“For the first time in industrialized history, 40% of new electricity is coming from renewables. The real story is coming from wind and solar.”” he said to the crowd. “And the thing that’s driving it—in part it’s policy, but mostly it’s economics. What we’ve seen is a worldwide rapid cost decline in the upfront costs of installing these technologies on the grid.”

Solar costs have fallen about 15% per year since the 1980s. “That’s about as rapid a cost decline as we have on record for any industrial good that the Bureau of Economics keeps track of.”

“Wind, solar and others aren’t dispatchable by themselves,” he said, pointing out that there’s no sun at night and that wind can go for days without blowing. “This poses some challenges on the grid, but the good news on the battery side has also been unrelenting.”

In the last two years, battery technology has advanced to be able to soak up the glut of solar power available in the middle of the day and pump it back into the grid in the valuable evening peak time. Additionally, battery prices per kilowatt hour are dropping as fast as solar.

The U.S. is entering an electricity demand scale-up that we haven’t seen in the last 20 years.

“One of the big reasons why is, of course, data centers and the rise of AI. They're very, very power hungry. And if you look at what is going to meet this rise in electricity demand in the next couple of years, you can bet it's going to be renewables. Not just because they’re cheap but because they’re quick to build.”

Unlike traditional energy installations, wind and solar have a beneficial property—the capital unit is modular, allowing large-scale builds relatively quickly.

“You talk to the CEOs of various energy companies all the time and they say, ‘If you want to get your hands on a new natural gas turbine before 2030, good luck!’ If you are going to build something that you need to meet the needs of the grid now, it's really got to be solar and wind with battery storage.”

Mlinda's solar mini-grid-based model addresses rural poverty and climate change by integrating renewable energy with economic development. By enabling the setup of micro-enterprises powered by clean energy, the project enhances livelihoods while cutting CO2 emissions. Key innovations include its franchise-based replication model and comprehensive ecosystem approach, combining financial inclusion, capacity building, and market linkages. Piloted successfully, the initiative has already reduced emissions by 285 kg CO2 per household annually and increased incomes by over 50%. Scaling to 750 villages will catalyze sustainable development for vulnerable communities while demonstrating a replicable solution to global climate challenges.

Presenter: Sarah Mousa, founder

Shamsina manufactures affordable solar water heaters and provides community PV systems for low-income Egyptian households. Our target 10 million+ households currently using manual water heating methods (gas tanks, kerosene, fires) and families spending roughly half their monthly income on energy. At scale, our solution can reduce CO₂ emissions by over 20 million tonnes annually. Beyond environmental impact, we deliver multiple poverty-reduction benefits: saving women's time spent manually heating water, improving health and safety, and replacing volatile energy bills with stable, lower costs‚ and helping families break poverty cycles through increased financial stability.

Presenter: Jean Louwrens, cofounder and CEO

De Novo Foodlabs is revolutionizing food protein production by using precision fermentation (PF) to create essential proteins with engineered microorganisms—no animals required. Our first focus is milk proteins, with high-yield yeast strains already developed for our launch product. Now, we’re taking the next leap: expanding our PF platform to not just lower emissions, but to actively capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This breakthrough would make our process net carbon negative, enabling protein production that helps reverse climate change. Our technology also paves the way for the broader PF industry to become a powerful tool for carbon capture.

Presenters: Gabe Tavas, cofounder, CEO and Tim Keating, cofounder and CSO

The harvest of tropical hardwoods directly releases at least 1.05 billion tons of CO₂ emissions every year globally (Pearson, 2017). Plus, a forest degraded by loggers is 8x more likely to be completely deforested, leading to further emissions. To address this problem, Symmetry is creating a new type of high-performance wood from food waste, Pyrus^TM, that involves no tree cutting or petrochemicals like epoxies. If Pyrus^TM replaced 25% of global annual tropical hardwood imports, it could prevent an amount of CO₂ -eq nearly 5x the combined yearly GHG emissions from cement and steel production in the U.S.

Presenter: Bjorn Soderberg, cofounder, managing director

Build up Nepal is transforming the construction industry in South Asia by replacing polluting coal-fired bricks with climate-friendly eco-brick technology that reduces CO2 emissions by 75%, air pollution by 90%, cuts construction costs by up to 40%, and is disaster-resilient. By empowering 200 local entrepreneurs, the solution has already built 11,000 homes, avoided 111,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, and created 1,600 green jobs.

Presenter: Chimadika Okoye, founder of OGA Street Tech

OGA Street Tech's SustainaStone is revolutionizing concrete, an industry responsible for 8-10% of global CO₂emissions. Unlike traditional alternatives, our instantly reusable concrete creates a circular material system, eliminating the continuous production-disposal cycle. Each reuse avoids 110 kg of CO₂ per cubic meter, with highly cautious estimates projecting prevention of 1.2 million metric tons annually by 2030 and 125+ million by 2050.

Presenter: Margaret Lumley, founder and CEO

Roca is transforming wastewater treatment through a novel electrochemical process. Their technology addresses two major climate challenges: (1) reducing nitrogen pollution that leads to eutrophication and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, and (2) decarbonizing fertilizer production by replacing energy-intensive Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis with ammonia produced from wastewater.

Mentor: Alexandra Ponette-González, associate professor, City & Metropolitan Planning, College of Architecture