62 GW of gas-fired power that never touches the public grid, purpose-built to run AI data centers. That's close to 40% of all new US data center capacity going fully off-grid. PJM's interconnection queue alone can run 7 years, which is a problem when hyperscalers are racing to power multi-billion-dollar campuses today. FERC just ordered all six RTOs and ISOs to justify or rebuild their large-load interconnection rules, with responses due mid-August. What's unclear is whether it moves fast enough to catch a buildout that's already locking in gas contracts through the decade. Storage, VPPs, and DERs were supposed to be the faster alternative. Whoever solves that speed problem first could reshape the market.

We've built a partnership with Blake Newcomer that helps climate tech founders connect with their buyers. Having Blake, in person, at our Portugal HQ has brought exactly the kind of energy we needed to accelerate our own connection, and shared mission. Blake hosts The Grove, Earth Onward's climate podcast, where he's given plenty of cleantech founders (our CEO Eben Meyer included) a place to tell their story. He and Eben spent the day mapping out how this partnership can help climate tech next, from fresh content to new clients and ideas. One office day down, plenty more connecting to go! Catch Eben's latest appearance on The Grove in the comments 👇

Nolan put the Odyssey back on the big screen this summer, monsters and all. Funnily enough, every one of them has a twin in the journey from Series A to Series B. Three of them show up on almost every map: 1. The Cyclops sees with one eye. So does your growth when every deal depends on the founder's personal network. It works until the founder runs out of hours, contacts, or both. 2. The Sirens sing in likes and impressions. It sounds like demand. You follow the song and end up with a beautiful dashboard sitting on top of an empty pipeline. 3. The Whirlpool is a sales cycle with no bottom. Every deal slips a little deeper, the close date keeps moving, and momentum and cash go down with it. The sea doesn't get any calmer after Series A. The founders who keep moving simply get better help at navigating it.

You can always tell when a post was typed by an AI and thought by nobody. So before writing this one, we asked ChatGPT to do it for us: "In today's fast-paced landscape, AI isn't just a tool—it's a paradigm shift. At CTGL, we leverage cutting-edge AI to delve into new possibilities while never losing sight of the human touch. Because at the end of the day, it's not about technology. It's about the people." Feel anything? Neither did we. So we started over. In our Growth Lab, we use AI every day. It helps us research faster, organize messy information, find patterns, and get rough drafts onto the page. But we can't give away our right to human insight. And we can't let AI have the last word. AI will happily write a thousand words on anything. What it can't do is tell you which point will actually make a Series A founder look up from a pipeline that won't budge, or cut the paragraph that reads beautifully but adds no real value. Our rule is simple: AI does the lifting, people do the deciding. Every line that goes out has been read by someone who can tell the difference between polished and true, and who cares about which one you get. LinkedIn recently added an "AI slop" report button to every post, so if your content strategy is letting AI do all the work, it might be time for a new strategy. The tech keeps getting better, and the bar for taste and specificity keeps rising because of it. What's an AI tell you can't unsee anymore? And how are you drawing the line in your own work?

Please join us in welcoming Carlos Ortega to the CTGL team! Carlos comes on board as Marketing Associate. He gives new life to copy and creative for some of the most impactful B2B cleantech out there, shaping how our clients show up and sound across everything they publish. Swipe to see how he brings brand messages to life ❯❯❯❯

There are thousands of tools promising to fix your growth stack. We've tested plenty of them. These 5 earned a permanent spot in our stack: v0 by Vercel, Apollo.io, HeyReach, Fibbler and Claude. Swipe through and save it for your next tool stack review 👇 #Cleantech #ClimateTech #B2BMarketing #GrowthMarketing

Only about 3% is ready to buy right now. Regulatory enforcement notices beat hiring signals every time in finding that 3%. That's Eben Meyer's (CEO of Cleantech Growthlab) claim in his second appearance on the show. ~ We rank buying signals gold, silver, and bronze. Regulatory deadlines are gold: they carry a legal timeline that tells you exactly when a prospect has to buy. Hiring signals are bronze: they hint at future investment with no clear window. ~ Again, only about 3% of the addressable market is ready to buy at any moment. Marketing should stay visible to everyone. Sales should chase only the accounts already inside that 3%. ~ A dropped deal at the vendor-selection stage is usually a product problem wearing a sales costume. Meyer points to a carbon accounting company that mistook a product-market fit gap for a sales execution failure, an expensive mistake to make at Series A. How does your team use buying signals? Full conversation in the comments.

The largest power grid in the US just got a warning from its own regulator. PJM Interconnection serves 67 million people across 13 states and DC, yet its latest capacity auction cleared nearly 7 GW below its reliability target. Just 500 MW of new supply entered the auction. FERC Chairman Laura Swett called the results "alarm bells" and scheduled a technical conference on PJM's governance for July 23, but the pressure behind that shortfall isn't easing up. US data center demand is expected to jump from 31 GW to 41 GW this year, while global demand is projected to reach 132 GW (a 27% increase). It's one reason solar and batteries represented 91% of all new US generation capacity added in the first quarter, according to a Solar Energy Industries Association report. New gas turbines take years to deliver, but storage, VPPs, and DERs can be deployed much faster. Those resources are already helping close the gap. PJM's next auction will reward whoever can interconnect fastest. Is your project ready for that timeline?

CAC payback period is the signal investors watch before writing a check: "the grease that accelerates the engine." Do you know yours? Eben Meyer, CEO of Cleantech Growthlab is wondering. ~ Customer acquisition cost runs structurally higher in cleantech than in most B2B categories. CAC payback period is the number that tells investors capital is flowing efficiently. ~ A product only counts as cleantech if it removes a real blocker on the path to net zero. Category labels don't matter. Impact does. ~ Deep tech buying committees are bigger and slower than SaaS. Infrastructure changes, regulatory risk, and unproven products stretch out sales cycles and drive acquisition costs up. Founders selling into cleantech, does this match what you're seeing? Full conversation in the comments.